B2B Demand Generation | Guest Post by Henry Fitzerald

As customers, we hate logging into our email and seeing that we’ve received 19

messages in the past three days from Preston’s Dry Cleaners. That’s just not acceptable.

But, on the other hand, sometimes we’re looking for info or coupons from our favorite brands and realize they haven’t sent out an update all month.

How do you know if your business is using its email marketing campaign effectively? There are general rules of thumb for email marketing, but depending on your brand or intended audience, those rules may or may not be true.

How do you know if you’re not keeping customers in the loop and, more importantly, how do you know how much contact is too much?

1)    Gauge Engagement Level: One of the best ways to tell if your email marketing campaign is doing too much or not enough is to check on the engagement level of your audience. Are people using the coupons you’ve sent out? What is your intended audience looking for? If you’re not providing the services they want, engagement level will be low. When it comes to engagement level, remember that less is more. One in three consumers are using email now more than ever and 85% consider their mobile email to be highly important, but only 20% find mobile email as easy to use as on a computer. These stats mean that while many consumers are engaging with your brand while mobile, many others are not. Knowing facts like these about your audience will help you build an email marketing campaign that is relevant, which will drive consumer engagement upwards.

If consumers are actively engaging with your brand, you are doing something right. Continue to send emails with the same frequency, lessen or increase it and track the results in engagement level. If people are displeased, they’ll engage less. If they’re pleased, they’ll engage more. Use these findings to help establish a routine and frequency for your email marketing.

2)    Track Effectiveness and Cater to Needs: The design process for your email marketing campaign will likely be ongoing. What you try at first may not work forever, and you’ll stumble upon new methods. Always take a moment to assess the effectiveness of your current strategy and stay open to the possibility of changes. Don’t be too stubborn or stuck on your initial concept. The ability to adapt doesn’t always come naturally, but can be the saving and selling point of your business.

Ask for Feedback: Your customers are the most valuable tools for success. Include a link to give feedback on your services, emails or general comments. They’ll tell you what’s working and what’s not. They’ll tell if you’re sending too much or too little. A lot of times, customer feedback is overlooked, but really, it’s one of the most important aspects of marketing. If your email marketing campaign is irritating your customers instead of benefiting them, it would be nice to know before it’s too late.

Bio: Henry Fitzgerald is a technology consultant based in Seattle. Focusing on software development to innovate business strategies, he enables innovative companies, including startups, to run more efficiently and best discover and fulfill client needs. When not geeking out over the latest gadgets and technology news, Fitzgerald blogs at http://www.technected.com, cheers for his hometown Tampa Bay Rays, and enjoys sailing.