Successful strategies in channel demand gen
Email Campaigns
Ineffective or Inefficient?
Make Sure Your Targets Click-Through to Value
Every time we open our email in-boxes we all feel the problems associated with email marketing. Yet, our experience at Launch International demonstrates that, like other campaign media, well-executed email campaigns can still produce impressively high results.
At the top of the performance charts are small, permission-based campaigns targeted at well-defined audiences with very tangible, easy-to-access offers. And mastering one such campaign produces a repeatable methodology that can be used across multiple solution areas. It’s a quality versus quantity approach that delivers.
One speed bump on the road to building these types of campaigns happens when marketers are forced to link click-throughs back to an existing company website. Not only is the campaign message diluted with unrelated data, the target audience often loses track of the next action to take. Instead of digesting more of the campaign-specific value proposition and registering for the offer, they are instead sent adrift in a tangled web of product speeds and feeds.
Building dedicated campaign microsites or destination sites can solve this challenge and improve overall response rates. They usually don’t require involvement from your company’s web site team, and they can be created and go live in a matter of days. Here are some tips for developing effective campaign sites:
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Destination site strategy: A campaign site is different from a corporate site. A campaign generally picks a specific business challenge and positions a product as a solution to that problem. The destination site should be a seamless extension of that campaign, not just a rehash of product functionality.
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Site usability: Be sure to provide clear navigation, as if you were developing a postcard. Also, try to develop a “vanity URL” – either an easy-to-type URL like www.<companyname>.com/<campaign-name>, or a whole separate domain like www.<campaign-name.com>. For less than $50, you can have your own campaign URL that simply expires or can be reused later for subsequent campaigns.
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Site depth: Five pages seem to be the magic number for destination sites. It’s enough to cover the business challenge, explore the possible solutions, position your product as the perfect solution, and to gather registration information for follow-up.
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Site design: Your mailer doesn’t look exactly like your corporate brochure; why should your campaign site look like your corporate web site? Certainly corporate standards need to be considered, but take this opportunity to break from the corporate logo and show some creativity.
One client described a company website to the formal attitude of “the boardroom,” while a destination site is more like “the conference room,” lighter and more user friendly. So if you think of a campaign site as a selling tool, and not an investor tool, your destination sites will become more customer-focused and selling-centric.
If you’re looking for help with a destination site, or just need to bounce some ideas of someone who has done it, contact Eric Nitschke at enitschke@launchintl.com.
