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from marketingprof.com
Six Email
Worst-Practices: How to Send Your Emails to Your Customer's Trash
February 16, 2017
You've
Got (Tons of) Mail
More
than 205 billion emails are sent out every day; email is the glue
that helps clever marketing stick. Some 72% of US adults say they prefer that companies communicate
with them through email, and 91% say they'd like to receive promotional emails
from the companies they do business with. And companies oblige: 73% of them agree that email is a core part of their marketing
efforts, while 25% rate it as their top channel for ROI.
But
many otherwise-savvy marketers are misusing email, turning to tactics that
annoy and infuriate customers. Avoid these six faux pas to ensure you don't
annoy your way into the Trash folder.
1.
Blast the E-Blast
"E-blast:
A ridiculous non-word made up by marketing people who think the term 'e-mail'
is inadequate to describe the explosive excitement of their mass e-mails."
—Someone named Sarah N., April 22, 2008
Gone are the days of a
one-size-fits-all approach to email. Crafting one message and shooting it off
to your entire list each week in hopes it'll resonate with the multiple
personalities you provide services to just won't work anymore. Few things in
life are more irritating than receiving a batch email, only to realize any
prior communication with the company has meant nothing—you're just an entry on a
spreadsheet.
Customers
who sense you don't care will delete, ignore, or—worse still—unsubscribe.
And
the negative connotations the term holds make us marketers wary of it, too.
E-blasts cut a little too close to our collective insecurities in the marketing
industry. They imply we're launching a bunch of spam-filled emails across an
unsuspecting list of contacts. I'll skip shifting into email marketing
therapist mode, but I'm confident I'm not the first marketer who's taken
serious offense at the notion that someone, at one point, thought I sounded
even the slightest bit spammy.
What
to do instead: We want our emails to be strategic,
targeted, and personalized. We want our marketing to come off as genuine and
authentic, not spammy. And, most important, our emails should be useful. Craft
strong messages, with quality content, that will provide real value to your
readers. Make your readers the hero of their own story. That doesn't mean you
have to craft individual messages. That'd be awesome, but time and money are
finite resources. Elegantly timed trigger emails with delectable value props
should be your focus. Send the right email, at the right time, for the right
reason.
2.
Short-Sighted Segmentation
In
a micro-fragmenting ecosystem of consumer engagement, contacts have been
trained to expect segmentation. Segmentation makes it easier to send content
people care about—and only the content they care about. If you're not
segmenting by gender, location, age group, and the like, it's no wonder your
open rates could use improvement.
But
that's just the tip of the segmentation iceberg.
When
MailChimp stats were
measured across segmented campaigns, open rates were 14.13% higher than for
non-segmented lists. Clicks were 63.03% higher, and abuse reports were 6.36%
lower.
What
to do instead: Group your audience by buying
behaviors; use dynamic content; allow subscribers to let you know which topics
pique their interests. Know your buyer personas, then identify your ideal
consumer as individual personas. Then, break down your groups to drive a more
relevant message. Relevance ramps up revenue.
3.
Dear <first_name>,
"Dear
<first_name>," is not personalized content.
A
slim 18%
of consumers say they trust business leaders today. At its core, business is
human. It's a person talking to a person about a product or service. No
business sells to another business, per se; we sell to another human who
happens to work for another business. People want to do business with those
with whom they can relate. They want to buy from people who have been in their
shoes, and they have found the hidden key to success (your product). And they
want to know that they're important to you and that you can give them real
value through resources, not just blanket offers across your customer list.
What
to do instead: Netflix knows what kind of shows
you're going to watch next. Pandora plays obscure, sub-genre music you'd never
have known you loved—predictively, all based on your playlist. Facebook feeds
your News Feed with relevant content, custom-tailored just for you.
Personalized
content helps customers relate with you, then allows them to create their own
journey toward purchase. Injecting a reader's name into the design, segmenting
based on location, or creating real-time personalization by using content for
specific variables such as weather, offers up the most relevant messages to
your contacts and drives big results.
4.
From: joe@company.com "Hey, I'm Joe. Nice to talk to you. My name's
Joe."
So,
you're at a party and you have this conversation:
Person
1: Hey man, I'm Joe
Person 2: Hey Joe, nice to meet you, I'm Dan.
P 1: Do you work around here?
P 2: Yeah, right on the Circle, actually.
P 1: Sweet! I'm right down the block off Market. Well, I'm going to go say hi
to the host.
P 2: Right on, man, catch you around!
P 1: You too. My name's Joe.
P 2: …?
It
looks and sounds just as vacuous as in your email signature:
P.S.
Just in case you're totally oblivious to how email works, here's my email
address at the bottom of my email from the email address you just received this
email from.
Thanks,
Captain
Redundant
What
to do instead: Keep your signature tight! Stick to
relevant and useful information, and cut your email address.
5.
Crazy Email Add-Ons
Picture
this: After a one-to-one email message, but before the signature, you see a
two-paragraph text block detailing the company background, mission, and vision.
What do your eyes do? Where do you focus? Nowhere. And you slide that baby into
your trash bin faster than Usain Bolt hit the pavement in Rio.
Other
add-ons to skip are irrelevant or an excessive number of social sites, every
phone number you've ever been reachable at, inspirational quotes, and, of
course, your email address.
What
to do instead: Cut back on the frivolous
definitions and unneeded text to allow your message to resonate with your
audience. Brevity is your friend here, people. Again, keep your messages tight
and your signature clean and easy to read.
6.
Lack of Contact Information
While
we're on the subject of your email signoff, let's not forget to actually
include real information in your email signature. That signature doesn't merely
tell the recipient who the email is from; it can also help re-establish your
relationship with your customers and promote your brand and messaging to your
clients. The only thing worse than adding every piece of contact information
you have... is to not have any information.
What
to do instead: It's small, it's humble, but your email signature has the
power to beef up your marketing plan by enhancing your brand and dishing out
relevant content. Include the basics, such as your name, phone number and title.
Use two or three social media handles (but no more), and add small and bold
graphics for a personal touch.
======================
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Good Netiquette And A Green Internet To All! =====================================================================Tabula
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In addition to this blog, Netiquette IQ
has a website with great
assets which are being added to on a regular basis. I have authored the
premiere book on Netiquette, “Netiquette IQ - A Comprehensive Guide to
Improve,
Enhance and Add Power to Your Email". My new book, “You’re Hired! Super
Charge
Your Email Skills in 60 Minutes. . . And Get That Job!” has just been
published and will be followed by a trilogy of books on Netiquette for
young people. You can view my
profile, reviews of the book and content excerpts at:
www.amazon.com/author/paulbabicki
Anyone who would like to review the book and have it posted on my blog or website, please contact me paul@netiquetteiq.com.
In addition to this blog, I maintain a radio show on BlogtalkRadio and an online newsletter via paper.li.I have established Netiquette discussion groups with Linkedin and Yahoo. I am also a
member of the International Business Etiquette and Protocol Group and
Minding Manners among others. I regularly consult for the Gerson Lehrman
Group, a worldwide network of subject matter experts and I have been
contributing to the blogs Everything Email and emailmonday . My work has appeared in numerous publications and I have presented to groups such as The Breakfast Club of NJ and PSG of Mercer County, NJ.
Additionally, I am the president of Tabula Rosa Systems,
a “best of breed” reseller of products for communications, email,
network management software, security products and professional
services. Also, I am the president of Netiquette IQ. We are currently developing an email IQ rating system, Netiquette IQ, which promotes the fundamentals outlined in my book.
