0The digital channels are developing rapidly on, and there are constantly new technologies. It is not easy to always be on the cutting edge. In this fast-paced digital world, we are increasingly dependent on reliable, effective and accurate software to solve complex problems, giving us a competitive advantage and providing maximum added value for our business. This represents an enormous pressure for companies – and also for the software provider.
With Email Marketing Software, the choice is wide. From simple CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) tool that lets you design your email template, to comprehensive platforms for the implementation of complex, automated and carefully segmented campaigns. How can one make the right choice?
Stay with confidence. Because we will give you a list of the main features by which email marketers should look for when selecting email marketing software.
Why is it so important to use the right email marketing software?
Compared to social, direct marketing and other channels, email has the highest conversion rate . The effectiveness of this channel is very largely due to the use of marketing technology. 82% of companies are now using an email marketing software. And 75% or more are expected to buy a marketing automation solution within a year .
The question is how much do companies need to pay if they want to include a provider of technology services to their corporate and marketing strategy?
Fundamental considerations like price, deliverability of emails, usability, scalability and customer service will continue to influence the decision-making process. But in what important ways, the solutions for e-mail marketing differ?
As with any relationship companies must consider what long-term effects will the software. You need the customer requirements of today understand – and anticipate tomorrow’s. You need to recognize problems – and opportunities. You need to distinguish between useful and useless data. And they have to find a provider who can help you with all these points. The right technology makes it easy.
Here I highlight the main features that you should have in your email marketing software:
- Integration– Deliver integrated customer experiences, based on the buying behavior of your target groups. To respond to all relevant channels in a timely manner to meet the needs of your customers.
- Automation– The right email marketing software delivers new revenue opportunities. 75% of e-mail sales generated by campaigns in which the email is triggered by a specific event ( “triggered campaigns”). Therefore, the automation is a top priority for e-mail marketers. 91% of all successful online marketers say that automation is a key success factor for their marketing across all channels. Use of automation allows marketers to perform an unlimited amount of customer dialogues by individual events – such as: – trigger for customer loyalty campaigns, registration, purchasing, shipping. Automated programs provide relevant communications at the right time and thus open the door for even closer relations of the company to its customers.
- Personalization– Collect relevant data, derive valuable information from it and communicate it on the basis of these findings, individually – which forms the basis for targeted, personalized dialogues on all channels. If you want to use personalization for your marketing, you should ensure that your technology can process with the speed that is necessary for a true personalization.
- Segmentation– It has long been proven that small, segmented mailings are more effective than large, non-segmented. An analysis of data on the behavior, demographic and geographic criteria, on each sales stage, the purchase history and the habits and preferences of customers, provides insights that can increase the success of email campaigns considerably. 30% of the e-mail turnover is generated by selectively targeting specific audience segments. Segmented behavioral data provide valuable information from which future buying habits and decision patterns can be derived. Segmentation is a very useful component of good email marketing software .
- Cross-Channel– Another factor for successful marketing is to overcome internal silos. Use the findings from all marketing channels to provide customers with a consistent, seamless brand experience – and thus increase customer loyalty and improve your return on investment. For successful cross-channel campaigns e-mail marketing software should support various online marketing channels such as social media, mobile and web. So you can perform segmented, automated campaigns that allow you to use the full force of all your online channels.
- Analytics– Most providers of e-mail marketing deliver standard metrics like conversion, quantitative and qualitative ROI, performance and test results. By contrast, use modern applications algorithms for data analysis, which assist the user in choosing the right content. Good Analytics summarize the relevant data from different channels to provide an accurate picture of the consumer, which can be used proactively of marketers.
Final considerations
Each e-mail marketer has their own requirements and objectives. The functions described herein are generally applicable to e-mail marketing today. Of course, every company must ask itself whether a particular technology for online marketing meet its specific requirements – the current as well as future.
Where will your company be in five years, and where your competitors will be then? The solutions are to increase sales and profits and improve ROI, but marketers need to think further and use solutions that can predict the habits of online shoppers, which are constantly changing.
