We all read articles about deliverability, subject lines, avoiding spam filters, best days to send your email, etc. While these things are important, our 3 rules for successful email marketing should be at the top of your email marketing to-do list.
Rule #1 – Understand the Relationship
Understanding your relationship with the subscriber is important and sets the tone of your email marketing to the recipient.
- Are they a current client who has made multiple purchases?
- Are they a one-time purchaser?
- Do they respond to only special deals and discounts?
- Are they a website subscriber with no known interaction?
Knowing who your subscribers are will give you the opportunity to market to them with the appropriate content. Would you treat an engage loyal customer who purchases regularly the same as a customer who has never purchased a product or service from you?
Would you give the same offer to a current client as you would to a new prospect? Hopefully not.
Having knowledge about the people on your mailing list gives you the opportunity and power to create and deliver custom content based on the person’s profile and status with your company.
This brings us to…
Rule #2 – Segmentation, Divide and Conquer
Email Marketing List Segmentation is probably the number one process that is over-looked by small and medium-size businesses. Blasting out the same content to your entire list just doesn’t make sense.
- Do you send a special offer for your services to people who are already signed up with you for that service?
- Do you send the same type of offer over and over to people who don’t respond to that type of offer?
- Do you send offers targeted to women to male subscribers?
Let me give you an example:
I was a member of a large city Chamber of Commerce. On more than one occasion I was sent an offer to attend a “Women in Business” seminar which was focused on woman-owned businesses. I was neither a woman or worked at a woman-owned business. Get the point. I felt like the Chamber has no idea who I was even though they had all that information about me in their database.
So segmentation is one of the most important processes you can do with your email marketing lists.
Understand your clients, understand their needs and who they are and segment your lists accordingly. If some go from a non-paying client to a paying client, move them to that list. A monthly managing of your mailing list to segment based on your company’s rules or needs for mailings will increase results and interactions.
Even if you start small with segmenting prospects and current clients will be a good start.
Rule #3 – Value to the Recipient
One of the most important parts of an email marketing campaign is the value of the content to the recipient. What does the customer value from you?
- Is it based on price savings?
- Is it based on shared knowledge in your industry?
- Is it your great level of customer service?
- Is it a relationship with your sales personnel?
- Is it brand loyalty?
Your email marketing newsletter content should always offer valuable content to the recipient. Whether it’s discounted, industry news and whitepapers, tips to make their job easier, and so on. Content needs to be valuable and timely. Give the client what they want and they will keep opening your email marketing and they will be loyal and satisfied customers.
Inbox Group offers packages to help you with all your email marketing needs. We have expert email marketers that will work with you to determine the best process for your business, help with identifying clients and segmenting them for appropriate content delivery. We offer free consultations to any business wanting to increase their response from their email marketing efforts. Feel free to
contact us for more information.
Remember… Relationship, Segmentation and Value and you’ll be on your way to increased readership and garnering the best responses to your email marketing newsletter.
