Perhaps like everyone else (but who cares about them – we all care most about ourselves!) email marketers have a lot of pressure on us right now. The global recession, the tightening of spending by consumers, jobs being eliminated… there is a lot of stress in the macro-economic environment today. Plus, there is stress in our micro-worlds… no one outside the email marketing world really understands what we do, how complex email marketing is or why it matters that we send subscribers messages that they love.
I think it’s time to stand up for our subscribers – despite the pressures. We must advocate for them – because the only way to increase revenues from email marketing is to create great subscriber experiences.
The most important thing to do is actively manage your inbox deliverability. You can’t earn a response if you can’t be found or seen properly. Plus, whatever improves deliverability invariably improves response – because it’s all based on subscrciber experience.
Here’s another idea you can try now, to give yourself and your program a bit of a boost, and to help you get through the 2009 planning
. Improve Relevancy in Small Steps. We all know about the behaviour triggers that help make our programs more relevant. Basically, you change your contact strategy and cadence to send more email when subscribers are more inclined to buy. This is effective, but can require additional resources or technology. What to do if you don’t have those resources or technology? A great way to improve your programme without new technology or data integration is to think about a content strategy that improves the value of your email messages over time. Adding value to just some of your messages, even SOME of the time, will improve response to ALL your messages. So instead of just sending promotions over and over, replace some of them with messages that feel more custom, even if they are still sent to large segments of your file. Insert a few tips in your next promotion or business newsletter. Host a poll. Say “thank you” to everyone who bought this past quarter. Send a no-strings-attached whitepaper to everyone who visited the website last month. Encourage everyone who uses product “a” to take a free trial of product “b.” Help subscribers network with each other.
I know I’m suggesting doing more with existing resources and time. But frankly, in these economic times, what choice do we have? Now more than ever, we email marketers are being asked to deliver more than ever – higher revenue, larger subscriber files, more active lists and longer lifetime value.
What do you think?
Last 5 posts by Stephanie Miller
- Are You Ready for the Ultra Managed Inbox? - August 30th, 2010
- Privacy Updates & Regulation Ahead for Digital Marketers - June 4th, 2010
- Half of Global Email Users Knowingly Click on Spam - March 25th, 2010
- The Importance of Inbox Placement Data - February 14th, 2010
- What Will It Take To Get You to Authenticate - August 4th, 2009
