A large proportion of companies use email and mobile open rates to track their marketing success. To this day, the size of your email and mobile list are a demonstration of your reach and thought leadership. However, your email marketing campaigns should be part of a holistic approach to educate your contacts about your company. Your marketing emails need to be complimented by other efforts, such as mobile messaging and marketing, search engine optimization, content creation and social media engagement. 

Outlined is this five (5) part article series are some of the top challenges marketers face, and how you can combat them. You will also learn about the types of communications you can send to your contacts. Email and mobile are powerful channels, but also ones that present many questions and difficulties. In this series of articles, we focus on the top five challenges and suggest ideas through which you can address these issues.

Quick Email and Mobile facts

• Mobile messages (SMS and MMS) are opened 98% within 3 minutes of delivery

• Most emails sent by marketers in the second quarter of 2016 were opened on mobile devices, according to recent research from Experian

• 58% of all email opens it examined occurred on mobile phones or tablets (45% phones, 13% tablets) in 2Q16, a 14% increase from a year earlier. 

• The biggest turnoffs people have with mobile email and text messages are: Receiving too many (44%), Not relevant (37%), Too small to read and interact with (32%), Website and landingpages not mobile optimized (26%) and Not well formatted for mobile phones (21%) – LiveClicker and The Relevancy Group “Exploring the Benefits Real-Time Email – Driving Marketing Effectiveness” (2015) 

• With more than 95% open rates on Short Message Service (SMS,) and engagement rates of up to ten (10) times higher than email, Savvy marketers have picked up on these mobile trends and have started incorporating SMS into their messaging mix to better communicate with customers and prospects. Media Post 2016

Challenge

Getting your mobile and email systems working with your own apps

Marketers want to amass valuable data across their different channels. For instance, they might like to see the possible relationships between landing pages from emails and mobile messages, or to track the sales process of an email or mobile conversion. In addition to the obvious reporting benefits such that integration provides, it also opens the door to a much more enjoyable experience for your email and mobile subscribers. 

Just think about it! If you could bridge the gap between email and mobile marketing performance, social media activities, landing page conversions, or new customer acquisitions, you are that much closer to optimizing your sales funnel and delivering content that your engaged community loves. ‘Other data systems’ including form submissions and activities on your website and mobile pages, can point you to the resources your recipients are truly interested in. In that way, you have a clear understanding of how to further engage them through careful targeting and segmentation. Marketing systems like Hubspot and Marketo are great examples of platforms that can deliver a holistic view of your customers and their engagement levels with your content.

Solution

Get Your Hands on The Right Tools for the Job In order to integrate your email and mobile marketing with your other data systems, you need to use marketing software that allows for that integration to take place. In fact, integration is the foundation on which most marketing automation companies were built, as they connect your marketing assets together, such as your blog sites, lead scoring, CRM, email and mobile lead nurture campaigns. Another fantastic, low cost, and easy to use platform for integrating core business systems is Zapier. 

 Zapier is a tool that enables you to connect apps you use every day to automate (Zaps) tasks and save time. You can connect any of their 1,100+ integrated apps together to make your own automations. What's more, Zapier is quick and easy to set up, and, you don't need to be a developer. ‘Zaps’ are really easy and simple to use. 

Think Segmentation

Combining your different marketing systems allows for clear segmentation of your lists and provide the ability to better target your customers and prospects with relevant email and mobile messages. Once you have access to an integrated marketing system, keep your buyer persona in mind and focus on the opportunity to target the right audience with the right message, on the right and most relevant platform (email, mobile, social). 

Develop Content 

The more targeted your email and mobile campaigns, the more content you will need. The key to promoting relevant content on the email or mobile (SMS) channel is to provide an offer that is connected to their initial request or engagement with you. What action have your contacts taken on (or even off) your website? Offer them content that fits with their intent and their needs. If you can’t think of a reason to send an email or mobile message, then don’t send it, period.