Rule 1: Work Off a Plan
Have you ever been in a relationship with someone who could not stop talking about himself or herself? You may tolerate self-centered chatter in short doses out of politeness, but over time it’s exhausting, and it usually drives people apart. If your email content is all about you, your subscribers are going to have the same reaction.
Now contrast that to a friend who pays attention to your interests, gives you valuable feedback and advice, and looks forward to hearing from you as much as you look forward to hearing from him or her. Each interaction with such a friend leaves you feeling energized and looking forward to the next interaction.
When you create your email content, it’s important to work off a plan so you make sure your email content has the characteristics that your customers want before you say what you need to say to reach your goals.
The most important email content characteristics are explained in the following sections. When you are sure that your plan addresses these characteristics, the content you create or draw from is more likely to have these characteristics too.
PAY ATTENTION TO CUSTOMER INTERESTS
Don’t assume you know what your customers want to hear about. It’s a great idea to formally ask your customers what they want to hear about through online surveys, polls, and link tracking, but you can also make some educated guesses based on what you notice about your prospects and customers.
The following are questions we use at Constant Contact to help us gather our thoughts and create content when we don’t have formal feedback to rely on. Take out a piece of paper and answer the questions below. Think about how you might use them to create relevant content.
These questions are contained within the Constant Contact’s Email Marketing Workbook. To download it, visit: www.constantcontact.com/workbook.
1. What are the top five questions that your customers ask?
2. What articles have you read recently that your customers might find interesting?
3. Who are the most interesting customers that you helped in the last six months?
4. What might make them interesting to other customers?
5. What problems do you foresee your customers encountering this year?
6. What can you do to solve these problems for them?
7. What information do your customers need to make better decisions about your products or services?
Another way to make sure your content is valuable to subscribers is to give them some influence over what topics you cover. Simply add a question-and-answer section to your email newsletters or email promotions, conduct an ongoing survey focused on content, or simply ask for reader feedback in every email. Giving your audience opportunities to be heard and even seen—such as highlighting their names and businesses along with their questions—makes their experience more personal and helps you to forge a deeper connection with them. You can also ask them for feedback on the products you offer so that you can decide which ones to promote.
Figure 7.1 shows a simple one-question survey that Mom 4 Life (www.mom4life.com) used to collect information from its readers on the value of a specific product. This survey provides Mom 4 Life with great feedback on not only the product but also the likelihood of purchase. This information can be used by the company to identify potential customers, determine appropriate inventory levels, and to search for other products with even greater potential based on the feedback provided.
GIVE VALUABLE FEEDBACK AND ADVICE
When your customers, clients, or members think of your business or organization, what words do you want to come to their minds? Are you knowledgeable? Available? Professional? Reliable? Email content is a reflection of your brand, and your brand has to be consistent. Your email content also has to have value apart from the value of your product or service offerings, because your email content has to keep people interested when they receive your email and aren’t ready to buy. That way, they’ll look forward to receiving every email, not just the ones they receive at the moment they are thinking about making a purchase.
Figure 7.1 Mom 4 Life uses email surveys to ask about new products and content.
A good starting place after you understand what your subscribers love about your current content is to figure out how you can help them in their daily lives. Email content that helps to solve a problem is always welcome. Even if you don’t think of yourself as an expert, your customers probably turn to you because of your expertise. Think about ways that you can share more of that expertise with them over time.
Bob Corlett, President of Staffing Advisors (www.staffingadvisors.com) prides himself on collecting and delivering content to his readers that they need but don’t have the time or resources to find. Bob believes that when you offer your readers something of value, they will come to you when they are ready. He takes great pride in keeping anything “sales-y” away from his content.
Figure 7.2 Staffing Advisors gives practical advice.
As he puts it, “I share the best thinking and research I can find and include links to white papers and other resources. If someone agrees with my viewpoint, he typically gives me a call.” Bob is a great example of how to turn the sharing of knowledge into revenue-generating business.
LOOK FORWARD TO HEARING FROM YOUR CUSTOMERS
In order to tell if your content is valuable to your audience, you have to listen as much as you speak. Don’t assume that your customers are interested in everything you send out. For example, not all consumers respond to discounts, coupons, and other types of financial savings. Some of your customers might want to stay up to date on the latest and most expensive products available instead. A lot of consumers care more about quality or making an informed decision than just saving money.
Part of your email content plan should involve keeping track of the responses you get from your email content so you can make changes to your plan when your assumptions aren’t correct or when the interests in your audience change (such as during a recession). You can tell whether your content is effective because email is capable of so many responses, including:
• Replies to your emails. Don’t just read them, keep track of them and watch for trends.
• Clicks on links. If you get a lot of clicks on a particular topic, make a note so you can include that topic in future emails.
• Unsubscribe requests. If you get a lot of unsubscribe requests, it could be a sign of content that isn’t working.
• Forwards. When people forward your emails, they are telling you that your content was valuable enough to share.
• Surveys and polls. If your feedback isn’t clear, send a survey and ask more questions.
Keep track of each and every response and all your feedback so you can continue to improve your content and in so doing gain more trust and loyalty.
You can learn a great deal about your customers through their actions when your email arrives in their inbox. Blind Lemon Vintage (www.blindlemonvintage.co.uk) in Figure 7.3 is able to identify each of its readers who clicks on the “discounts offer” link in the above campaign. This information can then be used to segment Blind Lemon Vintage’s list and deliver specific offers and campaigns to customers it knows to be motivated by discounts.
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