The Email Wars

What do you do with those people on your email list that are not converting? They might read over and over again, yet they are not clicking through and buying from you. I have long been a fan of what we term the “Break Up” email campaign. It is a simple one and very similar to a list cleaning, but when done right it has some humor to engage as well as some steps to re-qualify those on your list either into other programs OR taking them off your list.

Many people ask me “Why would I do this?”. Well the answer is a simple one. If you are emailing people over and over again what you want to tell them and they are not taking actions, it would illustrate that you do not have campaigns that are relevant to them. So by continuing to send them your emails you are just reducing the chances you have to engage and convert them into sales. Now they may be past purchasers and not in market. Dell, the example I am using, sells things that to me are not purchases we make all year long. We buy laptops and desktops and we are good for a while. So you need to have a relevant Customer Life Cycle dialogue set up to find ancillary products of which to sell them OR get them excited to move on a new larger purchase down the road.

This email from Dell is a great illustration of “asking and listening”, two things that every email marketer needs to do better this coming year. If you are not having a two-way conversation in email, you will find that your campaigns are slowly losing steam and not driving results.

Take the high road after the holidays and approach the new year in a way that helps you while at the same time builds a program based on need with your subscribers. Or just keep sending campaigns and hoping for the best while losing sales. Your call.

Nice work Dell. You might just get some purchases from me now.