Why my Email Campaigns are not Producing Good Results? – Part I

In our last email marketing blog post Is email marketing dead?, we suggested that email marketing is still an integral part of corporate marketing strategy when it is properly executed.

Today we will discuss two cases where email campaigns were not producing the results expected. We will also give some suggestions which can be helpful in such situations.

Case I: Inaccurate and Non-Targeted Lists

A client company that provides business process management services was facing issues with their email marketing efforts. Their email campaigns were not producing the results they were expecting. They had expectations of campaign response rates in excess of 20%, while the actual response rate was only 5-7%. After working with many email marketing vendors, they approached aMarketForce to evaluate their entire email marketing process. aMarketForce analysed all campaign components and found a key issue. The lists our client was using were neither clean nor sufficiently targeted. Their marketing program office was buying prospect lists from a variety of sources, and these lists were not verified or sanitised prior to their use in campaigns. Furthermore, list quality (currency and contact information accuracy) was poor. Though the lists had thousands of apparently correct contacts, many were minor influencers, and unrelated managerial roles and not decision makers.

The story had a happy ending, because aMarketForce was contracted to set things right, but the key takeaway is that every company that wants to run successful email campaigns needs to keep their marketing databases clean, current and and hygienic. The campaign manager needs to make sure that whenever a target prospect list is to be used, the highest priority must be given to role-based decision makers, and then influencers, based on your products/services sales and marketing requirements, not titles that sound ‘right’. Knowing your target audience will ensure that you are reaching the right people in your email campaigns.

Case II: Poor Conversions – Email subject line as well as content is vital

Our next case is of a client whose business is designing, building and installing innovative custom fixtures and displays. They promise increased brand visibility by showcasing/displaying business products at commercial locations. While they were promising increased brand visibility to their clients, they themselves were struggling to build their own brand. Their email campaigns were getting very poor responses. After reviewing their situation, aMarketForce suggested a systematic test-driven approach. We created several distinct email templates, two different subject lines and two different body contents (four emails in all). The campaigns were rolled out using these four combinations. After identifying the styles, subject lines and content that produced the best results, we identified recipient profiles that responded better to each of the specific test emails. Then, we used the appropriate subject lines and divided the email campaign lists into segments based on specific target titles. The campaign was rolled out with the right messaging and call-to-action which in turn produced substantially improved results, with an overall 20% click-through rate. The right template, relevant messaging and proper call-to-action to the right roles helped in achieving the desired results.

These cases illustrate some of the issues that can influence campaign effectiveness, boiling down to the bottom-line: campaign conversion ratio is most important in measuring the success of any email campaign. Whenever your conversions are low, you should go back and first check on few of these factors: list quality, email campaign messaging, call-to-action, subject line and campaign execution date and time (which we will examine in later posts).

We will continue with more such email campaign case studies in our next blog. To know more about our email marketing services call us at 408-342-1700 to discuss your situation. Request a quote for email campaign services.