Getting the Most Out of Your Digital Marketing Database
We’ve witnessed it time and again. You could have a compelling brand story, the best talent in the business and a solid foundation of goods and services, but you’ve virtually exhausted your current marketing endeavors and your company’s potential growth has stagnated. You need to expand your reach, and there are a variety of ways to do that. This is a critical growth point when many of our clients find their way to our doorstep. While The Edge Agency specializes in big brand rollouts and omni-channel marketing strategies, for the purpose of getting great gains through a tried-and-true method that boasts excellent return on investment, we’re going to focus the revelations of this article on building a marketing database and reaching that target audience in an impactful way.
First Things First… The Careful Construction of a Marketing Database
Invite visitors of your website, followers of your social media pages and guests of your brick-and-mortar location(s) to subscribe to your newsletter or agree to receive promotions via text. In doing so, you’ll be laying a solid foundation of recipients who are open to receiving emails and texts from your company. You can also ask your business contacts if they’d like to be added to your database, manually entering their contact information from their email signature or business card. And if you host an event or have a booth at a trade show, you can capture email addresses and mobile phone numbers by holding a raffle. Make sure your raffle tickets clearly state that, by filling out the form, they are granting your company permission to send them email marketing or texts. These are all highly effective methods that even The Edge Agency employs for our own marketing efforts. Our most important word of advice… be patient. It can take time to develop a really robust database, and it’s something that will always be a work in progress, so never take your foot off the gas in its development.
Okay…? Now What?
Once you have a solid marketing database under construction (which is, again, a constant endeavor), it’s time to reach out to that audience in meaningful ways. Email marketing continues to prove itself a valuable tool in any company’s arsenal. It’s a highly effective way to communicate product rollouts, special promotions, upcoming events, company news and more. You can use it to position your company as an industry leader and content expert by providing helpful tips and drive customers through your door by using it as a vehicle for coupon delivery. Be sure to make your eblasts shareable so you can expand your reach and grow your database further.
For maximum results and retention of database contacts, every email should be part of a broader email marketing strategy. This is an area where the strategic and creative teams at The Edge Agency really shine. For a sneak peek of what you could expect by partnering with us for your email marketing needs, here is a snapshot of the success two of our clients have recently experienced:
· ArtsNow: This nationally recognized 501(c)(3) nonprofit with a goal of reshaping education through arts integration sought to build strategic pARTnerships between its organization, individual schools and entire school systems, as well as grow its “Patron of the Arts” donor community through a targeted email drip campaign comprised of four emails. The automated campaign launches at the time of subscription and has witnessed 788 successful campaign completions, with 34 campaigns in progress. To acquire email subscribers, a Facebook ad campaign involved a $1,101 ad spend that received 20,946 impressions and resulted in 125 new subscribers at a cost of $10.60 per lead. A similar ad was run on LinkedIn at a lower ad spend of $250 that received 19,163 impressions and 14 new subscribers.
· Jambos: A charity that seeks to bring comfort to children in the foster care system through the gift of brand-new pajamas, Jambos looked to email marketing to increase its financial contributions and the donation of pajamas – particularly for an often-overlooked segment, teenagers in the foster care system. Sent to its database of 702 contacts, two back-to-back emails received 110 clicks – 12 of which were direct clicks to donate. All told, the initial mailings for both emails received a 46% average open rate (nearly 20% above the average for nonprofit email marketing) and 1.5 average click-through rate. As a result of this targeted email, as well as a related social media campaign and event, Jambos collected 466 pairs of teenage pajamas, raised $13,422 and grew awareness of its monthly donor program.
The Edge Agency welcomes the opportunity to help your company achieve comparable results through the provision of a solid strategy, professionally designed graphics and expertly crafted content for your customized email marketing campaign. Let’s talk! Call the Edge team at 678.270.7198, email us at info@theedgeagency.net or fill out our online contact form to schedule your FREE initial consultation. For even more great insights, we encourage you to bookmark our Edge-(ucation) Blog, listen in to ourTake the Edge Off Podcast, follow us on Facebook and Instagram, and – OF COURSE – subscribe to our newsletter. To learn more about The Edge Agency and our deep toolbox of capabilities, please visit us at www.theedgeagency.net. We’re excited to learn more about you, too!
