How to create an Email Marketing function in-house
Email marketing is a powerful tool that can help ecommerce businesses engage with customers and drive sales. But for many brands, setting up an effective email function in-house can be a daunting task. Fortunately, we're here to help!
This month, we're giving away the details of our internal process, so you can take it and implement it within your ecom business and just watch your numbers and efficiencies skyrocket. In this blog post, we'll outline the five key workstreams that need to be set up internally for the email marketing function to work to its full potential.
1) Monitor performance
One of the most important aspects of any email marketing function is monitoring performance. To evaluate performance quickly and draw actionable insights, it's essential to have a well-designed KPI sheet that has just the right amount of information on it. For ecommerce brands, we recommend looking at all key metrics once a week, every week without fail. On top of that, creating a much more in-depth monthly overview of the function presenting the results over a longer period of time - for example 12 months with a year-over-year view additionally too. This will help you identify trends and areas for improvement, and make data-driven decisions to optimise your email campaigns.
2) Plan content in line with other functions and teams
Email marketing is no good working in a silo. All content and activities need to be coordinated as part of a wider content strategy that covers social media channels, the website and other media. Email channel is best when it's a blend of sales-oriented messaging and value-led content, and as such will work much better if the email repurposes the appropriate content and amplifies the brand messaging. This means that it's essential to plan your email content in line with other functions and teams. By doing so, you can ensure that your messaging is consistent and aligned with your overall brand strategy.
3) Automations workstream
Automation is an important aspect of any email marketing function. However, we often hear about brands working on their automations as stand-alone, one-off projects. While this can work for those who have a well-developed email function, for smaller teams where email is not actually a department, but a shared responsibility of a few people who also do other jobs, it's super important to monitor performance and work on the automations on a gradual and ongoing basis. This will help you ensure that your automations are effective and deliver the right message to the right people at the right time.
4) Experimentation workstream
Testing and experimentation is one of the best ways to keep learning about what works for your brands customers and what they care about the most. However, too often, brands experiment in an ah-hoc, sporadic way. Whenever they feel like it, someone will throw a 'let's A/B test that email' into the discussion, something happens but hardly anyone can draw meaningful insights from the results. To learn from tests, experiments need to be logged, measured, and evaluated in a disciplined way. This will help you identify what works best for your customers, and what can be improved to drive better results.
5) Keep on top of the new ecommerce tech stack
Finally, it's essential to keep on top of the new ecommerce tech stack available and ways it can provide data about your customers to further personalise their experience with the brand. This means staying up-to-date with the latest tools and technologies, and exploring new ways to use data to optimise your email campaigns. By doing so, you can create a more personalised experience for your customers and drive better results for your business.
In conclusion, setting up an effective email marketing function requires careful planning, ongoing monitoring, and a willingness to experiment and learn. By following the five key workstreams outlined above, you can create a successful email marketing function that delivers.
For more expert advice and tips, get in touch!