Early in my growth marketing career I came across a developer principle that continues to power my ability to synchronously build and execute multiple campaigns. What's that principle?
Don't repeat yourself.
Building campaigns can be a tricky and daunting task - especially if you're starting from scratch every single time. This is where a solid workflow supports the developer and non-developer alike.
What's your strategy?
Let's start by answering what we're trying to solve. Before attempting my next campaign or touching code, I answer these crucial questions:
- Who is the intended audience?
- What should the recipient do?
- Why should the recipient care?
- How will success be measured?
I start by defining why this campaign should be developed and what value it provides to the recipient. These questions pave the way for how the campaign should be built.
Keeping up with the details
Remember that developer principle? The goal of an email workflow is to outline all of the steps required in order to build, deploy, and track your campaigns so you're not having to remember what process you followed three months ago.
After answering my strategy questions, I move on to using a campaign overview doc.
What's a campaign overview doc?
This doc contains all of the high level information about the campaign. Litmus test, ask someone unrelated to the campaign to read through your doc. If they can't tell you what the campaign is about, what the email looked liked, and when it was sent, your doc requires a re-write.
Here's an example for what my campaign overview doc's header looks like:
Know your dates
One of the biggest mistakes I see email marketers do time and time again is fail to set timelines for their campaigns. Whatever the reason, this is a bad habit and it will affect your campaign's quality - doesn't matter if your coffee mug says, "best under pressure." Below are the timelines I review and answer with the teams I work with:
- Kickoff: {4-6 weeks from send date }
- Finalize email copy & assets: { 2 weeks from send date }
- Send preview email(s): { 1 week from send date }
- Send Date: ...
There you have it! This is my no-code process I use to improve my email workflow and build solid campaigns.
If you and your team already have a workflow in place, I'd love to hear about it. Please post it in the comments. Thanks!
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