The Email Wars

I know. You watch the reads and the clicks… and you measure by ONLY that. Rough.

Even when people are not opening and clicking on your emails, they are having a future lift impact due to the branding that takes place in the inbox. Studies have shown with larger travel brands that if they remove the email marketing in controlled selected groups, those groups were less likely to book with them when they were in the market to purchase. It is about being “there” and not just when people are “in market” to purchase. As you might never know exactly when that time is for everyone.

What does this mean or have to do with you? Well it has to do with two things. Frequency and Consistency. Right there they are out on the table for all to see. Well…. do you have them? Does your email program have them? And if you do… are they enough? How do you know?

I ask as I see so many brands and campaigns racing to get content out or smaller groups saying let’s just do a quarterly newsletter or one when we have something to talk about. Really? Now that makes sense to you, the internal company, but does that make sense to everyone else that has subscribed and is looking to hear from you? Not at all. Why is it always on your terms? 

If you are not building touch points into your program that keep your name on the minds of your customers and prospects in a positive and resourceful way, then you just lost. As if you are not top of mind they are just going to go to the site that was most recently telling them that they might be the place for them. So how do you do this? Well each site/brand/blog/etc has things that can be used. Everyone has content that can be leveraged. Everyone in email marketing needs to learn how to be a story teller. That is what we are. If you are not a good story teller, you need to be. They can keep audience engaged, listening, wondering, thinking and waiting for the next line. Don’t you want your email programs to have that effect when you are not getting the reads and the clicks?

So why are you always concerned about your immediate sales? Sure someone is always in market somewhere, but you need to be ready to build a relationship first. You need to be able to tell a story. You need to be engaging not once, but all the time.

Grab a good book and notice how the story telling goes. Even better, go to iTunes, look up Podcasts, and listen to a few of my favorites at THE MOTH (an event in LA and NYC of storytellers). See how they keep you there, engaged, waiting, wanting, and ready to close when the time is ready.