Despite all that MarTech has brought to the world of bank marketing, there are still some good old fashioned MARCOM tactics that make a whole lot of sense. Email marketing, that is. Email is still – or at least, should be – a cornerstone of a bank’s marketing strategy. Why? It’s a great marketing tactic for engaging customers, promoting products, and driving business growth. It’s cost-effective, which is especially good for community banks that are already operating on a tight budget. And, according to WebFX, email marketing yields a pretty impressive ROI; potentially yielding $36-40 for every $1 spent. What are some of the other benefits? Email marketing:
- Allows for easy monitoring and campaign adjustments. If you use email marketing software, you can monitor the number of recipients who opened an email you sent out and who clicked the available links to your website or product pages. By reviewing this information after each campaign send, you get real-time data about what works and what doesn’t.
- Provides yet another method for increasing traffic to your company’s website other than through social media, web, broadcast and print advertisements. This helps you gain more leads and, hopefully, sales.
- Connects customers with your brand and services, regardless of the type of device they’re using.
- Can provide invaluable insights into the needs and preferences of your customer base
- Enables you to target certain customers via their purchasing habits, giving you the opportunity to upsell and cross sell.
- Allows businesses to create personalized messages. With the right software, you have almost limitless personalization options.
- Can play an instrumental role in positioning you as an authority, while reinforcing your brand image as one that is personal and trustworthy
Okay, now. Are you ready to launch that campaign? Glad to hear it! But, first … a few things to keep in mind. It’s critical that you take a strategic approach to your email marketing, from the work that goes into your campaign BEFORE you click send, to the analysis you do after the campaign has run. Fortunately, thanks to the built-in analytics features of most email marketing programs, campaign effectiveness has become incredibly easy to measure. By measuring open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates, you can quickly learn what’s working, what isn’t, and — most importantly — how to make adjustments to improve your future emails accordingly. Before you hit send …
Define Clear Objectives and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Before launching your campaign, you should clearly define your objectives and identify the key metrics that will measure success. Common objectives may include increasing account sign-ups, driving website traffic, promoting specific products or services, or improving customer engagement. Once objectives are established, you can select KPIs such as open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates to track the effectiveness of your campaign. Subject lines, for instance, are important; a compelling subject line lets customers know what an email is about, entices them to open it, and helps them know if its contents are going to be relevant to them. Luckily, thanks to A/B testing, which we’ll talk about in a minute, it’s easy to discover what subject line works best for your email.
Segment and Target Your Audience
Segmentation is a powerful tool that allows you to tailor your email campaign to a specific audience segment based on demographics, behaviors, past purchases and shopping preferences. By segmenting your email lists and targeting relevant content to each segment, you can improve engagement and conversion rates.
Monitor Open Rates, Click-Through Rates (CTRs) and Unsubscribe Rates
Open rates and click-through rates are fundamental metrics for evaluating effectiveness. Open rates indicate the percentage of recipients who opened the email, while click-through rates measure the percentage of recipients who clicked on links or calls to action within the email. By monitoring these metrics, you can gauge the effectiveness of your subject lines, content, and calls to action (CTAs). All will help you identify opportunities for improvement.
Track Conversion Rates and Revenue Generated
Ultimately, the success of an email campaign is measured by its impact on conversions and revenue. You should track conversion rates to determine the percentage of recipients who took a desired action, such as signing up for a new account or, applying for a loan. What counts as a “conversion”? That depends on what your goals are. If you’re looking to drum up more reviews for your website, a recipient’s action becomes a conversion when they leave you a review. If you want them to open a HELOC, for example, their action could very well be considered a conversion if they visit the HELOC information page on your site.
Conduct A/B Testing
A/B testing, also known as split testing, involves sending two or more variations of an email to different segments of the audience to determine which version performs better. When sending emails, bank marketers should put those emails through rigorous testing, measuring the performance of subject lines, content, calls to action and sending times; then analyze and compare the performance of each variation for maximum impact.
Monitor Subscriber Engagement and List Health
Subscriber engagement metrics, such as unsubscribe rates, spam complaints, and email deliverability rates, provide valuable insights into the health of your email lists and the quality of your email campaigns. High unsubscribe rates or spam complaints may indicate that recipients are not finding the content relevant or valuable, while low deliverability rates may signal issues with your list; perhaps many of the email addresses are outdated. Bank marketers should regularly monitor these metrics and take corrective action as needed to maintain a healthy email list and improve campaign performance.
Ready to do some email marketing?
Measuring the effectiveness of email campaigns is essential for community banks to optimize their marketing efforts, drive engagement, and grow their share of wallet. By defining clear objectives and performance goals, segmenting and targeting your audience, monitoring KPIs such as open rates, click-through rates, conversion rates, conducting A/B testing, and monitoring list health, you will gain valuable insights into the performance of your email campaigns. And, make data-driven decisions that will improve your email marketing performance.
Bank Marketing Center
Here at bankmarketingcenter.com, our goal is to help you with that topical, compelling communication with customers — developed by bank marketing professionals for bank marketing professionals — that will help you build trust, relationships, and revenue.
Our web-based platform puts our client partners in complete control of their marketing production process – and for a fraction of traditional marketing costs. We’re also proud of the fact that we currently work with over 300 financial institutions.
Want to learn more about what we can do for your community bank and your marketing efforts? You can start by visiting bankmarketingcenter.com. Then, feel free to contact me directly by phone at 678-528-6688 or via email at nreynolds@bankmarketingcenter.com.