In this guest post, Carl Chambers, regional director for email tech firm Adestra, says 44 per cent of Aussie businesses don’t have an effective email marketing strategy. If that sounds like you then Carl’s pearls of wisdom are a must-read…

Email marketing is one of the oldest methods of marketing. Through its maturity, it brings wisdom, proven ROI and innovation.

Yet our ever innovating market has seen email marketing become a sub-focus in favour of newer, younger, and experiential marketing methods. Email marketing gives you the ability to talk directly to an already responsive audience – I mean, they’ve already signed up to your database or purchased something from you before, right?

Ensuring email content is always timely, fresh and exciting is the core of a successful strategy. Yet alarmingly, 44 per cnet of marketers believe their business lacks an effective email marketing strategy.

The Australian consumer is savvier than ever before, organisations have the power to tap into these customers through creating and using dynamic content in their email marketing. These strategies are essential to curating personalised and engaging content.

Identifying and understanding dynamic content

Dynamic content refers to any means of tailoring content, this can be via subscriber location, industry, browsing history or a live RSS feed. Adjusting content allows you to create relevance by understanding consumer interests. Dynamic content enables organisations to create relevant emails even when they are opened, not just when they’re sent!

Personalisation vs. Customisation

From the moment a subscriber opts into your database, you’ve secured ‘given data’, from the moment your subscriber interacts with your email, you’ve secured ‘observed data’. By embracing the data you already know, you’re able to created a personalised and/or customised marketing experience for your consumer.

Create urgency and understand surroundings

Consumers want access to brand information firsthand. As a subscriber, they want to be the first to access sales, early bird tickets, and be the first to know of any new services that will directly interest them. As an organisation, you need to give them this content to retain engagement.

Organisations are able to easily create urgency via email marketing through live countdown clocks. These clocks can countdown to the last time to place an order for a next day delivery, the close date for entering a competition, the deadline for buying an early bird ticket to an event, or the amount of time left to take advantage of a promotion.

Give useful data

Above everything, remembering the customer at the heart of every decision is imperative. There are an abundance of strategies to create dynamic content making the picking the right method critical.

Through existing email data you’re given an intrinsic insight into a consumer’s path to conversion and what they value. Are they an industry expert? If yes, send them updates on confirmed speakers, provide directions to the event, send post event videos and recommend other events they may be interested in.

Are they a savvy shopper? If yes, recommend current deals on your website and tempt the consumer back with discount codes and more up-to-date recommendations.

Are they are jet setting traveller? If yes, recommend new locations they might enjoy, this could be different regions of a country or state they’ve just visited before, or a neighbouring country with action packed adventures to enjoy. Recommend a hotel they can stay at, secure the booking, send the weather forecast before they leave and of course, wish them a great trip!

Emailing marketing, the king of content

Emailing marketing is reliable, trustworthy and a fantastic way to engage with an already interested audience. Collate, understand, and generate meaningful insights through subscriber data to ensure your brand stays top of mind for the consumer.

Email marketing will always be the king of content.