Four Features of a Good Email Marketing Platform | Storm Internet

Email marketing is a perfect way to reach out to those people who have shown an interest in your brand or to up-sell to previous customers. There are quite a few things to consider when choosing which email marketing platform to start your promotions with. The four features below are must-haves when it comes to weighing up your options.

A/B Split Testing Capabilities

You’ve probably heard that open rates and click-through rates are vital to a successful email campaign. If no one opens your email, you’ve wasted money creating it and sending it. If it’s opened, but no one takes any immediate action, it’s probably not as effective as it could be. The best way to improve open rates and click-through rates is to test new subject lines and try different promotional content. A/B split testing allows you to make small changes or amendments before sending campaigns to different test groups from your mailing list.

Scope For Scaling Up

When you first start capturing data and feeding it into an email marketing platform, your subscriber base is typically quite small. In addition, the frequency of mailings undertaken each month tends to be minimal. It’s the same with starting anything, slow and small to begin with. As your subscriber base increases and the number of mailings too, you will start to pay more. It’s important to choose a platform that caters for larger numbers at an affordable cost. This way, you won’t need to worry about finding a new provider when you reach a certain figure.

Segmentation Options

Unless you want to group all of your mailing lists under the same roof, you will need a platform with segmentation capabilities. Segmentation allows you to collect data into different groups or categories and send different promotional emails to those groups. For example, if you sell multiple products on your website there is little point in sending generic promotions to every single previous customer. It would be more beneficial to send gardening related promotions to customers who’ve purchased garden items and beauty related products to those you know are interested in beauty. A good email platform will help you create these segments.

Mobile Optimised Templates

Having your own custom template is advisable for newsletters and various other promotional emails. However, when starting out you might prefer to use a ready-made template. Most popular platforms such as MailChimp, Getresponse, and Aweber all come with a wide selection of email templates and more importantly, mobile optimised templates. As a recipient opening an email on a mobile phone, there is nothing worse than not being able to read the content without zooming in and out.

Click-through rates will almost certainly decrease as a result. Before you sign-up to any email platform, make sure you speak with them directly to check that your product or service is suitable for promotion. Some platforms have more stringent limitations than others. Although for the majority of businesses this will not be an issue, it’s worth double-checking before sending any sort of campaign.

If you’d like to discuss your email and website needs talk to us at Storm by clicking here or calling us on 0800 817 4727. We’ve been providing ultra fast, secure web hosting services since 2004 and know a thing or two about it.