In this article we will see what the life cycle of Email Marketing is like , and not only justified by what our experience says, but also by what some studies point out that analyze the useful life cycle that Email Marketing has, when we talk about a long-term relationship with consumers.
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What steps does the Email Marketing life cycle consist of?
The 4 phases needed to understand the Email Marketing life cycle
Acquisition and activation phase: building a correct (and quality) active network of contacts
Conversion phase: foster engagement and induce purchase
Growth phase: increasing user interactions
Retention Phase: Retaining Customers Whose “Shelf Life” Is Dying
Reactivation phase: focus on those users who practically do not add value
What steps does the Email Marketing life cycle consist of?
Normally, and according to some expert studies, the users who read the most content in Email Marketing mailings (and who, therefore, contribute most to increasing our deliverability rate ) are those consumers who have recently signed up for our subscription, for any reason; which can range from interest in a new brand, any type of discount generated by subscribing to the newsletter (a technique that is increasingly seen in everyday life) or some type of content, punctually, that has interested the user. But, normally, throughout the first year, the average reading rate drops considerably, to (even) leading to unsubscribing or including the same email as SPAM.
Steps to design a correct Email Marketing strategy
And, there is no doubt that the life cycle of Email Marketing is limited.
Therefore, it is absolutely necessary for brands to have a good user maintenance strategy in Email Marketing, and not just for attracting and registering new users. In other owner/partner/shareholder email lists words: brands must ensure that consumers registered in their databases do not want to stop seeing their messages; that they continue to be relevant and of interest to them, and that -thus- unsubscribing becomes difficult. To achieve this, we have already seen on other occasions a series of techniques that encourage user interest with our emails, highlighting those of avoiding long texts and a formal or classic tone in the message, or not buying lists of emails that have not voluntarily given you their permission to interact with them, among others.
However, in order to define a good strategy for maintaining your Email Marketing contact network, you need to know the 4 phases that make up its life cycle.
The 4 phases needed to understand the Email Marketing life cycle
Acquisition and activation phase: building a correct (and quality) active network of contacts
For example, by collecting email pop-ups on your site, or by adding a clear space on your blog where users can leave their email addresses. It is also important to make the registration phase as simple as possible: make it easy for the user, and don't drive them crazy with irrelevant mandatory fields.
And, of course, constantly monitor your databases. You should know that any email list you have will decrease over time: email addresses change, they stop being used, or in many cases people even permanently abandon email accounts that they used infrequently. Even, for example, in the case of corporate email subscriptions, a change of position and/or job will generate an unreported cancellation. For this reason, it is important to frequently audit the databases you have.
The elements that are generating changes in Email Marketing
In any case, once the user has decided to give you consent to interact with him (turning him into an active user, who opens and reads the emails we send) what he expects is to be able to start establishing quality links with you .
Conversion phase: foster engagement and induce purchase
In this phase, you should try to obtain and maintain the user's interest in your communication. In order to encourage engagement and achieve conversion in terms of purchase, you should try to get those users who are active (and who interact with your emails) but who have not yet made a first purchase to develop this interest.
In this way, it is very interesting that -for this group of users- you create emails designed to get them to take action, for example, through attractive discounts or exclusive benefits that lead them to take a step further in their purchase funnel. To do this, you should consider such essential but necessary elements as:
The frequency of sending your emails
The best time and day to send your information
The most relevant type of content for each user group
Growth phase: increasing user interactions
Once you have achieved a high level of engagement with your brand (and have therefore made more than one purchase), you can include them in the growth phase.
Now, what comes next becomes even more complicated: you will have to increase the number of interactions that the user makes with your brand , whether through clicks on your CTAs, visits to your website, participation in social media conversations, etc., etc.
Retention Phase: Retaining Customers Whose “Shelf Life” Is Dying
As we have mentioned before, there is a certain point in the lifespan of users when their interaction ends, not exceeding one year of life. Therefore, in this last phase you should try to retain customers who have had a high level of involvement and acceptance of the brand.
How to identify your prospects' buyer journey via email marketing
That said, what can we do to retain those users who provide great value to the company, and thus prevent them from leaving for the competition? The answer is easy to say, but not so easy to execute: improve the service offered, delving deeper into the knowledge of the user's interests and tastes, as well as taking into account their opinions, criticisms and ratings to offer them the best possible experience.
Reactivation phase: focus on those users who practically do not add value
In this phase, we will have to select those users who practically do not add value to the brand (either because they do not interact with the brand, or because they do not generate any type of conversion), and try to reactivate them to place them again in the acquisition or conversion phase. However, you should know that there are email accounts that are surely in your database lists, and that it is not really worth continuing to invest in them, because they are inactive or disabled accounts (and here, again, we mention the need to frequently audit your databases).
