If you work with email marketing you certainly want to be everywhere your target audience is. In order for your content to reach this range is essential to invest in a marketing strategy that takes into account the visibility in multiple channels: email, social networks, mobile and web.

The content, in this case, should be thought beyond the sale. After all, one thing leads to another. However, this thought is not unanimous on the market, and the key talk is usually “we must sell” or even “send the campaign for everyone, so we can reach more conversions”. So how to highlight the other point of view?

The strategy used on the Game of Thrones series

To show this answer, let’s use one of the most famous series shown on HBO, Game of Thrones, as an example. We will not present it as a success case in the email marketing. Our reference here makes mention of how the relationship with the contacts should be thought before focusing efforts on sales itself. You must offer something valuable to inspire confidence and to keep attention to what comes next. Can you already see the connection? Let’s explain.

When the problem arises

The problem comes when we meet people who want to advertise, above all, not thinking daily about email marketing, like us. How many times have you heard “all right, but I need to sell”? We as email marketing providers went through situations like this with our customers. Perhaps you too have lived such an experience with your company. Of course, we know that behind this aspiration, there is the continued motivation and the will to create a marketing strategy with a beginning, middle and end.

The error is in this “sales approach” that relies on email marketing as a way of expanding the audience and, consequently, the sales. Here is the thing: if you add a value of 'x' for email marketing to advertising investment amount, you expect it to bring a value of 'x' return on sales.

If this doesn’t happen from the beginning, the channel is seen as throwaway by the point of view of the advertising. However there is no difference between investing in advertising in a newspaper or on an outdoor on the street. The internet, in return, offers the possibility to measure conversions and your target audience's behavior. So shouldn’t the return in sales be larger?

The problem lies precisely in the comparison between email marketing and other means of advertising such as the page of a newspaper, for example. What is not taken into account is that email marketing is the channel itself, in other words, the entire newspaper.

How to find the solution

Using the same logic applied to create an email marketing campaign, adding the context we showed up here, we would have the following situation: you’re the owner of a TV channel with commercial inserts only about your own products, 24 hours per day. Perhaps, with some investment, you could attract someone's interest to broadcast your channel in his or her network. What would be the result in the short term? Audience? Zero. What is the number of companies willing to have your channel on the grill? Zero. Sales? No need not say.

There are channels that actually do this. The end reaches the term infotainment, which is information based on information + entertainment.

Now let’s go to the other side. What makes HBO? Advertising? No, but the high quality content. No wonder that the Game of Thrones series leads in several areas: bigger budget, more views, more pirated and the most famous. That is great, because the channel wins money on advertising, yes, but also a legion of subscribers who make all the cable companies want to have the HBO sign on their channel grid.

A few years ago, quite possibly with the Band of Brothers series, HBO realized it needed to invest capital and generate high quality content before harvesting profits. The station found the TV is a way to produce good content that brings more emphasis than the other channels. This makes people want to have your channel on the grid and watch your series, movies and anything else.

Do you want to make email marketing and raise profits for your company? So start creating your campaigns following the level of Game of Thrones.

And there you have the big advantage of the online universe compared to traditional media. You don’t need to invest the equivalent of the GDP of an average country to generate valuable content like HBO. Through the internet, you can develop relevant, compelling and qualified content for a greater value if compared to traditional means. Just don’t confuse speed and price with immediacy. Producing quality content takes time, planning and strategy. If you want to generate profits as HBO, you should work like them.

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