Old Flames (like email marketing) Die Hard

August 17, 2011

Marketing

Shannon Spence

After reading through Lad’s post from last week, I was reminded of two things:
1. There’s no such thing as eternal sunshine of the spotless mind – past relationships leave an indelible imprint on us.

AND …

Old Flames (like email marketing) Die Hard

2. Email marketing isn’t an effort we can sweep under the rug like an old flame – unless we want to eliminate an important line of communication with our customers. And why would we want to do that?

While we may not be able to completely rid ourselves of our romantic recollections, as digital marketers, email marketing is a flame we shouldn’t be quick to extinguish. Though mobile and social media outlets continue to gain momentum, there’s still a place for the good old-fashioned written word.

But email marketers beware: there’s a fine line between a welcome and not-so-welcome online communication.

Follow these simple rules and avoid the dreaded “Unsubscribe” button.

Color your content. A surefire way to get spammed is to load your email with crappy content. Of course you’ll want to include company updates and newsworthy items, but if that’s all you’ve got, it’s highly likely you’ll lose the reader’s interest. When you’re writing about the company, keep it short and sweet. Add interest with a “Did you know?” factoid that indirectly relates to your business. Offer something for the reader to look forward to, i.e., “Next month we’ll be showing you how to …” Not everything you include has to meet your company’s business objectives – it’s just an email and meant to be on the informal side.

Frequency matters. Do you get emails from one company on a daily basis? Most likely not. If you did, you probably unsubscribed right away. Nobody wants to see your name in their inbox every day, unless you’re someone special (i.e., Leo, Obama or A. Cooper), Groupon announcing an unbeatable deal or a subscribed to news/shopping/sports site. If you’re a regular old company, even once a week can be pushing it. In general, bi-weekly or monthly emails work best. But be consistent. If you’ve established expectations with your readers and end up not delivering on them, you risk losing them. Forever. (unlike old flames)

Link In. Nowadays, you can add interesting elements such as links, images and even videos to an email campaign, literally turning your email into a virtual TV commercial. Okay, that might be a stretch but you catch my drift. Providing more ways for your reader to interact makes it more likely they’ll click through, visit your site and get to know your brand. All good ways to establish and earn trust.

Subject lines sell. Without an attention-grabbing subject line, you’ve got nothing. Nary a click. Think about who your target audience is, what they’re looking for from you and how you’re delivering information. Avoid words scamming words (i.e., confirm, upgrade, raffle, rewards, discount, offer) and the use of percentages. These items are the used car salesmen of the digital world. (No offense, used car salesmen. You just won’t survive online.)

And I’m spent.

Next post will be about something even more riveting then email marketing. Just you wait.