Getting the right new email subscribers is never an easy thing. Most people guard their digital letterbox closely, wanting only the most sought-after content tailored to them, when and where they need it.
The ‘right’ new email subscriber is really the centre of good email marketing. Lots of people might trade their data for 30% off, $50 off or a free report. But, will they become the brand champions you want them to be?
Yes. If you give them the right content.
Your welcome email is where it starts. This is not only the place to give them the reward you offered for the right to email them, it’s also the place where you start to tell your brand story, a story they’re the protagonist in. Your welcome email should tell them about your humble beginnings, the time and achievements your company has spent and earned and how you want them to join the adventure of your brand.
This is often broken down into a series of initial emails. Keeping the subscriber engaged with rich brand content in the first weeks of subscription that gives them value and helps them move forward in the purchasing process.
It’s important to include contextual references to your services/products to give your subscriber the opportunity to tell you what’s important to them based on what content they click. Are they clicking links to find out about each service your provide? Is there a single brand or product they always engage with? Does the content they read suggest you should exclude them from certain campaigns because they’re uninterested?
Your first few weeks of this new relationship will define the first 12 months you spend together.
In the first of your regular campaigns is where you should be keeping the promises you made during sign-up. Ensuring the content is tailored to the reasons they joined and ideally throwing some extra pieces of content that are valuable from the preferences you’ve collected during the initial stages of their subscription. Adding the sale items from their favorite brand or a case study on the service they’ve been interested in will subtly let them know you care about their needs and want to provide content of value.
Deciding on the frequency of your emails can be a difficult decision. Lots of businesses choose a single timeframe for their emails and stick religiously to it. This is not necessarily the best strategy.
Some subscribers will want your content as soon as it’s ready, others like a fortnightly or monthly update. Asking your subscribers how often they’d like to be emailed is a great thing to do during sign-up and allows you to put people in categories from “wants to know everything as soon as it’s happening” to “only the highlights”.
Long tail automation is something that’s often overlooked when people build their email strategy. The six month stage can be a great time to have an automated campaign sent with some of their initial sign-up preferences to see if they’re still valid. Maybe they’re ready to scale back to your fortnightly email or maybe they want to move up to your weekly campaigns. Checking in lets them know their needs matter to you.
Stats suggest that, on average, we’ll lose 22% of our email database annually. But anniversaries aren’t a time to say goodbye, they’re a time for celebration! Sending a ‘happy anniversary’ automated email is a great surprise for your subscribers and backing it up with a discount or free white-paper is an awesome way to say thank you to the people in your community.
First purchase anniversaries are also a good time to reflect with a subscriber. In B2B, it can be a good time to ask for a review or case study from the client. In B2C, 1 year later can be good time send a discount or free shipping code so they can get a newer version of their original product.
If you have a lot of purchase data, sending a customer journey email like this example from EB Games reinforces your commitment to their experience as a customer and keeps them wanting to come back.
How do your long term subscribers engage with your email? Let us know if you’ve tried any of these tactics or if you have some of your own in the comments below!