Every day, over 200 billion emails are sent and received by people from around the world. That’s a lot of emails. Yet within that number, there are a huge amount of emails which aren’t personal; they’re commercial.
These are the emails sent for marketing purposes. Emails which have been put together with the express purpose of converting more customers and turning their online inbox into a valid revenue stream. And there’s a lot of money to be made. 82% of B2B and B2C companies use email marketing campaigns It’s no wonder considering that they are 42% more effective when compared to Twitter and over 6x more effective than Facebook campaigns. That’s a big difference and one your business should be getting in on.
So, in case you haven’t jumped on email marketing yet, let’s go back to marketing 101. This time, with some tips on how to get your email marketing campaign up and moving with Amazon SES email services.
Calculate ROI
Make sure that once you’ve put together your campaign and it’s been running for a while, that you calculate your Return on Investment (ROI). ROI is the real mark of a successful campaign. You’re going to want to be spending less and making more, right?
Those gains do not have to necessarily be from when a person buys your product or service, they can also be when they recommend another person to use your service, or when another person signs up to your newsletter. A good way of calculating ROI is attaching values to different metrics before you start a campaign.
For instance, it’s possible that you want to maximize people who sign up to your service over the Christmas period, and are willing to spend more to secure those people as you have great deals during the February holiday period, which you believe a lot of people will then buy. So, you decide that individual sign-ups are worth a whole $0.03 each. You then add up all the sign-ups you get, combine it with other revenue streams which come from your emails, and then minus the amount you spent on the email campaign itself. If you’re in the black, then your Amazon SES email system is working. Profit.
Continuously Improve
Continuous improvement is integral to making sure you maintain those sweet ROIs every month. This means running A/B testing campaign to develop and improve on what you already have. If you’ve worked on digital marketing campaigns before, you should be familiar with A/B testing campaigns. They are incredibly important.
In case you aren’t though, they are basically where you test new ideas or changes by showing one group of people the original, and another group one with a couple of changes (or even just one). These changes can be as simple as changing the color of something, and as complicated as a complete content overhaul. It’s really up to your judgment as to what you think needs to be done to improve ROI.
With inexpensive email marketing services offered with the Amazon SES platform, it’s now easier than ever to run all kinds of A/B testing campaigns whilst still ensuring that you’re in the black on ROI. After all, a bigger testing group for A/B testing is always better.
Segment Contacts
Part of A/B testing campaigns, but also so much more, market segmentation should be a buzzword you get yourself acquainted with before you start an email marketing campaign with Amazon SES email services. Market Segmentation is where you split your contacts list up into different groups depending on their differences. This can be done based on age, location, gender, and a lot of other factors. It does require data collection. However, some services actually collect that data for you automatically. If not, you can collect it during the sign-up process by attaching a simple form for customers to fill in.
Reuse Templates
A big part of your “brand” is its “voice”. That doesn’t necessarily mean what you actually say, but rather how you represent yourself. Email marketing is the perfect place to start getting your brand voice out there and in the mind of consumers. You can do that by reusing templates.
Templates are what you tend to put your content into. Every email is different, but their layout should stay roughly the same. Great email management services like Amazon SES will allow you to create and save templates for future use.
Generally, there are a few tips which can help turn a mediocre temple into a great template. Firstly, you want your business identity to be clear from the outset. How you attached a logo towards the top of your email? Does it need a logo? You should also make sure to include a large, bold heading. However, don’t make it too long or your consumers will immediately switch off. These things are all variable and in order to find what’s best for your business, you should make sure to use A/B testing campaigns.
Find the Best Apps
If you’re looking to put together a campaign in the simplest way possible, then it’s going to be important to find an app which does everything you want it to do, and provides you with an easy-to-use interface to do it in. That’s where Pepo Campaigns comes in. Designed for convenience – with the option of incorporating more technical aspects – it makes Amazon SES campaigns easier than ever before.
Moreover, with relatively inexpensive fees, it’s now cheaper to have convenience when it comes to email campaigns. Before you invest though, you can always try the free version, where you’re able to take advantage of 10,000 emails per month and use their systems data analysis and collection tools. In fact, Pepo Campaigns is up to 5x cheaper than the competition
Finally, as we talked about before, market segmentation is also included. That means that you can take your contacts list (Which can be imported) and then divide it up into smaller groups for different campaigns. It’s really easy to do, and you can even create different templates for those different groups.