Branding and email marketing: different but complementary tools

Performance and ROI. That is the dream of all marketers when they set about creating a digital campaign. But it is a dream that is difficult to achieve. Not least due to the interconnected nature of the different aspects of digital marketing. Every action was taken on branding, SEO, influence, inbound, etc. will automatically have an impact elsewhere, be it positive or negative. High-quality blog content promoted by a relevant branding and email marketing campaign will create a virtuous circle that boosts a brand’s influence. However, email campaigns that lack transparency or are poorly targeted can be detrimental to a firm’s credibility. And branding on media websites with an inappropriate audience, and without a handle on ROI, can put a lot of people off.

Branding and email marketing are completely different tools, but can also complement each other effectively. We explain why.

What should you really expect from email marketing away from branding?

Email marketing

Email marketing is a key tool for advertisers. The goal is to generate ROI by promoting products and services, recruiting leads and converting them into customers.

Like all lead generation and lead nurturing tools, email marketing has to be inclusive. It should not be used as a single-shot weapon, but as part of a range of tools. Creating personalized scenarios creates and maintains an emotional connection with your community.

It is difficult to talk about email marketing without talking about KPIs. The open rate is one commonly used indicator, but it is by no means the only one. Several useful KPIs exist for marketing professionals, including click-through rate, forwards and shares, database segmentation, lead qualification, and landing page conversion. You may wish to adapt your indicators according to the strategy you are pursuing (conversion, brand awareness, loyalty building, reassurance, etc.). Without KPIs, it is difficult to take the right decisions.

Branding

Branding enables advertisers to build brand awareness and create an image of their brand in the consumer’s head. It is, therefore, less ROI-oriented than email marketing, instead focusing on different aims.

The number of views, click-through rate, and landing page bounce rate are the KPIs analyzed during branding campaigns. This is why branding is seen as a different tool from email marketing. Yet, just as in email marketing, targeting cannot be neglected if you want to reach the right audience. There are two options, but the first stage is to establish your buyer persona. Then, you have to choose between targeting the sites and applications on which you wish to appear based on the audience profile that most closely resembles your buyer persona, or mass dissemination to collect data, followed by targeting of the web users who show the most interest in your brand.

Branding and email marketing: different but complementary tools

To reach new audiences, some brands work with external data, via databases, while others conduct branding and awareness campaigns via influencers, for example. These are two approaches that can complement each other perfectly as part of a performance marketing campaign. The goal is simple. To be visible, to make consumers want to know more, and to lead them towards products and services.

The upper funnel should not be neglected in your performance marketing campaigns. Branding is clearly in the upper part of the conversion funnel, so necessarily has a positive impact on email marketing campaigns. Why? The visibility of your brand boosts the conversion rate of your other marketing action. And that includes email marketing using external databases with a targeted audience inclined to buy online.

It is impossible to talk about performance marketing without mentioning email marketing. This is an approach that has managed to adapt to all the technological innovations of the past twenty years and remains an effective communication channel.

With an audience that has been prepared through a branding campaign, a well-defined target, a clear message and a well-managed approach, branding and email marketing can take you a long way!