The Messaging Times

Mark Brownlow wrote a nice piece about the differences between email newsletters and promotions. We are beginning to see more conversations taking place in the marketplace, especially with the increase in Facebook, Twitter and other social media. Not too many years ago, we would sit back in an almost powerless fashion and watch the persuasive promotions crafted to get us to buy something – a certain product or service. Consumers are demanding a more direct and transparent relationship with vendors today. Heck, even CEOs of major companies are communicating directly with their customers today on blogs, Facebook, Twitter and in email.

Consumers today are savvy creatures who often take glossy ads for what they are worth. Product and service promotions certainly still influence behavior and cause action. But, as consumers, we have become much more desensitized to advertising over the years. Especially in our inbox, which fills with promotion after promotion from product and service providers each day.

Today, many consumers are seeking timely and relevant responses to their needs from authentic and engaged providers/partners who are actually listening to them rather than persuasive pitches glorifying products that may or may not respond to their needs. Consumer behavior is changing. The game is shifting.

What conversations are you taking part in? What relationships are you building? Are your emails purely promotional messages or do they respond to topical conversations in your industry? Do your emails bridge recipients to timely and relevant conversations that are taking place about something they are interested in? Hopefully, your email campaigns are doing both.

Some time ago, Patsi Krakoff published 10 “new rules” for successful eNewsletters. While the rules aren’t necessarily new, they are important if you want to build authentic, lasting relationships with your audience. People reading your articles, purchasing your products and procuring your services want the experience to be valuable in some way. Sometimes, that value is identified by price. More often, it is measured by the authenticity of the story you tell, the perception of the experience you provide and your ability to respond to the general and specific needs of your audience.

Here are 7 additional tips in line with modern audience expectations

1. Express your appreciation. Let your audience know that you appreciate their time and interest in your offerings – and let them know that regularly.
2. Be generous. Your subscribers are generally your loyal customers. Invest in them by providing generous offers, helpful information and resources which are relevant to them.
3. Lend an ear. Listen to what your audience has to say by using polls and short surveys. Rather than assuming what they find valuable, ask them every now and then. You might be surprised at what they have to say.
4. Open a dialog. Don’t publish a brochure. Brochures are boring. Create a conversation by allowing your audience to react in some way to your message. Encourage readers to write a letter to the editor or join a discussion on your website or blog.
5. Get interactive. Use multimedia references when appropriate to give dimension to your message. We all love listening to and watching stuff.
6. Give options. Let your recipients determine what is relevant to them by providing options in your offerings where possible. Be as flexible as possible with message frequency, content and timing. Segment your lists accordingly and target with relevance.
7. Be responsive. Walk the walk when it comes to opt-out requests, order fulfillment and support. Don’t drop the ball after you click “Send”.

Do you have any more to add?

Publishing email newsletters is still a very popular practice. And why shouldn’t it be? Email remains the best way to communicate personally with large audiences and simultaneously yields the best ROI in online marketing.

But email recipients of today don’t have the time that they did years ago to read lengthy emails laden with content. Inboxes today are full, not only with spam, but with competing offers. As modern readers struggle with the volumes of information available to them (and demands for their attention), senders should design campaigns that get to the point in an effort to make life easier for their audience.

Here are three tips for email newsletter publishers in 2008:

1. Narrow the focus – Use email to communicate a specific offer, article or event. Overwhelming your readers with too much information causes them to make more decisions than they want to. Recent studies show that focusing email campaigns on one offer outperform campaigns with multiple offers.
2. Get specific – Rather than creating a one-for-all campaign, consider publishing multiple email offers to give subscribers the opportunity to request specific information from you. Some customers might be interested in product feature updates. Others might be interested in related industry articles or research. The more specific your offers are, the more relevant they will be to those who subscribe to them.
3. Bridge new media – Think of email as a bridge that allows recipients to interact with you campaign. Link recipients to a blog or forum discussion related to your campaign, a video that demonstrates new product features or a poll that allows them to participate in the feedback loop. Write less, link more and engage your email recipients with relevant, interactive content.

Do you have any tips to add?