The Email Wars

Much has been written about social media and email. Most people that have “created” an email marketing system have added features to it that they like to say makes it “social media”. Well I want to go on record that adding a Send To a Friend, or a button that allows you to “digg it” or comment on it does not make it social. Email is social media. It is what the majority of the internet users harness for “social” conversations. It is one to one and one to many. 

But all of this being said above, here are what you need to understand in order to make your email marketing campaigns “social”.

I hope from reading my thoughts around the POST method you can understand what you should be thinking about.

POST: People, Objective, Strategy, Technology

People: Assess your customers social activities

Where to they go on your site? What do they do? What parts of your data, product, and knowledge do they leave with and take to other sites? Do you make data portable? Do you know what they want and how and when they want it? Is email an enabler for this type of need OR is it a reminder of what resides back at your site?  

Objective: Decide what you want to accomplish

I asked a ESP competitor the other morning about their email newsletter. I simply forwarded their company email newsletter to them and said “how did this perform?” Simple question right? How did this email do based against the measurements you put in place to rank it’s performance? Funny but even they could not answer that question, and of all people they should know instantly.

You need a plan. Email is not about just getting information together, setting up the lists and creative and sending it out. That is step one. The steps you need to be thinking about are: 

1. What do I want this email to do? When someone gets it what should they be motivated to do? Read? Click, visit, purchase, forward, call, or spread.

2. Now that they are doing it, what do I need to do next. So many times email campaigns are a one time event to marketers. They should be an event that we pull behavioral information from and then quickly react in the next campaign based on actions taken by the subscriber. Emails Campaigns are just that, plural. They are direct marketing events that should have a series of actions and reactions that you have already thought out OR take the data and make some next targeting steps.

3. Did I measure the right things? We need to look at what occurred, view our statistics and then decide if we are taking the right approach and measuring the right things. It is OK to fail. It is better to fail and then find out how to succeed.

Strategy: Plan for how relationships with customers will change

Your relationship should not be a one-way event. You should be always looking at your email campaigns against what paths and goals the subscribers are taking. Don’t just silo your efforts into email stats, but get the full picture against visitor stats and goals. Hey they might not like how you are approaching them so test another way. Change your copy, your images, your buttons, and your timing. People on your lists are just like me and you… they make decisions, have outside lives that change their views, and have needs that change daily if not more often.

Are you setting up a preference center? So many people I see feel that a preference center is simply one that says your email and unsubscribe me. If this is your view of it then you need to rethink your approach. A preference center gives you a place that you can “listen” (I know that is an odd word to most email marketers) to what people want. You can allow them to change (I know ODD again) their profile data with you as well as ask them to tell you what they want and when they want it.

Technology: Decide which social tech to use

Are email and your website the only way you want to engage your customers? If so you are losing some. Are you thinking about how to enable RSS, blogs, Twitter, and pushing your content into places like Facebook and LinkedIn? They are there in masses and IF they are brand fanatics, they will take your brand to places that transcend email.

In the end, email is social, it is just that many email marketers still drink the direct marketing punch and do not take the time to review, ask or listen to their customers. I invite you to do so and watch where it can take your email marketing… marketing programs.