Imagine that you’ve lost half of email addresses from your base. After having sent an experimental newsletter. You keep staring in amazement as people hit “unsubscribe” or “mark as spam” buttons, one after another. One part of you just can’t believe that this is really happening. Second one can hear door opening and sound of steps heading to you. Does that fear paralyze you? If so, then sorry, but you will always create mediocre newsletters. Newsletter has two serious enemies: firstly, risk of being marked as spam, secondly, risk of being average. We‘ve already discussed the former, so let’s take a look at the latter.
Newsletter which doesn’t stand out
Average newsletter:
- Is modelled according to current marketing trends and to
- Is similar to what your competitors are doing
- Is scared of being different
- Doesn’t arouse emotions.
To get an idea of it, compare a couple of newsletters from one business branch. Their similarity, the same pattern will strike you. Sometimes it’s only logo what distinguishes them.
We’re not encouraging you to forced individualism, but rather to look at things from different angle and ask yourself: “What would my customer really want to get from my newsletter? Do my proven strategies achieve my aims, especially if my competitors do likewise?”
The myth of sacred content
Content is the king, sure, but should whole your strategy in every aspect be led by it? Assuming that it’s enough to get customers some good reads and interesting info and they will unevitably hurry to spend money in your story, might not get you far.
62% of people who use content marketing admit that they see no effects. It’s worth noting, however it’s not the method itself to blame, but rather problems with implementation and combining it with another actions (if you want to read more on that topic, let us know in comments). And CM is not universal.
These problems apply mostly to B2C sector: while your business clients might be hungry for knowledge, your final customers just want to buy something useful or cool.
Discounts
Remember: users sign up for newsletter with particular target in mind: they want discounts and special offer.
When I see a nice teacup, I want to have it, not to see other people drinking from it or some cute metaphorical photos of that teacup in autumn leaves or wth tiny shiny pebbles in it. I like looking at those, I feel inspired, I want to buy it, but my used-to-discounts brain, that special offer junk, just whispers that I can have it cheaper. So I sign up for newsletter to get a discount.
Price cutting: always a good solution, because customers want it. Not.
Sometimes price cutting isn’t a good solution. There can be many reasons:
- You know that in that field you can’t win with your competitors
- It doesn’t sum up
- You have a consequent policy of no sales.
That’s ok – fighting with price isn’t the only solution (and probably not the best one). But still you have to deliver your customers real value in your newsletter: not only promise of education and inspiration.
Combine products in bundles, add something for free
If such discounts doesn’t make sense for you, maybe combining products in bundles in better price for your newsletter recipients will work? It will enable you to show a substantial benefit: “3 for 2”, “10 product for 100$ – you save 30$”. We are all numbers sensitive and we subconsciously assume that they express something objective and real.
Co-working with non-competitors
Make a deal: let another company prepare an special offer for your customers and you prepare one for theirs. Just have a sensible idea for conjoint campaign, your products/ services should be somewhat complementary (So joint action of your avanguard perfumes and spanner producer might not be such a good plan). Will your customers be interested in that product? There are dozens of possibilities:
- For purchase of books – coupon for coffee
- For kitchen appliances – offer on spice set
- For clothes – offer on hangers, accessories
- For hotel room reservation – a discount to local tourist attraction,
- For fitness shoes – coupon to local fitness club.
Going local is always a good idea. When you go nation- or worldwide you can still do it – simply divide your base by localization.
And thanks to that your newsletters will be more diverse.
Personal touch
When your customers reads newsletter, it’s only you and him. Don’t ruin that intimate moment with mass mailing. Always try to personalize offer and base it on customer’s level of engagement, interest and purchase history (nothing worse than selling him an item he already bought, however you can’t still expose that particular thing in newsletter – for example asking him to review it. That way you still inform a customer about a good deal in your shop – so he can possibly pass the information to others – and give him an impression that you know him and are interested in his opinion).
Exclusiveness of newsletter
E-mail marketing is effective and inexpensive and it allows you to build customer’s loyalty, so spare no effort to reinforce that channel and ensure your customer that it is privilidged, so it really pays off to subscribe.
Put in bottom part some thank-you note for recipients who read that far and give some bonus for it. That note can be official and polite or a bit provocative or funny. The bous doesn’t have to be big: just to let your customers feel noticed
Against mediocrity – experiment!
Sometimes it’s the matter of anxiety: we’re scared of ruining things, of losing customers, of daunting them. If proven solutions are ok, why to change them?
Because your customers get used to your communication, because they change, some leave, some new ones come, because competitors apply your ideas, because something that used to be innovative three months ago now is common and no lost its power.
—————————
Good marketer is not somebody who has a couple of brilliant concepts and ready-to-go answers, but somebody who always searches for more, experiments and tests.
Implementing aforementioned mindset doesn’t mean sacrificing cohesion for risky projects and changing your communication on regular basis. You can test new solutions gradually, adding one experimental article in newsletter and testing how it works, asking yourself constantly: “What am I really giving my customer? Can I give him more?”
Follow
