This is the first in my series of ‘why digital can take so much bloody time’ blogs. Let’s start with email. How hard can it be? Most of us send and receive e-mail every day. But with our very precious customer base at the end of that send button the devil is most certainly in the detail and like any other digital marketing project (and that’s what it is – a project) it can be complex, resource intensive and time hungry.
To illustrate this point here are some things to consider and key questions to ask yourself. I’ve left out the initial heavy weight task of deciding on which e-mail platform to use and developing an appropriate communications programme … jumping straight into the design and build.
What’s it going to look like & how are you going to build it?
Early on, factor in time to agree and specify the e-mail design, content requirement and the functionality … not vaguely but in detail. Draw a sketch, think about word counts and image orientation.
Yes content is king, but not only that, it’s an unpopular, time consuming, resource draining white elephant. Content research, asset collation and copywriting all take a disproportional amount of time and effort. Anyone who’s ever built a website, written a blog or sent an e-mail can vouch for that.
Allow time to ensure the entire subscription process is in place. Will the user get a ‘Thank You’ page, a confirmation e-mail, a welcome e-mail, the ability to unsubscribe easily, a unsubscribe confirmation page or even a final goodbye e-mail. Is the ‘sign up’ form capturing the right data? Does the opt-in mechanism comply with data protection best practice?
There are many more questions. Is the email a newsletter, a specific communication or an incentive based e-voucher? Should it include additional functionality such as ‘Send to friend’? Can you cope with an ‘off the shelf’ template or do you need a custom template designed? Where will those receiving the email see the email as being sent from?
Testing and sending the final version
Check, check and double check the content of the email, the links and think hard about the subject line. Is the subject line relevant & intriguing – will it support open rates? Will it get blocked by spam filters? Avoid long subject lines and spammy words like free, cheap and offer.
Send a test e-mail, then send another test e-mail and another and another. Send the e-mail to yourself, your colleagues and your test accounts. Do this more than you think necessary.
There’s lots than can go wrong and having a checklist to go through each time will help minimise the chances of things going astray. Some of the problems you encounter can take a significant amount of time to unravel and fix. Make sure you build in enough time to allow for troubleshooting.
There are many things to go on the checklist. Has the copy been spell checked? Are all heading and sub-headings a consistent colour and size? Are all the links working and behaving consistently throughout the email? Are all your images and logos working links? Is the unsubscribe function working? Is it working across the full range of email platforms that your customers are using? If you are personalising the email is that working properly?
How did it perform and what can you learn to make the next one better?
You have hit the send button and almost immediately it is time to start looking at the results. First thing you are likely to be interested in is deliverability – how many emails actually reached their desired destination and if not why not. Beyond that you are going to be interested in things like how many emails were opened, how many unsubscribes you had, what links were clicked on and what they did when they actually arrived at your site. The results will develop over the few days following you sending the email and should ultimately help improve what you do next time.
So, back to the beginning … there is a lot to do and a lot of things that can go wrong if things are not planned and executed properly. In my experience, like most things digital, it is good planning, project management and, especially for email, appropriate use of checklists that are going to help deliver good quality email marketing and the right results.
Tags: email, process, project management
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It’s been a few weeks since I have blogged here. Sometimes you are just too busy to find the time to commit your thoughts to paper (well you know what I mean). Sometimes you are formulating your thoughts so you actually can commit them to paper. Developing a digital marketing strategy is a bit like that.
You rarely have the luxury of starting at the beginning. All of the things that have gone before and the complexity that the real world brings help define the starting point and the challenge you face. In terms of the particular digital strategy I am working on now that includes the following;
- A marketing strategy that has evolved over time and defines the right but fairly top line starting point.
- A complex set of stakeholders with an equally complex set of requirements.
- An organisation that comes from a traditional campaigns led heritage and one that in many respects is struggling to get to grips with the new marketing environment in which it operates.
- Digital marketing is managed across three different teams who often approach things somewhat differently and have a different set of priorities.
- There are three key marketing agencies, each with their own particular view and set of skills, that need to work together effectively to develop and deliver integrated marketing activity across online and offline channels.
- A significant reduction in resources – financial, people, time and mouse clicks.
Sound familiar? So where do you begin? The SOSTAC® planning system provides one useful framework through which you can start looking at each of the following;
- Situation Analysis – Where are we now?
- Objectives – Where do we want to be?
- Strategy – How do we get there?
- Tactics – How exactly do we get there?
- Actions – Who does what and when?
- Control – How do we monitor performance?
In this particular case the word ‘framework’ is an important one. Defining answers to the first three questions provides a mechanism for pulling together the different stakeholders and teams I have already mentioned and helping define a direction of travel for the organisation. One that everyone in the organisation can sign up to. One that helps the individual marketing agencies involved work together on their specific areas to define the fourth question ‘How exactly do we get there’?.
My job is often about breaking things down into their component parts, simplifying them and finding a solution that works once you put it all back together again. In terms of developing digital marketing strategy and helping define the answer to the question ‘How do we get there?’ you can break things down into four key areas that between them form some of the cornerstones of digital marketing.
1. Content
When someone said ‘Content is King’ they weren’t kidding. What content is required for what purpose at what point on the customer journey for which customer? You need to think about who is responsible for that content and how it is going to be created and managed. Don’t forget about the network of content creators that exist around your particular product or service – from within your organisation, other organisations and your customers. Figure out how to make that network work for your benefit.
2. Distribution
The 3D media landscape – owner media, earned media and bought media. These are content distribution channels. Where does the responsibility for each lie, how are things changing and what are the consequences for your organisation? What defines your strategy in each? Think integrated and figure out how they work to support each across increasingly complex and messy customer journeys. Remember multi-channel is best.
3. Platforms
This includes your own digital marketing platforms – your website, your blog and your email. You also need to think about third party, social and other brand platforms. There are an ever increasing number of them. Multiple platforms need to be set up and managed in such a way that they support each other, your brand and your specific marketing objectives.
4. People
Every business is a people business. Be clear about who your customers are, what they think and what they do. Use customer personas and customer journey planning to help drive the insights you need. Pay as much attention to those involved in delivering the marketing programme – it’s got to work for them too. Which teams and agencies are responsible for which bits and how does it work across the piece?
Manage today and plan for tomorrow
Get real. Unless you are starting with a completely clean sheet of paper those four things are probably not going to fit together perfectly. There will be compromise. Furthermore, you and your agency team are likely to be dealing with ‘now’ so you need to create a framework and environment where you can manage today and plan for tomorrow.
Over time you can improve things, implement change and drive better performance. Think about what changes you need to make and over what timescales you can realistically achieve them. Give those involved the headspace they need to think about the future as well as the time to deal with today.
Tags: digital marketing, strategy
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