Should you consider email campaigns for your Manufacturing Marketing strategy?
Absolutely! Email Marketing is the most effective approach to remain top-of-mind. It is a powerful tool to directly reach your audience, build relationships and drive sales.
Today, we’re diving into the world of email marketing. Whether you're just getting started or looking to refine your Manufacturing Marketing strategy, this guide will walk you through the initial steps of launching successful email campaigns.
01) Define Your Goals
Before you send out your first email, it’s crucial to know what you want to achieve, for instance:
- Increase brand awareness
- Generate leads
- Nurture customer relationships
- Boost sales
Without well-defined objectives, it's challenging to measure success or determine the effectiveness of your Manufacturing Marketing strategy.
Strategic Goal-Setting Tips:
SMART Goals: Make sure your goals are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound.
Align With Business Objectives: Your email marketing goals should support your overall business objectives, whether that's market expansion, customer retention or revenue growth.
Flexibility: Be prepared to adjust your goals based on performance data and changing market conditions. Flexibility allows you to stay responsive and optimize your email marketing strategy for better results.
02) Build Your Email List
The foundation of any email marketing effort is a solid, engaged email list.
Start by collecting emails:
- Through your website with sign-up forms
- During trade shows
- Through any customer interactions
Remember, quality trumps quantity. It's better to have a smaller list of engaged subscribers than a large list of disinterested ones.
Best Practices for Email List Building:
Consent is Key: Always obtain explicit consent to send emails. This not only complies with regulations like GDPR, but also ensures that your subscribers genuinely want to hear from you.
Quality Over Quantity: Focus on attracting subscribers who are genuinely interested in your products, services or the content you provide. A smaller, engaged email list is more valuable than a large, disengaged one.
Regularly Promote Your Sign-up: Do not limit your promotion to just once or in a single location. Regularly remind your audience of the value they get from subscribing to your list.
Offer Multiple Opportunities to Sign Up: Different people may be compelled to sign up at different touchpoints. Offer multiple opportunities across your website and other marketing channels.
03) Choose an Email Marketing Platform
Selecting the right email marketing platform is vital.
There are numerous platforms that offer various features, including customizable templates, automation capabilities and insightful analytics. Invest time in researching and evaluating different platforms to find the best fit for your manufacturing marketing strategy.
Here’s what to consider when choosing an email marketing platform:
- Ease of use
- Automation features
- Segmentation & personalization
- Analytics & reporting
04) Segment Your Audience
Not all subscribers are interested in the same content. That's why it's important to segment your audience based on criteria like demographics, purchase history or engagement level. In doing so, you can better tailor your email's messaging.
In addition to that, personalize your email campaigns. Personalized emails are more likely to resonate with recipients, ultimately leading to a higher open and click-through rate.
Implementing Segmentation:
Start Simple: If you’re new to segmentation, start with a few broad segments. As you become more comfortable and collect more data, you can refine and expand your segmentation strategy.
Collect Data: Use every opportunity to gather information about your subscribers through sign-up forms, surveys and interactions on your website and social media channels.
Analyze and Adjust: Regularly review the performance of your segmented campaigns to understand what works best. Use these insights to further refine your segmentation strategy over time.
05) Create Your Campaign
With your audience segmented and your goals defined, it’s time to create your campaign.
Whether it’s a newsletter, promotional offer, product update, event invitation, educational content or an update about your manufacturing processes, make sure that your content is valuable and relevant.
Craft Compelling Content:
Subject Line: This is your first and, sometimes, only chance to grab the recipient's attention. Make sure the subject line is intriguing, clear and relevant to the content of the email.
Body Content: Whether you’re telling a story, sharing information or making an offer, ensure your content is concise, engaging and provides value. Use language that speaks to your audience's needs and interests.
Visuals: Incorporate high quality images or videos that complement your message. Visuals can help to break up some of the text in your email, ultimately making it more engaging and easier to digest.
Call to Action (CTA): Every email should have a clear CTA that tells recipients what to do next. Whether it’s visiting a webpage, making a purchase or requesting a quote, make your CTA prominent and compelling.
06) Test & Optimize
Before hitting the send button on a large campaign, conduct A/B tests on a small segment of your list.
