Email Marketing Maturity Model

Most often marketers have a feel that Email Marketing is yet another BTL promotional tool. Email marketing is a convoluted process. It involves a lot of key considerations like the Design, Delivery, Legal framework, List building and beyond.

Email marketers have started understanding the bandwidth of email marketing activity eventually because of the unsuccessful campaigns and decreased ROI over the years.

Have you ever thought of that Email Marketing can also have a maturity model like the business maturity model? The business maturity model is fragmented to stages like:

1. Start Up
2. Emerging
3. Defined
4. Managed and
5. Optimized

It is similar to the capability maturity model of the software. Uplers have derived Email Marketing Maturity Model. What would be an ideal email maturity model like?

Level 0: This is the time when you are not practicing Email Marketing or you have just started to practice it within your network to check how it works? You do not have a strategy or you do not have a great content for your email. You do not have an aim or mission here. You are just working on a spray and pray approach.

Level 1: This is an upward movement. You see the potential in email marketing and understand its power as an important marketing channel. Once you know what wonders it can do, you aim higher. You set a mission and a strategy for your next launch on a small scale. You decide the content plan and make a calendar for couple of your next emails along with the content and better design. You research everything in this stage.

Level 2: You start setting small targets, figure out email contacts, build email list and decide on the Email production strategy whether to go for self service model, hybrid service model or fully managed service. Marketers in this step start figuring out what’s going in the email marketing and apply their research in to practice. You also decide upon interaction strategy, engagement of subscribers etc here.

Level 3: This is the time when you see some really better visits compared to the initial campaigns. People might start getting engaged with you due to the better branding you have done this time. Once you are confident, you do not look back and understand what emails yield better response. Strengthen your email list, buy a list and see what works best! You design your emails keeping in mind the best practices so to have better results from the campaign. You start measuring the ROI of all cost that you are incurring after Email Marketing.

Level 4: Here as a marketer, you are accountable for every small thing you plan or implement. Also, as the world is going smart, with an increased number of smart phone users you start targeting your email communication for mobile or catch up with the changing trend. You also do testing of your emails, check the renderability, click throughs and opens minutely than ever. You also integrate the social media and email well.

Level 5: This is the time when you can’t be relaxed. You need to be on your toes, roll up your sleeves and measure the effectiveness of your email messages. Check out on the deliverability, legal framework, ESP Guidelines, Cross Channel workflows etc. You integrate technology within your email communications and measure the impact at large.

The above email marketing maturity model is one of the most ideal way to look at email marketing starting afresh till hitting the bull’s eye. Uplers are sure about this model. This approach shall surely suit your business needs. Let us know your feedback once you apply this model.