Companies are always looking for better ways to leverage the Internet to both acquire and retain customers. Email communications have become a staple in Internet marketing, and for good reason; they are inexpensive to deliver, customizable and user activities are highly track-able. But is your content and communications strategy meeting the Web 2.0 expectations of your constituents? Many think that most significant factors in an effective email campaign are compiling subscribers and ensuring the email content reflect your brand image. Your email communications can be much more than an update correspondence or pure sales pitch. You can use deliberate (and valuable) communications to develop an active participatory relationship that gets your customer engaged with your brand, website, and product, resulting in a loyal and active customers. To successfully do this, you should keep these three important keys to success in mind: 1. Relevance, 2. Action, and 3. Involvement.
1. Relevance
No matter how important your service may be to your customers, no one wants to be blatantly solicited or pandered to on a regular basis. Provide your readers with relevant information that they can use covering topics both directly and tangentially associated with your product / service and the period(s) in which they connect with you.
For example, companies that have committed to regular email communications tend to “deliver” content on their schedule. January, Feb, March content etc. This may make planning the email program more manageable, but does little to target content at the consideration, activation or use phases a customer has with you product / service. By mapping event-trigger opportunities in the consideration, activation and use of your product a customized email communications plan and content can be developed that addresses the specific needs / concerns of your audience in an appropriate way at the appropriate time. Beyond the planning for this interaction, write content that addresses direct and indirect issues that your customer is facing at these individual trigger points and offer “real” value to them. Additionally find ways to leverage the power of most modern email campaign management systems to integrate calendar based content into your trigger campaign to promote the feeling of both situational and seasonal relevance.
Part 2 will cover how Action and Involvement complete the value provided by relevance to create sustainable two-way relationships with your prospects / customers via online tools.
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