E-Newsletters: How to Compel Your Audience to Open Them
By Ruby Gates
MarketShift Strategies
We all get newsletters in our inbox. Even though I have signed up for all of the ones I receive, I don’t open all of them. In fact, if the newsletter I signed up for didn’t interest me the first or second time I opened it, I will delete those that follow and move on. I suspect that many people employ this form of filtering. But if you’re the one sending the newsletter and your marketing strategy places a strong emphasis on click-thru rates, ensuring a strong open rate for your newsletter is pretty important.
There are three elements necessary for a strong open rate in your newsletter - dividing or ‘bucketing’ your database, messaging and frequency.
Your Database
If you are sending out a newsletter, you have a database of email addresses you are pulling from. This may be stored on a third party server or simply kept on an excel spreadsheet on your computer. Whichever way you use, it is important to categorize the database into three buckets:
Bucket Number One: Potential Customers
These are people that have engaged subtly (i.e. have made inquiries about your products or services) or not at all. You set the definition of what ‘new customer’ means to you. For example, one client of mine determined a new customer was anyone that downloaded content from his web site, but did not engage in a purchase.
Bucket Number Two: Current Customers
These are people that have actively engaged in business with you in various ways. Again, you set the definition. These may be people who have purchased from you within the last three months. In the case of a client that offered consulting services, their definition included individuals that had requested a bid but have not yet moved forward in contracting the individual.
Bucket Number Three: Inactive Customers
These are people that have bought from you in the past, but have not actively engaged with you within a particular timeframe. That timeframe may be a year, six months - again, it is up to you to define. One client of mine defined an inactive customer as someone who had not visited their website in three months.
Messaging
The importance of categorizing your database into these three buckets directly relates to the messaging component of your newsletter. Most people send out one newsletter to their entire database but clearly customers are in different phases at different times and respond positively to different types of messaging. For instance, as an inactive customer, I’m more likely to respond to a message regarding a product I purchased motivating a second purchase, yet a new customer couldn’t really relate to that type of messaging as they have yet to build a history with the company.
Examples of messaging and content
New Customers
For new customers or potential customers, your newsletter should include a motivating component in the subject line of the recipients email box that ensures engagement. Let’s say your company sells non-toxic paints. Your subject line may be: “40% off Non-Toxic Paint”. When the potential customer opens up the newsletter, the first thing they should see is a discount coupon for non-toxic paint. The second element they should see is content that validates your company’s good will. Perhaps this is an article titled “Five Tips to Painting A Room” with other articles highlighting the benefits of non-toxic paint.
Additional content for new customers might include customer testimonies about the product, additional savings on paintbrushes and other supplies to get the customer started. And, of course, address, directions and phone number must be easily visible.
Current Customers
Newsletters targeting current customers should address a specific purchase they made recently. Continuing with the example that your business is selling non-toxic paint, perhaps your subject line could simply say: “Thank You for Your Purchase -Gift Inside”. When the customer opens the newsletter, they are immediately greeted with a coupon for their next purchase. Additional content within the newsletter for current customers might be the advice from a color consultant or new advances in non-toxic paints. You might even include content from a partner highlighting environmentally safe cleaning products for the home.
The point of messaging to a current customer is to acknowledge the level of relationship your business currently has with them and deepen it with a more personal message. One that is relevant and valuable to the customer.
Inactive Customers
People who haven’t bought from you for an extended amount of time were either dissatisfied with your product, have loyalties elsewhere or have no need for your product. The subject line targeting the inactive customer is about communicating a desire to reestablish a relationship. It might read something like this: “Our Paints Miss Your Walls: 20% off on Paint.” When the inactive customer opens up the newsletter, they are greeted with a coupon as well as a feature asking for feedback on their last purchase. Additional content may highlight painting tips, creative painting techniques and direct access via email to color consultants.
The goal of this newsletter is to reestablish contact and reengage the customer. If it turns out the customer had a bad experience with the product, you’ve given them the ability to communicate effectively and the opportunity for you to set things right. This proactive approach to problems secures strong loyalty even from dissatisfied customers.
As the examples above demonstrate, customers in different stages will best respond to messaging that mirror the stage they occupy with your business. Up front, this looks like a lot of work and content customization, but in reality if you are going to take the time to release a newsletter, it must have relevancy. Otherwise you engage in a negative branding experience as people will associate your newsletters with wasteful content and delete them. You then run the risk of disengaging a potentially interested customer base.
Frequency
How often to send a newsletter has always been a source of contemplation. If a newsletter is sent too often, the business runs the risk of saturating the audience with information. If a newsletter is not sent often enough, the business runs the risk of losing the customer relationship-factor. The goal is to find the balance of frequency with connection.
Each phase your customer is in may subscribe a different newsletter frequency. For instance, new customers may only appreciate a newsletter once a month. This is enough connection to keep them engaged at a frequency that is not intrusive. Current customers, however, may appreciate newsletters every two to three weeks if it includes opportunities for cost savings and new product trials. Inactive customers may appreciate receiving a newsletter every three months. This shows a consistency in communication that is reliable, but respectful of consumer preference.
The Must Haves
All newsletters need to adhere to privacy laws and include the option to unsubscribe. All recipients of your newsletters must opt-in, that is, they must have communicated their preference (either through voluntarily giving you their email address or through a registration process) to receive communication from you. Additionally, you must include your contact information including your mailing address.
In A Nutshell
A successful newsletter can be a strong component of a successful marketing strategy if you can really look at it as a customized way of facilitating dialogue with your current and future customer base. The three elements driving a successful newsletter campaign include:
- Dividing your email database into at least three customer phases
- Providing relevant content based on the customer phase which includes a gripping subject line
- Identifying a frequency of newsletter distribution that best fits with the phase of the customer lifecycle.
What’s Missing?
To continue a successful email newsletter campaign, you have to measure your success rate -that means knowing what to measure, when to measure it and understanding what it means. Track open rates and click thru rates. Know which campaigns are getting response and which ones are not. Then adjust your campaign and try again.
Marketing is an on going iterative process. To have successful results, you have to pay attention to your audience, speak to them well with relevant content and then measure how well you’re doing. Your success is worth the time and effort and your branding and sales opportunities will soar.
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