Choosing a new email or marketing automation platform is like being invited to pick out your own Christmas present from an array of tempting goodies. Will you pick the one that makes you happy? Or, will you end up with buyer’s remorse?<\/p>\n
It’s so easy to be dazzled by all the capabilities an email platform promises, especially now, when advanced technology is financially viable for almost every email marketer. This one built in real-time testing and reporting! That one sends your message out to multiple channels all at once. The other one builds your emails automatically. Just hit “send!”<\/p>\n
And that’s where the trouble begins, we all too often lead with technology. Technology is tactical. But leading with strategy to achieve an objective and aided by technology is what drives consistent success. My mantra has always been \u201cLead with strategy, not with technology\u201d<\/b>.<\/p>\n My new report from Econsultancy, “The Fundamentals of Email Marketing<\/a>,” includes background and action plans for the successful pairing of strategic and technology planning.<\/p>\n Why is this so important? Econsultancy’s 2016 email census found that just 3 in 10 marketers use the email data provisions their platforms provide. <\/p>\n This raises many questions. Is it because they just don’t know how? Did they sign on with their vendors before thinking it through and realizing they either didn’t collect the data they needed for high-level personalization or didn’t know how to make their customer databases and email platforms talk with each other<\/a>? <\/p>\n Even a little bit of strategic planning can make the technology use more fruitful.<\/p>\n Here’s another statistic: Most marketers use only 30 percent of an email platform’s capabilities. But they’re paying for 100 percent of that platform. <\/p>\n Lack of education and training might be one explanation for this, but also, many features don’t have a place yet in the marketer’s strategy playbook.<\/p>\n If you have always relied on broadcast email (1:everyone) but want to move to 1:1 email, just signing with a top-of-the-line vendor is not going to make it happen. <\/p>\n Your marketing program planning has three components: an objective, a strategy and tactics. All three together are like a journey:<\/p>\n Don’t settle on your technology choices until you know how they will either fit in with or advance your own strategic plan. <\/p>\n Besides helping setting up a strategy that will guide your technology decisions, you also want to work with your ESP to get more out of your email platform. (Trust me \u2013 they want you to use all those features and capabilities, because they will help you succeed. As the saying goes, they succeed when you succeed!)<\/p>\n Here are a few tips from the guide:<\/p>\n 1. Get help troubleshooting problems.<\/b> Your ESP will have access to data and you can expect it to share what it sees on its systems and servers. One advantage of the ESP (an outsourced broadcast platform) is that it is well equipped to handle feedback loop setup and have a good grasp of best practices.<\/p>\n 2. See better results. <\/b> Marketers who have launched even basic segmentation and triggered emails, either on their own or by using the automation tools their ESPs or agencies offer, find it pays off in higher engagement and revenue. <\/p>\n<\/span>How to make strategic and technology planning mesh for success<\/span><\/h2>\n
![\"email-related-provision-used-2016\"](\"https:\/\/www.emailvendorselection.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/email-related-provision-used-2016.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/span>Strategic planning makes the technology use more fruitful.<\/span><\/h2>\n
<\/span>Crash course on strategic planning and technology<\/span><\/h2>\n
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<\/span>3 tips to get more from your email platform<\/span><\/h2>\n