Data + Email Marketing
A Match Made In Marketing Heaven
A while ago I attended a tech conference and had the honour of listening to the keynote speaker, Michele Romanow (I don't have time to talk about how this female entrepreneur has changed the entrepreneurial landscape so go follow her or look her up!) and one sentence she spoke has stuck with me for a long time. Enough so that I have it as a Post-it note on my office wall so I won't ever forget it.
"Use data to make business decisions. Not emotions."
I'm an emotional human. I'm driven and often find myself needing to employ the 24-hour rule on myself not just for replies to emails, but alos for responses to business circumstances.
In short, I use my emotions a lot in my work and I try to use them for good and not evil. Here are some examples of when I use my emotions to make business decisions when I shouldn't be. See if you can see yourself in some of these!
- I don't get the open rates I was expecting on an email that I thought was really awesome.
- I get lots of clicks but no sales are reflected.
- I have a large personal expense or business expense looming and my sales are dropping.
- I make a major url error in an email I sent.
- The big one...when someone unsubscribes. I will admit to catching myself getting stuck on this one, but for some reason, only in this side of my life. In my author life I wave goodbye to them with glee.
- When sales expectations in general don't hit my targets.
Okay, now, what if we turned this around and looked at it through the data lens. How would this look?
I don't get the open rates I was expecting on an email that I thought was really awesome.
What is my list's average open rate? How does this email's open rate stack up against that? What subject line did I use? Did I split test two subject lines? Did I send this email to my entire list or did I segment it? If segmented, which segment?
I get lots of clicks but no sales are reflected.
How old is the cover I sent readers to? Does the cover reflect today's cover trends? Was is my blurb headline? Do I need more reviews on this book? Was the url I embedded behind the button correct? Did I use copywriting that matched the book they clicked to?
I have a large personal expense or business expense looming and my sales are dropping.
Before I just randomly send out an email, how much is this expense? How many books would I need to sell in order to cover the expense? What format of books is the easiest for me to sell? How long until I need to pay this expense? What segment of my list is most likely to click and buy? Can I offer a promo on this book?
I make a major error in an email I sent.
Do I have an email service that allows me to go into my email and make a correction that is reflected? Can I send out a brand-specific correction email? Is this error going to cost me money? If so, how do I strategize to recoup that money lost?
The big one...when someone unsubscribes. I will admit to catching myself in this one, but for some reason, only in this side of my life. In my author life I wave goodbye to them.
Why do I care when someone unsubscribes? Is it a personal attack on me? Or is it the reduction of my list by one? Does it mean I'm doing a great job of making space for those who want to be here and repelling those who don't align with my brand?
When sales expectations in general don't hit my targets.
Did I have a plan? Did I execute it the way I had intended to? What outside factors added to the drop in sales? Did I have a budget? Could I try a larger budget? What tools did I use? Is my cover on trend? Did I set up the metadata correctly? (This one could on and on!)
You see, making data-driven decisions can change your perspective on your business. All it is is just data. Take that data and do something with it to improve. Over and over again.
So the next time your email underperforms, remember to sit back, take a minute and then dive into the data.
This is a sample of the monthly data I use to help track my progress. It's not the whole picture, but you get the idea.
Side note: when you work with me on a monthly basis, this is the kind of data I collect for you too!
