Winning never comes by chance. Behind the most successful performers and athletes are hours of unseen training and preparation. To remain in pole position, these high achievers continue to develop their efforts, learning with each victory. When they win, they don’t rest and expect the victories to continue being handed to them, they stay sharp! The same goes for your email marketing strategies. When an email campaign has been successful, you should analyse what made it so great and how you can continue to succeed.
Know your metrics
When you have a successful campaign, be sure to take note of the performance metrics. As we touched on earlier this month, key metrics surrounding both opens and engagement will give you insights into where you succeeded.
Why did subscribers open?
Look at your open rates and analyse the variables surrounding campaign opens. What was your subject line? Perhaps this differed from past campaigns? You may well be onto wording that resonates more closely with your audience. What was your campaign timing and when did the majority of opens occur?
If a large proportion of opens came in the first hours following delivery, you’ve most likely struck a time of day that works for your audience. Consider replicating this across time zones where necessary.
Finally, be sure to consider your timing within the customer purchase process. What customer milestones did your campaign address and what made it so relevant to them at that particular moment?
How did they engage?
Analysing engagement is just as important as looking at open rates. This will indicate how subscribers responded to your message. What offers or incentives did you use and how did these differ from past campaigns? Are you tracking conversions for these in your site analytics?
Look at your content. What counts as engaging content will of course depend on your industry and product, but if your copy and imagery were on point for the audience, you should expect to see click activity on associated links and call to action buttons. Did your calls to action compellingly address subscribers needs?
Get to know your audience
After analysing open and engagement metrics, what insights can you glean about your audience? Cross checking your email metrics against your key customer segments will help you to identify what’s resonating with whom. Maybe a promotional offer appeals to one segment and a blog link is of interest to another. If you have goal tracking set up correctly on your site you’ll be able to see how this plays out further down the line. This kind of audience analysis will equip you to better segment your audience for future campaigns.
Strike while the iron is hot
How can you follow up a successful campaign in the short term? Armed with the insights you gained from analysis of your campaign, it may be valuable to send targeted reminders or follow up emails based on subscriber engagement. Be guided by your strategic business goals and use what you’ve learnt to tailor these campaigns to specific audience segments for maximum impact.
Need a hand analysing your email campaigns? Get in touch with us today!