Online marketers must focus at least a portion of their attention on email marketing, even with new techniques thriving on the web today. While brands use social media marketing to […]

Online marketers must focus at least a portion of their attention on email marketing, even with new techniques thriving on the web today. While brands use social media marketing to grow their products’ web presences, content creation through email channels can achieve similar objectives, and it’s important for marketers not to overlook tactics that have proven worthwhile in the past.

In the 2012 Lead Generation Benchmark Report, MarketingSherpa asked marketers which lead gen form fields provided them with invaluable data. The results found that 96 percent of respondents said finding leads’ email addresses were most important, and 89 percent said compiling names’ of leads were essential for marketing success. This demonstrates that many brands find email outreach is key to lead gen success. Further down on the list, 23 percent of marketers considered key pain points an important piece of information, and maybe more respondents should feel this way.

Email RatesMarketers sold on the validity of emails who are trying to improve campaigns should consider results from a separate MarketingSherpa A/B test. It discovered that emails personalized with full names, signed by the contact in the “from” field and designed with a straightforward template are often more effective. In fact, the company sent two audience segments separate emails – one from the blog itself and the other from Jon Hosier, MarketingSherpa’s Senior Marketing Specialist. The latter generated a 137.4 percent higher open rate and a 128.9 percent higher clickthrough rate than the template version from the blog.

The email experiment gives insight into how consumers respond more willingly to custom content, which should make marketers more concerned with the key pain points of their prospects. Perhaps the more customized and personalized email outreach programs become, the greater the chance those campaigns deliver impressive returns. While having the name and email address of a lead is essential, marketers must delve deeper into the points that lead to more promising sales figures down the line.

Ted Karczewski is an Executive Communications Associate at Brafton. He works to develop his own voice and apply his passions to the evolving world of SEO and content marketing, but he doesn't shy away from writing for fun. After graduating from Suffolk University, Ted used his Communications degree to test out Sports Journalism before Marketing at Brafton.