The Most Important Step Before Ever Sending a Campaign
Nomenclature. There you go, that is the most overlooked aspect of email marketing. The truth of the matter is this also applies to Facebook Ads, Google AdWords, Google Display Network (GDN), Taboola, and any other system you are using for managing a plethora of digital marketing campaigns.
One of my favorite digital marketing gurus is a man by the name of Pat Flynn. Based in sunny California, he professes that, “The riches are in the niches.” (By the way, that is where I first saw the brilliant Pacifico font, which graces my site, too.)
When it comes to analyzing and data mining your email marketing campaigns, this concept is very relatable. And let me explain. The key to evaluating how effective your email marketing campaigns lies deep in the metrics, e.g., the open rates, the click through to open rates (see why this email marketing metric trumps the unique click rate), conversion rate, etc.
So, finding out what specific topics or email types—there are different kinds of email marketing campaigns—are doing best in your email marketing program in imperative.
Getting the Most Out of Your Email Marketing Efforts
But how do you glean this information from potentially hundreds of emails? Obviously, the best way to do this is by defining a naming convention to your emails! And after you to that, treat it with the utmost respect.
Case in point, I was doing an email audit for a client recently, and trying to find out which campaigns performed the best. You see, my first take showed that the campaigns performed at more or less the same rate. However, after sifting through campaign names, subject lines, and even going into the emails to see what the content was like, allowed me to gather vital information.
A thought-out naming convention allows you to drill down and see the minute nucleus of your digital marketing program and—at the same time—to see the what’s going on at 30,000 feet, too.
The Top Email Marketing Hack Explained
Therefore, when I manage email marketing programs, I will always have a nomenclature that looks something like this: NL_ML_CTA_L_I_Widgets
Here’s what it means:
- NL – newsletter. This defines the email type and could also be AR (autoresponder), TR (transactional), etc.
- ML – main list. Here I’m defining the target audience, because not every ESP provides the list in their reports. Plus, I like having this tied into the campaign name—it will help with reporting later on, believe me! The other options here could be something like TG (targeting), RA (reactivation), or whatever else works for you.
- CTA – call to action. Now this one is little tricky for me to provide other examples, but think of this as what the goal of the email is. Were you trying to sell, onboard, or engage? You get the point.
- L – long. For me, this indicates how long your email is. This will provide invaluable insights when you can easily analyze if long form, medium, or short content works best. How long is long? Well, this is a judgment call, but it is a good idea to have three lengths to give you enough way to divvy up and spin the data.
- I – image(s). Is your email image heavy? This is also a good spot to indicate the template you used if you use multiple templates.
- Widgets. This defines what your email is talking about. Keep it brief and try to make it memorable so that you will know exactly which email went through the roof. Use descriptive words like gadgets, gear, and gizmos. You get the point.
The Glue that Keeps it All Together.
Finally, the underscore; the unsung hero of this methodology. The underscore allows you to parse out this name in an Excel spreadsheet. Now, I gave you six ways to slice and dice your email campaign name and I advise you to keep the full name and then add in six columns on your Excel, copy and paste the full campaign name into the next column, and then use the “Text to Columns” with the “underscore” as your delimiter.
Did I forget anything? I would love to hear about some other ideas. Again, this isn’t written in stone, but defining a naming convention in email marketing will help you analyze and find out which campaigns are bringing you the riches and making you shine over the competition.
