Email love all year round, not just at Christmas

Email love all year round, not just at Christmas

We’re sorry to say but if you’re a marketer then Christmas is already over.

Campaigns are already launched or just about to. Inboxes are currently inundated with monochrome masterpieces depicting this week’s sale and as a studio we’re focused on next years campaigns and have even started working on Christmas 2019!

If we count up the hours, rounds of amends, bribes and tears, digital marketers have spent on this holiday season it would break the bank. Just as we feel a little cheated when we take our family to visit the expensive Santa with the dodgy beard – if you think back now – have your campaigns left you with the same feeling?

All this seasonal panic and pain causes me to question why as marketers do we save all the love, bells and whistles just for a time when every other brand is doing the same and consumers inboxes are exploding?

Expectations high and pockets light 💸

We’re all feeling the crunch of budgets shrinking and the pressure to make each campaign even more successful with less. The recent Q318 Bellwether report highlighted that budget growth is down to a three year low. Growth is happening but it’s slow and digitally biased which is good news for email marketers.

With the current climate there definitely is a nervousness to commit to the unknown. Marketing week’s insight into this report found that more than 70% of marketers and agencies are prioritising short-term tactics over long-term strategy.

With this in mind the safest bet is definitely the Email Channel,  Econsultancy’s 2018 Email Marketing Industry Census rated Email as the highest marketing channel for ROI, with nearly three-quarters of client-side marketers rating it as either ‘excellent’ or ‘good’ in this context.

Econsultancy Census: How do you rate the following channels or disciplines in terms of return on investment?

How to justify increasing your budget 💰

Marketing Attribution is a mythical science few marketers get right and even fewer actually have in place. Proving channel success is key to obtaining an increased budget and that has to be based on impact to the business not just engagement metrics.

Disappointingly outside of the cross channel attribution nirvana the same Econsultancy’s 2018 Email Marketing Industry Census found brands are still primarily focusing on Click-through rate with only 67% of companies measuring email Conversion rate. This is only a 5% increase from last year.

Econsultancy Census: What metrics do you use to measure the success of your email marketing activities?

 

If we can’t prove success as marketers we’ll never be able to justify increasing time or budgets to focus on pushing the boundaries within this channel.

Email is for life, not just for Christmas 🎄

With shrinking budgets and increased pressure to perform don’t let one month of the year suck up all your focus. It’s essential to stay at the forefront of your customers mind each month delighting them with content all year round and pushing boundaries to ensure increasing return.

The current climate maybe unsettling but one unmoving factor is how essential the email channel is to your bottom line. You may need to cut back at times but committing to a long term plan is essential to ensure each tactic you engage is bringing you towards your end goal. Planning helps you understand how you’ll get the star on top of the tree next Christmas, don’t be Buddy…..

 

Let us know what you think and if this article has been helpful. Keep an eye out for our next post, looking into 2019 trends and reviewing the year so far to see how accurate the 2018 predictions were.

Holly Mander
Strategist @ Action Rocket