For example, Constant Contact sends out a monthly email newsletter called Email Hints & Tips. While the email highlights our services and provides a path for referrals, the primary objective for Email Hints & Tips is to educate our customers on email marketing best practices so they can be more successful using our products. Even though we have hundreds of thousands of subscribers who are not yet our customers, we are careful not to insert overwhelming calls to action focused on selling our products or services. Instead, most of the calls to action involve links to full-length articles that are summarized in the newsletter, links to customer support options, and links to tutorials or webinars covering the newsletter’s topics in more detail.

We do this because we know that the noncustomers who subscribe to Email Hints & Tips aren’t interested in signing up for Constant Contact immediately. If they were, they would have signed up to receive information about product features or discounts. We know that more of the noncustomers on the list are going to become customers if we respect the fact that they are interested in learning some best practices before signing up for the product. Selling to them before they are ready just drives them away and fails to make a valuable connection or build trust in the relationship.

The next sections explain the steps to defining your objectives and paths to action so you can create content that meets the needs of your audience while accomplishing your objectives.

To determine this objective, ask yourself what you want your email to accomplish when it lands in the recipient’s inbox. Use the following three main objectives as a guide.

Once you have a sense of what your audience is interested in, use these categories to determine which type of email content can meet both your needs and the needs of your audience.

If your audience is most interested in saving money:

If your audience is most interested in making an informed decision:

If your audience is most interested in product quality:

You might find that you have more than one type of interest group on your email list. If so, divide your list into different groups so you can send the appropriate content to each group. For example, you might want to send a coupon to the people who value savings and a testimonial to the people who value quality.

I also recommend that you provide the members of your email list with offers and information related to your products and services that are not available to the average walk-in customer. They have provided you with something of value—their email address—so provide them something of value in return.

I often find it interesting when people write really long emails and put a coupon at the very bottom. There’s nothing wrong with that if your primary objective is to inform, and the coupon is related to your informative content. However, if your primary objective is to get lots of people to use the coupon, don’t bury it at the bottom of a long email newsletter. Instead, feature the coupon by placing it closer to the top and keep your informative content short and to the point. Here are some tips for including coupons in emails with multiple objectives:

Promotional emails and coupons are most effective after your business has built trust with your subscribers. Otherwise, promotional emails can be trust-busters. If your business survives on offering discounts and special offers, make sure you set your subscribers’ expectations when they sign up for your email list so that your promotional messages are welcome. If you send promotions to an audience that is more interested in quality or information, your promotions will result in your audience becoming less interested in your messages. It may not happen overnight; however, it will happen.