The best email marketing tactic

Chart of the Day: Most effective email marketing tactics ~ Part 1 of 2

This is a two-part series, where we will look at the most effective email tactics and those that are the most difficult to implement. View the second part of this series to discover the most difficult email tactics to employ.

What is a tactic?

Tactic - noun
An action or strategy carefully planned to achieve a specific end.

Step 1: Where do I start?

Before you even begin to think about the strategy, you need to decide what end result you want. What does success mean for your email marketing? Does it mean:

• Opens and clicks
• Revenue
• Subscriptions
• List growth
• Brand awareness
• Customer satisfaction
• List growth

Step 2: What tactic do I use?

In our chart below, there are 7 tactics that have been used, with varying success. There are many others that you can use, for example, A/B copy testing, asset creation, refine campaigns and more. What I would say, my little email geeks, is to only focus on one at a time.

Step 3: Look at what peers have used

In the chart below, it is good to see what other peers have found most effective in the various tactics. I want to add a slight disclaimer here. This looks at tactics that were effective, however, please remember that it doesn't mention how they measured their success.

Message personalization was the most effective (44%) and social sharing (41%) was one of the top two. While mobile responsive design (31%) and automated campaigns (19%) were the least used email marketing tactics.

When an email tactic works, we walk with little strut

Final thoughts

It is always good to have a look at what our peers are doing and what works for them. However, what works for them may not work for you. If you are trying to increase your subscribers it's best to create a plan with the aim of implementing one tactic, for instance, social sharing and then track the performance. If that doesn't work, try something else. And if eventually, you aren't reaching the numbers you want, it would be time to look at why your tactics aren't working.

• Source: Strategy and effectiveness of email marketing in 2017 by Return Path, in partnership with Ascend2
• Sample Size: 88 B2B and B2C business leaders and marketing decision makers
• Recommended Resource: Email Marketing Strategy Guide