Okay John.  How?  Campaign plan comes first (driven by database), creative comes second.  The campaign plan needs to have 3 levels – 1st being based on demographic data, and the creative should be ‘soft and relevant’ to a specific demographic.  2nd level is set around behavioral data (search inquiries, whitepaper downloads etc) and the creative needs to reference the behavior that triggered the message being sent – with a goal of getting recipient’s commitment to next buying step.  3rd level is then driven by relationship data (lead scoring, sales/site visits, high value customer…) and now the creative is functional, direct and a hard sell “we know you’re about ready” with a message goal of commitment to final steps in buying process.  Key point – the creative must involve 3 critical things – messaging, offer, and media (email vs postal).

Big-game marketing tools

You buying?  I’m selling.  Love this stuff, high calibre ammo to go big-game hunting.  Yeah baby yeah.

Gotta go get my Easy-on.  The 20′s themed SpeakEasy party started half an hour ago, I’m late.  More (much more) later.

The publisher of Email Marketing Reports, Mark has put out another brilliant email marketing video. This time he takes on B2B marketing emails. He pretends to be one, an email newsletter, as he talks “at” you, the viewer/reader. With humor that’s painfully on target, he talks through the major sins B2B email marketing commits on a daily, if not hourly, basis:

• The email arrives 8 months later than expected
• The email isn’t targeted to the recipient
• The email is self-serving
• The email lacks any real personalization
• The email content is irrelevant
• The email is one-sided
• The email offer is unrelated to the recipient

There’s more, and every second is worth your attention. You’ll definitely snicker if not guffaw, and might cringe a little too, if you are in B2B email marketing.

This also might serve as ammunition to get upper management to listen when you’re trying to convince them the email marketing ROI would be higher if the email newsletter were better! So maybe this bit of viral video can be put to good use.

Watch Mark act the part of a B2B email newsletter by clicking here.

If your customers’ pain points and concerns have changed, your email marketing must change too, otherwise it will be irrelevant and therefore ineffective. Think about where your audience’s head might be at these days, depending on whether they’re B2C or B2B:

• Maybe they’re older, or their kids are older
• Maybe the election has them focused on different issues
• Has the financial crisis changed their spending habits?
• What about the housing market?
• Have recession fears affected business budgets?
• Did a client company recently go through a merger or acquisition?

As we go through life, what’s important to us changes. Same goes for your customers. A savvy email marketer pays attention to temporary situations too, like the ebb and flow of politics and current events that will affect what your customers are thinking about. It might be a short-term change of focus, but you still need to pay attention or risk getting ignored.

The most effective email marketing is to be relevant. Relevant to the customer and that person’s concerns at the time they get your email. Be current and pertinent and you’ll still be welcome in the inbox. No matter what else is happening in the world.  It will mean less impact on your email marketing ROI.