Last time we looked at what CRM marketing is , and today we’ll switch to more practical tasks and see how to stop the decline in mass email campaigns.
This is a common situation – I encounter it on projects time after time. At first it is not very noticeable, but month after month it becomes more and more noticeable.
Of course, we are not particularly happy with this. We want the effectiveness of email marketing to constantly grow or, at the very least, remain at a consistently high level. The question arises: how to combat the emerging decline and how to do it effectively?
We find out the reasons
Before we fix something, we need to figure out why it broke, and that’s where we’ll start: trying to analyze what’s at the root of our long-term decline?
| I would like to point out that we are talking about a gradual , creeping decline in indicators, and not a one-time collapse, which can happen, say, when links break or when deliverability deteriorates sharply. Here the reasons are more or less obvious, as are the ways to correct the situation. |
To be more specific, let’s take a hypothetical project where we have, say, 10,000 contacts at the start . We collected them on our site over several years, and then put them into action
(of course, doing it as correctly as possible – using the method of working with old databases ).
At the same time, we will not go further than the indicators of views and clicks, so as not to overcomplicate our model. Moreover, they are the basis of other email marketing metrics, and everything that happens further down the sales funnel often depends on the amount of traffic attracted.
Let’s assume that the initial picture we had in mass mailings was something like this:
The database, due to the accumulated volume of contacts and the novelty effect of mailings, provides us with a fairly high level of response to our offers at the start. We receive 1,000 unique clicks from email and, accordingly, 1,500 non-unique ones (sessions/visits in our web analytics system).
At the same time, our site has several points of contact collection – for example, through order, subscription and feedback forms – which together bring us 200-250 new subscribers per month.
But if earlier we did not particularly touch these contacts, storing them in Excel until “better times”, now such times have come – we are actively take email marketing service and, accordingly, we receive replies, complaints about spam and undelivered, which form our outflow at the level of 150-200 contacts per month. That is, our base is now practically not growing, and, perhaps, is somewhat decreasing in size.
Moreover, if initially there was a fairly significant % of people who were suitable for our offers, then after some time we will “select” them with mailings, and the novelty effect will gradually fade away
Let’s add here some monotony of our releases. It is impossible to surprise every time, and graduall we are moving to the format of a standard digest with news, “useful” articles and product blocks. As a result, we get what we get – a decline in key indicators over a long distance:
It looks like the cause has been found. What to do about it?
We are taking action
In fact, this is a good question for consultation , since each specific case has its own characteristics that will greatly influence the final solution to the problem.
But some general recommendations can still be offered, with an eye, of course, to their subsequent adaptation to the realities of a particular project.
• We are actively expanding our base
If our growth is equal to or only slightly greater than our churn, it is not enough to sustain our performance in the long term.
| We need several times more – it would be good if the growth exceeds the outflow by 2 times or more. |
Additional methods of collecting contacts that we can add to the site will help us with this. First of all, this is a pop-up window with a bonus for subscribing (a record holder in efficiency), as well as variations on the theme – quizzes , tests, other game mechanics.
If we use the Double -optin mechanic everywhere , it is worth partially abandoning it and trying Single -optin , reducing the % of lost contacts at the entrance.
If our product is “physical”, we can add a QR code on the packaging inviting customers to receive gifts in exchange for subscribing to our newsletter.
• We try to reduce the outflow
While increasing the subscription on the one hand. After that, on the other hand we need to reduce the churn, which will also work on the final ratio of growth and churn and. After that, consequently, the growth rate of our base.
The outflow consists of unsubscribes , spam complaints and invalid contacts. After that, which for one reason or another become unavailable for our mailings.
Invalid contacts . Although the advice to use Single-optin may seem harmful in terms of the quality of contacts collected. In addition, there are other ways to combat “invalids”.
For example, these are additional checks in the email field (including fairly “advanced” ones, if you use services like DaData.ru ).
Also, don’t forget about the incentive for users to leave a correct email address. In addition, “We will send you a valuable gift to the specified email . ”
Spam complaints
Spam complaints “arrive” when users do not expect letters from us. In addition, or expect them, but they do not particularly like what they see in them.
We’ll talk about what people don’t like below, but for now let’s say a few words about forming the right expectations of users from mailings, which will reduce spam complaints.
These expectations need to be formed throughout the entire subscription process – from the correct wording that they see in forms and on the thank you page – to the timely sending of the welcome series , its content and, in general, monitoring the frequency of letters at the initial stage, when it is important for us not to flood the subscriber’s inbox with letters and not provoke a negative reaction.
We will conduct a survey of subscribers , what they want to receive in newsletters.
We will form a correct content plan for releases, where we will consciously alternate the content and create a certain variety of letters.
Finally, we will work on the unsubscribe mechanics themselves. Above all, we will offer an alternative (reduce the frequency, leave only selected categories). In conclusion, and also add a way to quickly restore the subscription if it was disabled by mistake.
• We are finalizing the content of campaigns
If we take a critical look at our current newsletters, we can probably find several areas for growth.
This could be regular split testing of email subject lines. Above all, that will increase open rates and clicks within our campaigns in the long run .
Template optimization will also help. In addition, do our practical email [crm] marketing contain a call to action with a link/button already on the first screen? Are they structured enough with images and headings? Do we use gif animation in buttons? Do we add a feedback collection block at the end? etc.
We use dynamic content to increase personalization. In addition, addressing by name, mentioning the subscriber’s city, the number of bonus points they have accumulated, etc.
Let’s sum it up
Let’s assume that we have adopted some of the measures described above. In conclusion, and obtained the following result:
→ The growth rate of the database has doubled—from 200-250 to 400-500 new contacts per month.
→ Churn has decreased by approximately 25% – from 150-200 to 120-150 contacts per month.
→ Our newsletter views increased by 15% and clicks by 30% .
Let’s go back to our model and see how this affected the overall mailing performance.
Perhaps in a slightly different configuration. In conclusion, but we have almost restored the original effectiveness of our mailings.
| Of course, this is only a conditional illustration. For instance, but I hope it helped to convey the main point. For instance, we figured out the reason for the problem of the decline in indicators and. In conclusion, applied a comprehensive approach to solve it. |
This is what you can find on real projects, tg data and this is what you should strive for. In this way, we gradually wean ourselves off the habit of thinking in one-dimensional categories of a “silver bullet. For instance, that helps to fix the situation in one fell swoop. And we embark on the path of real efficiency and effective problem solving.