For our latest jargon article we thought we’d focus on EDM (no, not that EDM). We’re talking about Electronic Direct Mail. Or email marketing to you and I.

I’m sure we all have bad memories of the ridiculous spam ads back before effective filtering was a thing. In recent years, however, email has seen something of a renaissance as a marketing tool. Its direct nature has led to legitimate businesses (rather than those Nigerian princes) leveraging it to target a specific cross section of their audience. With that in mind, we’ll be taking a look at a few important terms you’ll need to understand if you want to make the most of it with your own business.

Segmentation

The focussed nature of EDM is its unique selling point as a marketing method and segmentation is how that’s done. Basically it is the process of divvying up your subscriber list based on certain criteria. Things like location, age and gender are common choices. Specific industries will also have relevant categories they like to use. With segmentation you can tailor your focus to a specific subset of your audience and engage with them directly. This has two major benefits: the recipient is more likely to be interested in whatever offer you have for them and your audience are much less likely to unsubscribe as they aren’t being hit with a wave of irrelevant info and products. For instance, new mother’s are likely to respond well to ads for baby clothes. Uni students not so much.

Deliverability

Typically discussed as a percentage, a high deliverability is what you’re aiming for with your campaign. It’s an overarching term that covers all sorts of factors – ISPs, MTAs, throttling, bounces, bulking, and spam issues. In essence though it boils down to ‘are your emails reaching your audience?’. Luckily for the layman, email marketing services like MailChimp typically take care of the technical aspects of ensuring high Deliverability. You’ll just need to focus on writing an email that doesn’t get trapped in spam filters.

Open Rate & CTR

Another pair of percentage figures to take careful note of in your campaigns. Open rate is, unsurprisingly, the proportion of your subscribers who bother to open a particular email (its typically around 20-25%). CTR (Click Through Rate) on the other hand, is how many of those who viewed the email took the call to action and ended up on your site (about 3-4% is normal). These two numbers can be used to measure the effectiveness of your emails and their subject lines. If yours have dipped below average you’ll need to take steps to improve your content!

As with everything there are certain drawbacks. In EDM’s case overzealous spam filters can lower your Deliverability if you aren’t careful. Its particularly bad for charities at the minute with one estimate suggesting a loss of $15,000 in potential donations due to spam filters blocking fundraiser emails.

However, for most business EDM is a highly precise and cost effective marketing tool when done well. With modern analysis and automation a company can precisely target those most likely to buy at any given time.

Has the marketing potential of an EDM campaign fired your business creativity? We’ll be back next week with a roundup of the best email marketing services currently available. Check our blog for updates!