28 October 2014

Creating a successful email campaign

Want your marketing emails read? Then make sure it is all about the customer, says GetResponse, a provider of online marketing tools.

The top three things companies have to consider for a successful email marketing campaign, according to GetResponse CEO Simon Grabowski are:

Subscribers’ activity
"Check past history of ‘opens’ and ‘clicks’ to understand what your subscribers are interested in, how often they access their inbox and what time do they actively engage with your emails," he said. 

Subscribers’ device preferences
"Currently more than 40% of emails are deleted because of the incorrect display of content on mobile devices," Grabowski shared. "Find out which devices they use to engage with your emails as content for mobile and desktop has to be tweaked accordingly."

Responsive email systems
"Autoresponders should be customised to match your subscribers’ preference to increase the relevance of your outreach," he added.

"Emails of news and offers which do not cater to the preferences along with the presentation and time it was sent risk being irrelevant," he warned. 

Source: GetResponse.
Grabowski.
The company is currently focusing on Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand as the initial countries for building a local presence in Asia.

"The EU and US markets are not developing as rapidly, while there is still room for email marketing to grow in Asia with consumer groups here being more willing to experiment with new solutions and technologies,” he said. 


"This region is also the fastest growing technology market globally but there is a lack of regional email and online marketing solutions. Email also goes hand-in-hand with digital and mobile marketing although small organisations may not have the budget for digital and mobile options. As such, we still think there’s a need for a comprehensive email marketing service such as GetResponse,” he said.

Besides email automation, GetResponse offer complementary marketing strategies and channels such as social media integration, landing pages and stock photos which can be customised for marketing campaigns.

The Landing Page Creator 2.0 software, for example, helps GetResponse clients create promotional landing pages and mini-sites, and can also collect data from potential subscribers. “This helps online marketers and SMEs here to create effective and comprehensive lists of information for their marketing campaigns,” Grabowski said.

For US$15 a month, small businesses are given access to fully-automated marketing tools, while the GetResponse Enterprise version is for companies with more advanced email marketing strategies.

But what about email spam? “All of our subscribers are required to comply with our anti-spam policy which prohibits users from sending out unsolicited emails,” Grabowski said. “We also participate in industry initiatives to promote responsible, permission-based email marketing.”

Grabowski added that every message sent from a GetResponse account contains a link to unsubscribe which cannot be removed. “If a subscriber opts out, the link will automatically update the mailing list to take them out of future mailings,” he said.