Effective e-mail marketing is becoming a staple of any business, especially those in the retail space. Constant ability to communicate with and inform customers and prospects leads to better business. Better business leads to sales and sales lead to, well, you name it.

Of course, as with everything in Internet marketing just “doing it” is not the answer. Doing everything that can be done with e-mail marketing, for instance, can lead to a lot of effort in areas that may not have any relevance to your business. This kind of shotgun approach needs to be avoided at all costs because it will drain time, money and other valuable resources that should be applied strategically and not just because everyone is doing it.

So how do you know what will work with regard to e-mail marketing for your business? Well, there does need to be a fair amount of experimentation. The theory of “doing it wrong quickly” is a good one to apply to how you apply e-mail marketing to your business. Since you are not the only business to have gone through figuring out where the greatest success is, it’s a good idea to tap the knowledge of others. The chart below from MarketingSherpa gives some insight into where your efforts might be best rewarded.

What is most interesting about this chart is the precipitous drop off once you get past the top three tactics for e-mail. It can be telling to see this kind of data then step back and think about your business. Would your customers and prospects act the same way? You can’t tell unless you listen but it is apparent that in order to get out of the gate fast and in the right direction with e-mail marketing it will help to have relevant content, the right e-mail targets (preferably those who already know your business) and event promotion as your primary tactics.

This is not to say that the other tactics won’t work for you. Success of certain tactics, in particular anything to do with Twitter and social media in general is highly dependent on the vertical or industry that is being worked.

Are you getting the most from your e-mail marketing efforts? If the answer is no, have you examined what is or is not working? Have you been just doing e-mail marketing or are you committed to making it an important, and possibly indispensable, part of your marketing mix?
If you have questions about e-mail marketing, Dealer Ignition can answer questions for you that may help you move from just doing it to doing it well.

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