 Mark Your Calendar!
Keep your emails on time and on target with an editorial and promotions calendar.
OK so a calendar doesn't sound very sexy.
But it is.
Because it helps you stay focused, improves your open rate and increases your conversation rate. (It also slices and dices.)
And for all that it does, it doesn't have to be
long or complicated. It can fit on one page, providing you with a bird's eye
view of your entire year. In case you need a little more motivation, let's
review the benefits.
Staying Focused
One of the greatest challenges of setting up an
email marketing program is consistency. With all the other things on your plate, it's easy
to lose track of time and miss a deadline or a great sales opportunity.
So
the editorial calendar is like your virtual assistant, reminding you of
upcoming email deadlines.
It
also makes the process of writing the emails easier, because you already know
the topic in advance. (Usually half the work is just figuring out what to write
about.)
Improving Your Open Rate
You'll pass a dozen car ads without a second glance, until you're in the market
for a car. That's because good advertising is not just about how convincing the
ad is. It's about opportunity.
You
need to reach your potential customer when they are most interested in what you
have to offer. That's why pairing your customer's interests with your editorial
and promotional content will improve your open rate.
Let's
use Rose, my imaginary client, as an example. A subject line about choosing an
outdoor location for your next party will get a much better open rate in the
summer than in the winter. (Except in Miami, of course.)
Increasing Your Conversion Rate
This
one is easy. If you give them what they want when they need it, they are much
more likely to act on it. So
your promotional offers should also be timed to your customer's interests.
Going
back to my Rose example: offering a promotion on tent setups or garden party menu items
would work well in the summer. She could include the offer as a coupon in
her newsletter or as a separate promotional email.
Setting Up Your Calendar
Use
a simple table format to divide your year into months or weeks, depending on
your email frequency. For each block, decide what you need to promote or
communicate. If you're doing a monthly newsletter, decide what topics you'd
like to focus on each month. For
promotional emails, decide what offer you'd like to include.
You
don't need to write out the whole topic. They could be just short phrases that
remind you of the focus of that particular email. For example, in my calendar,
I just have the word "calendar + 30% discount" in this month's slot.
The
important thing is to make sure to time the topics of your promotional emails
and newsletters with your customers' buying patterns and your peak sales
opportunities.
To
help illustrate this, I've set up a sample calendar for Rose. In January she has
two emails, her e-newsletter and one promo. Since the holiday party mood is over
and everyone's back to business, Rose's topic this month is how to save money
by choosing off-peak months for corporate events. Last month was a busy
month for Rose because she had three Holiday promotional emails in addition to
her e-newsletter. (She's pretty busy for an imaginary client!)
Well, I hope this helps to get your email marketing off to a good start in 2010.
|
