{"id":8452,"date":"2022-05-12T06:05:00","date_gmt":"2022-05-12T05:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailsnap.ai\/?p=8452"},"modified":"2022-05-13T15:15:44","modified_gmt":"2022-05-13T14:15:44","slug":"agile-email-marketing-adapt-quickly-and-effectively","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mailsnap.ai\/en\/email-marketing\/agile-email-marketing-adapt-quickly-and-effectively","title":{"rendered":"Agile Email Marketing: Adapt Quickly and Effectively"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

If you have decided to market your business with email, it goes without saying that your marketing emails have to stand out. But you probably don\u2019t want to spend ages creating each and every email. And that is where agile email marketing comes into play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not only is it important to be efficient with your time, but you must also be adaptable in today\u2019s rapidly-changing business environment. Thanks to social media and the internet, it seems trends can shift overnight. In this post, we\u2019ll take a look at how agile email marketing allows us to achieve these goals – and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is agile email marketing?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

If you know anything about project management<\/a> or software development, you may have heard of agile. Indeed, that is where the term originated. It was first applied to software changes because there can be hundreds of changes during the course of a project. Thus, a team must be able to adapt to changes quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being highly adaptable allows you to make changes more quickly, giving you an edge over other players in the industry. And while email marketing doesn\u2019t involve the same steps as software development, having this philosophy as you approach your email marketing<\/a> strategy will allow you to move more quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In particular, having a data-driven, customer-focused approach will allow you to react quickly. Even better, you can use templates to drastically cut back on the total time needed to craft your emails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Collaboration is also an important part of agile email marketing<\/strong>. If you have a fully-staffed marketing team, you likely have several people handling different pieces of the puzzle. Thus, if you aren\u2019t able to effectively coordinate your efforts amongst your team, you will likely run into hangups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why agile email is important for marketing?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

We have already touched on some of the main reasons agile is important: saving time and being adaptable. However, we should expand on these details a bit. The 2019 State of Email Workflows<\/a> survey revealed some interesting facts about email marketing. For instance, 53% of respondents said it takes more than two weeks for their team to create a single email. On the other hand, 23% said it takes a few days or less.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps even more interesting, the survey also showed that the larger the team, the longer the process took. Those with teams of 11 or more said it could take over a month to craft just one email (20% of respondents).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This all highlights the need, not only to make the process more efficient in general, but also the need for better collaboration. Fortunately, agile email management<\/strong> can help in both of these areas. Let\u2019s find out how in the next section.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to make your email more agile?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

We have taken a look at some of the reasons it is so important to make your emails more agile, from saving time to better collaboration. Large corporations can have large teams that make the process drag on for weeks or even a month or more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, today\u2019s business world is changing more quickly than ever. If it takes your team a month to create a single email, you may already be too late. Therefore, being able to move quickly is key to a successful email marketing campaign today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s take a look at some of the ways we can make these processes run more smoothly. Remember, we will use a data-driven, customer-focused approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Solidify your strategy<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s important to solidify your strategy upfront. Trying to \u201cjust wing it\u201d almost guarantees you will waste time and be less efficient than you could be. Your strategy should include copy, development, and design. Thus, you must have a strategy that aligns all three of these elements before<\/em> you start crafting a single email.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And because many marketing teams have so many people involved, everyone must be on the same page. You\u2019ll want to share your strategy with everyone on the team and be sure everyone both agrees with and understands it. You may want to take feedback and questions before moving forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"agile<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Build email templates<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

One thing that can happen if you don\u2019t solidify your strategy ahead of time is that you may be starting from scratch every time you create an email. But that is bound to take extra time than it would if you have templates you can adapt to a variety of situations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plus, the good news is that many marketing automation tools have drag-and-drop editors that make this process easy. You may want to create templates for each of your campaigns as they will likely have different marketing strategies. Email templates are the meat and bones of your agile strategy. Since you already have something built, you won\u2019t have to start from scratch every time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Streamline workflows<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

One of the benefits of creating a strategy ahead of time is that everyone on your team knows exactly what is expected of them. Currently, you might have a linear process, where one step is completed after another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But with agile, you can have several parts of the process in motion at once. For example, design, development, and copywriting can all be addressed at the same time. Even if you\u2019re just getting started<\/a>, there are steps you can take to improve your processes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since you already have templates built, development can take place around your pre-built designs. You might even have generic text in the place where your finished copy will go. And since you already have your design laid out, you can simply plug your copy and any custom images and animations in once they are done. Thus, no one is waiting for anyone else before they can complete their steps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Analyze the data<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Checking your marketing analytics tool<\/a> is important because it will help you refine your strategy. If you don\u2019t know what\u2019s working, how can you know what needs improvement? Most marketing automation tools have at least some basic analytics built-in. But depending on how in-depth your automation tool is, it can feel a bit overwhelming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, checking some of the basics, such as click-throughs, unsubscribes and reading time will help you see what\u2019s working – and what isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you are pressed for time, the best thing you can probably do is to write the highest-quality copy you can. People love when you create content<\/a> that is helpful. The problem? You don\u2019t always know what is going to resonate with your readers. Sometimes, you write something you may think is very valuable, but it might be the case that it falls flat with your audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s why you need analytics to help see things from the eyes of your readers. You don\u2019t know what you don\u2019t know, as they say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"agile<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Testing, testing, testing<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Testing goes hand in hand with analytics in terms of helping you refine your strategy. For example, perhaps your analytics revealed one of your campaigns had a lower open rate than expected, or your audience didn\u2019t spend much time reading the emails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Armed with this knowledge, you may want to do some A\/B testing<\/a> to find what works best. But that isn\u2019t the only type of testing! Indeed, to really solidify your strategy, there are several types of testing you should consider doing:<\/p>\n\n\n\n