Publishers have been increasing their reliance on email tactics to drive traffic and readers to their websites. 41% of publishers credit email marketing for driving more than a quarter of total revenue, compared to 24% for general marketers. Research from The Relevancy Group also found that emails sent by publishers have higher engagement rates.
“Email marketing is being relied on more heavily today than ever before, and the data indicates that publishers depend on it even more than most,” says Nicholas Einstein, vice president of research and principal analyst at The Relevancy Group.
Email is a top traffic driver for Buzzfeed.com, shared Kraig Swensrud, CMO of Campaign Monitor. Google Analytics reporting confirmed that email is a crux of readership engagement for that media company. He also said that email is becoming more common in the media industry because they need new ways of keeping in touch with readers on a continual basis.
“Publishers, who rely on email even more than others, have specialized requirements, and often need to leverage different strategies, tactics, and tools to drive their core business objectives,” says Einstein. “Those who allocate resources on six key areas of focus will be well positioned to take advantage of the tremendous opportunities that channel proliferation, and the current evolution towards distributed content, currently present.
The recommended six focus areas to optimize publisher email campaign performance are:
- Optimize at the top of the funnel
- Showcase highly relevant content
- Operate mobile-first
- Use A/B testing
- Multichannel integration
- Identify and leverage key market influencers
Post based on MediaPost article