The Email Marketing Census 2010, by econsultancy.com found that 39% of companies are unaware of their organization’s return on investment (ROI) from email marketing. Yet, 75% of companies have rated email as ‘excellent’ or ‘good’ for ROI. As perhaps the most consistent marketing channel in an organizations mix, the price of using an email marketing service is relatively low. For this article, we will calculate the ROI of a single monthly email blast to 2,000 contacts.

Investments:
$35.00 – Average monthly service fee from an email marketing service provider
$100.00 – Contract designers time to create artwork for the email template and landing page (assuming one hour of work)
$25.00 – Marketing manager’s time to craft message, target contacts and send email (assuming one hour of work at a salary of $50,000/year)

Not taking into consideration other intangibles, on a very simple level we could say the investment to send one email blast in a month is $160.

Now we will assume we achieve 100% deliverability and a 30% open rate. This gives us 600 recipients who read our message. Let’s assume our message is compelling enough to garner a 20% click rate sending 120 contacts to a landing page that urges the consumer to purchase our products. The average price of our products is $200 and our average conversion rate for that landing page is 5%.

Of the 120 contacts that go to our landing page, six of them will purchase. At $200 per transaction we achieve $1,200 in revenue.  We spent $160 to create and send our message and received $1,200 in revenue – that’s a return on investment of $7.50 per every dollar spent – pretty darn good.

Why is this important? Our simple example showed demonstrated a successful email marketing campaign. However, not all email campaigns are as effective. When planning email campaigns, there are a number of things we can do that will benefit our outcome:

Target the right consumers.
Ensure that the email list is clean.
Focus on writing relevant content and strong subject lines.
Craft a clear and concise message in the body of the email. Make your brand recognizable.
Create an unmistakable call to action.
Spend time on testing the landing page effectiveness and ease of purchase process.
Receiving a strong open and click rate is important, but if your landing pages cannot convert prospective buyers, you will not achieve a strong ROI. Likewise, if your landing pages convert well, but you are not delivering qualified buyers due to poor targeting and messaging, you will not achieve the results you are seeking. ROI is the big picture metric that determines the overall effectiveness of your campaign.

So, what’s your ROI?

As an internet marketing company, we rely heavily on our reputation to gain new clients and advertisers. A big part of building your reputation is increasing the amount of trust and credibility you or your business has in the industry. This reputation is the foundation to a successful and trusted partnership with your clients or employer. You can improve and maintain your reputation by following the 4 main trust principles outlined:

1. Integrity – This just happens to be one of our shared values. We pledge to always speak the truth and communicate openly and honestly with each other. In addition, integrity has to do with having congruency and “practicing what you preach.” Would you promote a campaign you would not run yourself?

2. Intent – What is your agenda, motive, and behavior? It is important in the online world to effectively communicate your agenda and the overall process being used to deliver the product or service.
“There are no moral shortcuts in the game of business – or life. There are basically, three kinds of people: the unsuccessful, the temporarily successful, and those who become and remain successful. The difference is character.” Jon Huntsman, Chairman, Huntsman Capital

3. Capabilities – Are you great at what you do? Do you provide industry knowledge and skills necessary to provide value to your customer/clients? You should constantly be improving your knowledge base and skills.

4. Results – What is your Track Record? Are you providing services in the time promised? Do you have systems in place to monitor and maintain time commitments? When you can establish a positive reputation of performing and being a producer, your reputation will precede you.

Take some time and ask yourself if you follow these 4 trust principles. This process will help you recognize your own credibility and focus on areas for improvement.

By: Rustam Irani| COO| TheMediaCrew