Why Email Marketing Should be Part of Your Content Strategy

If you keep up with the Newfangled blog, or if you’ve ever attended an event where Mark or Chris Butler spoke, you’ve likely heard our recommendation that a website focused on creating new business leads needs to be producing upwards of 3,000 words of unique, indexable content every month.

I’m not going to refute that. It is very valid, and I encourage you all to hit that mark.

However, there is more to it.

Another analogy that we’ve been known to use is that a lead generation website without a strong content strategy is like having a fast sportscar, but no fuel.

But what if you have the fuel? You are creating lots of great content on a regular basis. But that sportscar still isn’t starting up – the leads aren’t flowing in. You’ve got the fuel and you’ve got the car, but the engine still isn’t turning like you want.

Unfortunately, content isn’t quite like the field of dreams. If you build it, they won’t necessarily come. Some sort of content promotion needs to be in place, which is where a good email marketing strategy comes in.

Sending your content out via email can drive return visitors. You may have some great leads in your database, but they may forget about you if you’re not reminding them of your brand by sending them your latest content. Leads that return to the site several times are much more likely to convert into new business opportunities.

However, just blasting out all of your content to all of your leads isn’t necessarily the best tactic all the time. Since you’re using a marketing automation tool to track their behavior, you know which leads are interested in which types of content. This enables you to send the most relevant content to target groups of leads, further increasing the likelihood that they will clickthrough and return to your site.

Speaking of tracking, sending engaging email is one of the best ways to ensure that you are tracking as many of your site visitors as possible. Sure, your tracking code may be tracking *all* visitors, but most of them are just tracked as an IP address, which doesn’t do you much good. If they are visiting the site via a clickthrough from an email, you can associate their IP address with the lead data in your database. So now you know that John Smith is on the site, not just “anonymous visitor 72.124.35.214.”

This tracking is what really enables you to connect the dots. By sending out targeted email on a regular basis, and tracking the engagement of those who receive that email, you are able to see which topics your audience finds most interesting, what content really resonates, and most importantly, which of your marketing efforts most effectively drive engagement, resulting in new business opportunities and revenue.

Based on our own first-hand research of mid-sized marketing agencies, targeted email campaigns saw an average clickthrough rate that was double that of the same agencies’ non-targeted email blasts.
Content is definitely the fuel, but you have to turn the key and put your foot on the gas by promoting that content in a smart, consistent, and targeted way. Then, that sportscar will go.