Email is easy...marketing isn't

Most people can chat comfortably with another person without giving it a second thought. But place that person in front of an audience of a dozen or more and we are talking of a very different dynamic. In fact, we’re talking of group dynamics. This is why public speaking ranks as the number one social phobia in North America!

It’s similar with email. We all do it, but as soon as you use email for mass communications (email marketing), different rules apply. Like a good public speaker, you must carefully research your audience’s needs, plan what you’re going to say and then somehow make everyone in the crowd feel like you are talking exclusively to them.

Excellent email marketing takes the skill of an editor, the discipline of a direct marketer and some serious IT expertise. But it’s really about mastering two things - dialogue and delivery:

Intelligent Dialogue – Small talk is always easier than intelligent conversation. The problem is that people don’t tune in for long unless the dialogue has some relevance for them. This takes a thorough understanding of your audience.

Reliable Delivery – Message quality means little if it can’t be delivered. Email infrastructure has become increasingly complex in response to major factors of abuse such as spam and viruses, requiring constant vigilance to ensure delivery.

Email marketing is easy if you build the processes, observe the best practices and commit to the discipline.

Good Newsletters Aren't Brochures

Most email 'newsletters' I see aren't newsletters at all, but thinly disguised vehicles of self-promotion. The so-called articles refer to company products and services and read like brochures.

It's funny, we all read newspapers and magazines and, as readers, readily appreciate the difference between a good article with solid, useful information, and an ad. But put pen in hand, and most newsletter writers turn into ad copywriters.

Newsletters (good, effective ones) are exercises in journalism, not advertising. As soon as you make the editorial about 'you', it has the credibility of an ad. This is a shame because, by adopting the model of successful newspapers of the past 200 years, you can have the best of both worlds. The model is known as "Church and State" - editorial needs to be completely independent of advertising. The more readers can trust the editorial content, the more they will value the publication and notice the ads it carries.

Granted, the ultimate objective with email newsletters is usually self-promotion, but there are subtle and blatant ways of going about it.

Enhance Your Transactional Messages

One of the missed opportunities in email marketing is not leveraging transactional messages. E-bills, order confirmations and shipping notices are opportune times to embed/cross sell promotional copy.

A Strongmail survey reports that including “house ads” (promotional messaging) in e-marketing transactional communications will broaden your reach.

Many transactional e-communications with consumers are only simple text. However, putting eye-catching graphics and HTML into their promotional alerts increased readability. Statistics show that transactional emails are read twice as much as pure promotional emails (54% read transactional messages and only 21% read promotional messages).

Historically, e-marketers refrained from mixing message copy. This perception amongst consumers has since changed. The article states that many companies are benefiting from this new “hybrid” message and in fact have rendered better results in comparison to their pure promotional messages.

Strongmail will be presenting their transactional insights at the upcoming CMA 2008 National Convention and Trade Show.

Sources:
1. Article - “Urgent: Why You Should Put House Ads in Your Transactional Emails Starting Tomorrow”:
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.html?ident=29944
2. CMA 2008 National Convention and Trade Show:
http://www.the-cma.org/convention/

How to create a PDA version of your email

As more of our customers view our emails on their PDA, we need to begin adding a link to a Wireless version on all of the emails that we send out. We looked at the most commonly used Blackberries which were the Curve, 8800, 8700 and 7290. We found that no line should exceed 43 characters which works out to be about 7-8 words.

How to boost your email opt-ins from registration pages

In some recent optimization tests for one of our clients, Inbox boosted registration rates by 13%. How? With the simple addition of a confirmation page. Most registration pages for things like events and subscriptions have a checkbox and a Submit button. A surprising number of people hit Submit but fail to check the box. When this happens, you've lost them for good. By simply adding a confirmation page (a page that displays if the person neglects to check the email opt-in box) you get to remind them before they disappear into the ether. This page should re-state the benefits of opting-in to your email program. Try it - it works. Tests with a consumer packaged goods client increased opt-in rates from 84% to 97%.

Sarah Haggerty