Industry: Finance
Content: Weekly blog posts, quarterly infographics, monthly newsletters
Highlights: Referral traffic increases 25 percent with email marketing campaigns
Email marketing isn’t the “latest trend,” but it’s a strategy with staying power for good reason. Although sometimes overlooked in favor of distribution methods like social media and public relations, email marketing is tried and true. Consider the following:
- 48 percent of marketers say email marketing is the most effective tool for lead generation AND one of the easiest to execute.
- According to the a McKinsey report, email is 40 times more effective for acquiring new customers than Facebook and Twitter.
- Over 90 percent of consumers check their email at least once a day.
Our finance clients use content marketing for an array of goals, but most focus on building credibility and garnering trust. For our client that manages equipment finance, the answer was a smart mix of formats married with email newsletter campaigns.
Problem:
- The company had a high volume of leads, but needed to build audience trust and engage these prospects
- The business caters to multiple verticals and wanted to build awareness or better communicate its different offerings to key targets
Strategy:
- Brafton writers created news articles and blog content around specific verticals. Part of this strategy was to get inclusion in Google News.
- We created several different monthly newsletters that targeted those specific verticals. These email newsletters were sent to different lists our client had segmented in their database.
Content:
- In-depth blog posts convey the nuance of different verticals’ challenges that impact bottom-line costs of business.
- Evergreen blog posts and infographics share how-to’s/ tips on money management or efficient budgeting in different sectors.
- News articles about business laws and tax implications analyze the effect on a business owner’s bottom line.
Results:
- Email marketing campaigns brought in 25 percent more referral traffic. The targeted content around solutions most relevant to them helped to re-engage inactive leads.
- Getting into Google News has helped them better own the search presence for their brand
2 Takeaways from this successful email campaign
1. Segment your database
A clean database allows you to accurately splice and dice your contact lists for content nurture campaigns, which can significantly enhance what your marketing team brings to the revenue table. If you see that people with a specific job title turn into sales opportunities more often, you can prioritize these users in nurture campaigns, and content efforts at large, with the understanding that they’re more valuable for your business.
We worked with this client to create segmented email targeting lists for specific verticals represented in their database. We set a rotation strategy, beginning with the contacts that had the highest likelihood email newsletters, we sent information that was relevant to each of the specific lists.
“We created Marketo templates for a specific categories broken down by industry. It’s not rocket science, but having campaigns that are targeted specifically are helpful,” Mark said. “Particularly in the finance sector, there’s so much information out there. If it isn’t relevant, it’s going to get ignored.”
Learn more: How to improve your marketing database for better sales results
2. Document the strategy.
Another important factor for success within this strategy? A streamlined process that includes a content calendar and a documented strategy.
“As the strategy has evolved, we’re more refined with what we do,” Mark said. “Now that we have calendars in place, everyone – me as the strategist, our content writers, our email specialists, are working on the same page in terms of content production, responsibilities and timelines.”
New research from the Content Marketing Institute shows that despite the success factor that correlates with documenting a strategy, more marketers are creating content without documentation.
Don’t have a content calendar in place? 7 easy steps to create one
