Email Marketing: Why Does Content Matter?

Why Content Matters & Tips to Create More Effective Emails

Virtually every business, ranging from here in the United States to those headquartered in far-away countries, relies on digital marketing to promote brand awareness. This instant awareness gives all companies the opportunity to boost revenues from product sales and offer their services to broad bases of consumers with a click of a button. Don’t take this the wrong way though – people don’t log online to mindlessly browse. With the surplus of “stuff” on the web, people have expectations when it comes to what they read and what they watch.
It’s impossible for any one person to view and compare the entirety of content on the web within their lifetimes, meaning business must push quality content on a consistent basis, across all channels. The tone and style may differ from platform to platform, but all content should possess the following qualities:

• Relevancy: Is the content answering a question or fulfilling a need?
• Personalization: Will it make your customers feel like you’re talking to them, or “everyone?” Research proves that Millennials and Gen Z are more engaged when the content is addressed to them and their individual needs.
• Originality: Don’t plagiarize or copy someone’s original idea. Not only does it lower your ranking in search engines (like Google, Bing, etc), but it decreases your clicks and lowers your engagement rate with customers. Who wants to read old news or the same news?

So, what does content have to do with email marketing? In short, the success of email marketing depends on the quality of its content. Spamming recipients with plain, boring, uninteresting messages won’t give you the clicks or sales you need. Businesses with successful email marketing campaigns garner attention from existing and uninterested customers alike. Conversely, organizations that spread subpar content through email marketing get swallowed by more competitive players. Even further, creating generic content proves unsuccessful in today’s commercial marketplace, forcing businesses’ media to personally connect with each and every reader, on a personal level.
Let’s start digging into why content creation is of supreme noteworthiness for managers, executives, owners, marketers, customer service representatives, and literally everyone else involved in business, how you can engage in effective content management, and ultimately boost your organization’s success in content creation for its email marketing endeavors.

Email Content Strategies

More Campaigns = More Money

Similar to every other line of marketing, advertorial, and promotional efforts, email marketing involves campaigns, in which content creation hinges around a central theme or goal. Most businesses try to utilize only one campaign since recipients seem to respond less to multiple, inherently different campaigns. Relying on only one campaign causes readers to lose interest, often unsubscribing from mailing lists, or simply being interested enough to click on emails from your organization – even though they willingly, voluntarily signed up in the first place!
To keep your subscribers engaged, we recommend forming multiple campaigns. This does not mean you should send the same content every time with a new subject line – it’s simply a waste of time and resources. Although it seems daunting to spend more time, effort, and money on individual email marketing campaigns, it’s worth it. The rewards significantly outweigh the expenses.

List Segmentation

Social media platforms and search engines already facilitate targeted ads towards specific groups of consumers, why should email marketing be different? Our team recognizes the need for list segmentation. Like pay per click ads, you’re putting the most relevant content in front of people who will appreciate and engage with. If you’re a new company just starting email marketing, we recommend performing market research prior to segmenting your lists. What is the industry demographic? What appeals to your typical buyer? Without this marketing research, businesses are left to guess which consumers are most interested. If you’re already sending campaigns to a list of subscribers, we suggest conducting a subscriber survey and integrating Google Analytics into your FireDrum. In this survey, you can ask what your subscribers are interested in/what they’d prefer to see more of and segment it accordingly.

Drip Campaign, Trigger Emails, and Sales Funnels

First, what are drip and trigger campaigns? Drip campaigns involve consistently sending content through emails over long periods of time, resulting in a stronger relationship and increased brand awareness between you and your customers. Trigger emails are those sent in response to consumer purchases, sign-ups, or other interactions with your organization.
Both of these email marketing strategies push recipients through a sales funnel, resulting in a portion of targeted consumers eventually purchasing your products and services. We recommend that drip campaigns and trigger emails always be used, seeing as they ultimately result in revenue businesses that utilize them.

Content is King – Where to Focus Your Attention

Who’s Writing the Article

Content strategists and creative directors can effectively stabilize their employers’ content management efforts, and create innovative, engaging content that consumers actually want to read. These marketing professionals should be deeply involved throughout the entire email campaign design process. We recognize this need, and strive to help our clients make informed decisions in crafting relevant, personalized, and original email content.
Our team recommends that entry-level copywriters work alongside creative directors in designing the email campaign and curating new content. In-house marketers that specialize in print, television, radio and social media promotion should also be involved in creating advertisements and related media around each individual campaign, rather than segregating email and the rest of marketing functions.

Content Management Doesn’t Always Mean New Content

In managing content, recycling a company’s old messages, ideas, and emails can actually prove effective in capturing readers’ attention and awareness. Our many years of marketing experience has caused us to realize that every photo, video, infographic, and anything else related to advertising and promotions should be compiled and re-shared over time. This content should be original to your business.
Don’t be afraid to slightly modify existing content, rather than crafting new material from scratch for new email campaigns. If a sizable portion of your marketing team’s payroll is geared towards unique content formation each time, your business is unarguably wasting money! While we recognize the fact that businesses should never reuse existing media in the same, exact form, slight modifications offer more value per dollar expended than  extensive overhauls of content.

Sharing Content on Different Devices

Smartphones, tablets, portable laptops, and even smart TVs are used to consume media via the internet and have since surpassed the use of desktop computers since in 2016. We strongly recommend optimizing your content to fit each and every individual device. What you’ve designed and written for a desktop may not flow correctly on a mobile device. Design and test your emails in our Inbox Preview Assistant tool to ensure flawless user experience and content accuracy.

Closing Note

While everybody with an email account – that’s nearly every American citizen, including you – has been exposed to business-related promotional emails, not everybody understands how vital the creation and management of content are to succeeding in business. Immerse your business in these new strategies to attract new customers, tighten business relationships held between yourself and established patrons, and boost cost-effectiveness in your promotional efforts.

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