A/B testing, also known as split testing, is a method where you create two versions of your email with only one key difference - such as the subject line, call to action (CTA), email layout, etc. By sending these versions to a small segment of your audience, you can measure which version performs better in terms of open rates, click-through rates or conversions. This will allow you to use the more successful version for the rest of your campaign.
Test One Variable at a Time: To accurately measure the impact of changes, only test one element between versions at a time.
Choose a Significant Sample Size: Ensure your test groups are large enough to provide statistically significant results.
Consider the Timing: Conduct tests at different times and days to see when your audience is most responsive.
07) Automate Email Campaigns
Email automation can enhance the effectiveness of your manufacturing marketing strategy, ensuring timely and relevant communication with your subscribers.
There are various types of automated email campaigns that you can use as a manufacturer - for instance:
- Welcome series for new subscribers
- Thank you emails after purchases
- Trigger-specific emails based on user behavior
- Lead nurturing sequences
- Re-engagement campaigns
Setting Up Email Automation:
Choose the Right Tool: Make sure your email marketing platform supports automation with the features that you need, such as segmentation, scheduling and analytics.
Define Your Triggers: Decide what actions or events will trigger an automated email. This could be a new subscription, a specific date or a user behavior (like visiting a particular page on your website).
Craft Your Messages: Write compelling emails for each point in your automation sequence. Remember to personalize the content to increase relevance and engagement.
Test and Refine: Before fully launching your automated sequences, test them to ensure they work as expected. Monitor their performance over time and tweak your content, triggers and segmentation as needed to improve results.
08) Ensure Compliance
Email marketing is regulated by laws like the CAN-SPAM Act in the United States and the GDPR in Europe. These laws protect consumers' privacy.
It is extremely important that your email campaigns comply with these regulations.
Implementing Compliance Practices:
Obtain Consent: Always get explicit permission from users before adding them to your email list. This can be done through sign-up forms on your website, with a clear indication that they are agreeing to receive emails from you.
Provide a Clear Unsubscribe Option: Every email must include an easy-to-find and easy-to-use unsubscribe link, allowing recipients to opt-out of future communications effortlessly.
Accurately Identify Yourself: Your emails should clearly state who they are from, including your business name and contact information. This transparency is not only a legal requirement but also builds trust with your recipients.
Honor Unsubscribe Requests Promptly: The CAN-SPAM Act requires that unsubscribe requests be honored within 10 business days, but it’s best practice to process these requests as quickly as possible.
09) Update & Clean Your Email List
Maintaining a clean email list is essential for the health of your manufacturing marketing efforts.
Regularly remove inactive subscribers and correct or remove invalid email addresses. This will help improve your deliverability rate and ensure your emails reach those that’re genuinely interested in your content.
How to Clean Your Email List:
Identify Inactive Subscribers: Use your email marketing platform to segment subscribers who haven’t engaged with your emails over a defined period, such as six months or a year.
Send a Re-Engagement Campaign: Before removing any inactive users, try to re-engage them with a compelling email campaign that reminds them of the value of your emails.
Remove Non-Responders: After your re-engagement efforts, remove subscribers who still haven’t shown any interest. This might be hard, but it’s beneficial for the health of your email list.
Check for Invalid Email Addresses: Use the tools that can help you identify invalid, bounced or non-existent email addresses from your list and remove them.
10) Keep Evolving Your Strategy
The digital landscape is always changing and so are the preferences of your audience.
Regularly monitor the performance of your email campaigns to identify trends, successes and areas for improvement. Look beyond basic metrics like open rates and click-through rates to deeper analytics like conversion rates and email ROI (return on investment). Use these insights to adapt and evolve your strategy over time.
Staying informed, experimenting and continuously analyzing your results are key practices that will enable you to adapt and thrive.
A Manufacturing Marketing Strategy
Email marketing offers a direct line to your audience, making it an invaluable tool in your Manufacturing Marketing arsenal.
There are various benefits to using email marketing, including:
- Keeping your audience engaged
- Building trust
- Driving website traffic
Schedule a meeting with our team of specialists today to help you get started on your email marketing journey.
Digital Marketing can be confusing, we get it. However, it doesn't have to be!
We have a FREE Digital Marketing Cheat Sheet for manufacturers that'll help you create, implement and measure digital marketing campaigns.
Come back next week for more insights in our Manufacturing Marketing Monday series!
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