Email marketing strategy is the bedrock of any email team but its importance is often overlooked.
Why does this happen? Most email marketers are so strapped for time that they don’t have the bandwidth to think about strategy, they’re just trying to blast out the next email. So how can they ensure they continue to act while also thinking strategically?
Below we’ll detail why you need an email strategy, and how to incorporate that strategy into your day-to-day email marketing.
Why you need an email marketing strategy
As Sun Tzu said in The Art of War, “Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.”
While 82% of B2B and B2C companies use an email marketing strategy, a staggering 51% of B2B marketers say the lack of an effective strategy is their most significant barrier to email list success.
Both your strategy and tactics need to be at the forefront of your email marketing efforts, supporting and complementing each other.
There’s no point investing in email marketing tools and tactics that won’t help you reach your strategic objectives.
So how can you implement and stick to an email marketing strategy?
Thinking and acting more strategically
Before you send out that first email, work out the strategy that will drive everything you do.
Basically, figure out a plan that details who you want to reach (your target audience), how frequently you want to reach them, and what actions you want them to take after reading an email.
These factors will all inform your strategy’s main objectives and KPIs (key performance indicators). By setting these objectives and KPIs early on, you’ll be better able to track how well your emails are performing, and whether you need to make a change.
Once you’ve done that, your strategy should stay front of mind whenever you’re creating a new email campaign.
Every email should align with your strategy and do it’s part to reach the strategy’s main objectives.
At each stage of the email generation process, take a moment to consider how this task or project connects back to your strategy. If you can’t see any strategic link, then you’ve got a problem.
For more information on how your email strategy and approach influences your results and ROI, check out our blog; How to Increase ROI by Changing Your Email Marketing Approach.
