The Email Wars

Any good relationship needs a foundation that can be built upon. Here are some elements that will help you build a strong email program.

Trust
What will you do with the information you collect from me? Will you protect it and make sure that it will only be used how I have asked it to be used? Will you make sure to honor it even when you think that a “blast” is ordered down from the C-Level? Your job is to take an oath to make sure that the information shared is clearly identified from opt in and presented in a clear manner that builds trust.

Clarity
What am I giving you my information for? Is it a contest? Newsletter? Purchase? What will you send me in the future? What can I expect from you in my inbox? A good program will clearly present the uses of contact, communication and the premise of the relationship. It is your job to honor that and keep your word.
Conversation
What do you have of value to hold the attention of your subscriber? If you are simply giving the same old information that is found on the web, your site or other locations, is the interest going to be held? Content for your emails needs to be unique, thought out and valuable or you run the risk of increasing the churn and forcing them to other sources for the same information.

Mutual Benefits
You must give to get and get to give. Simply forcing offers, content and things only of value to your goals are not going to drive results of your campaigns. Sure you will get some conversions, but if you continue to only worry about advancing your goals you will eventually, and sometimes faster than you thought, have that subscriber unsubscribe, stop reading or simply stop taking actions.

Transparency
Sharing real information and bringing your subscribers into the fold is a better way to build a relationship. Making them a part of the campaign will elevate your results. As we are all witnessing with social media, email can be the same vehicle if you take each opportunity to bring the information, offers and conversation to a place where there is investment from both parties into knowing the value of the relationship. Are there things you are doing as a company that might give them a better feeling about you? Are you having conversations in other places that you can bring into your emails, sharing in other places of engagement? Think about how you can pull your other areas like blogs, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and even company initiatives into the light. Seeing some consumer brands I know share things about work they are doing with environmental issues, social issues, and employee programs often makes me feel closer to the brand or campaign.

Listening
Your metrics are your best resource. Are you constantly looking and evaluating what is working? Do you make sure to segment and produce content/offers that are what your subscribers are looking to you for? Thinking about email successes and failures is what allows us all to do better. Listen to your results and use those results to make informed decisions on your next outreach. On side note to listening, here is a pet peeve of mine: Are you sending from an email address that uses “noreply@”, “companyname@”, or something else that is either impersonal or an address that does not encourage feedback? When sending email, the last thing you want to do is close down that avenue for feedback. Test using an address like “feedback@” or “talktous@” and see how that works. Don’t fear the results and added work, because you never know what you might learn.

Patience
Every campaign will not be a home run. Everything you send out is not going to work  as planned. Taking the approach of learning from each campaign, this is where testing comes into play. You should be testing at least one variable on each campaign. If you are nervous about it, try simple things like multiple offers, 2 subject lines, or a change to an image placement, call to action or button color. Simple tests can reveal more than you expect and simple tests allow you to set the pace of your own learning.

Understanding
If you can not figure out how to use email effectively or need help with best practices, ask for help or search out those that can make sense of it. Make an effort to continually educate yourself and those you work with. If you are stuck doing the same old things because that is your comfort zone, get out of the zone. You are surrounded by hundreds of people at companies and agencies that have experience you can lean on. It is not a scary thing. We all learn new things every day. Personally, that is one of the reasons I am so excited to wake up and go to work each day. I learn not only from my clients, my industry peers and my team, but also from others I simply watch and pick up new techniques. Be an eternal student and seek a teacher if you need one.

These are some simple, hopefully straightforward thoughts that you can take and implement into your programs. Realize that none of us are experts but some of us have more experience than others. I will be the first to go on record that if it were not from doing, learning, listening, reading, interacting and asking that I would never have had the experiences that have grown my knowledge. I am not an expert; I just play one on TV.