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Email is a kind of strange bird. No one asks anyone to “email” them anymore. Everybody uses text. Even the term “inbox” has been hijacked by social media and refers largely to texting. Still, with all the looming signs of obsolescence, email remains the most effective part of nearly any marketing campaign.
Now, you might have other people telling you that email is less effective for you because times are changing and people are focused on other types of content. That’s true to an extent, but the reasons they give and what prominent thought leaders in internet marketing know are vastly different. Your audience isn’t dwindling, it’s disengaged. Today, I’d like to expose the five most usual suspects for derailing your readership and share some advice on how to reverse the trend.
1. Your Subject Lines Are Getting Old
Branding is important. Yes, I know it’s an understatement, but I led with that because I don’t want what I’m about to say to seem contradictory. Branding is important, but constantly throwing the same branding elements at your audience will desensitize them over time. This is especially true of nonvisual content.
Subject lines in emails don’t have the advantage of visuals to garner attention — not even when you pepper them with ALL CAPS, ###Pointless Characters###, or excessive punctuation!!!!!!!! The words of the subject line must be able to sell the message. Over time, though, subject lines tend to get a little stale.
The same words, phrases, or concepts get overused, and people get desensitized. Your subject lines now have a brand signature that is actually detracting from engagement. Find a new way to present your ideas and avoid elements your audience has seen before. This shows your commitment to always being relevant and trustworthy.
2. Your Messaging Isn’t Current
The other huge way that you can communicate relevance and trustworthiness is to demonstrate an understanding of your audience at this precise moment in time. Set aside your agenda and really look at the kinds of things that matter to your audience right now. Listen in on conversations on social media. Observe thought leaders and influencers who have already tapped the market successfully and come up with subjects that will keep the right people engaged.
As you do all of that, take a few actual notes about what you’re observing in those conversations. Taking a unique approach with your email marketing will make it easier to keep people engaged. Plus, if you start touching on subjects your competitors aren’t (or if you simply approach them from an angle that’s a bit more current and relevant than average), your audience will trust you more. Be the brand that understands the pain points better than the rest and communicates the solution in a relevant way.
3. You’re Not Segmenting Properly
While not content-centric, I really wanted to say just a few words about this. I’ve done some other pieces on list segmenting, and I would also be inclined to defer to some of the real experts, like Niel Patel and Ian Broadie, on how to do this right in your campaigns.
The bottom line (from me, anyway) is simple: You need to segment. Doing so gives you a clearer picture of what subgroups on your list are most likely to convert. If all you’re doing is dumping messages onto your entire list sight unseen, you are missing out on a ton of much more meaningful engagement.
4. Your Messages Are Quality-Challenged
Now comes the part where I offer a shameless plug. I’m just going to come right out and say it: Most marketing emails that hit my inbox are garbage. I can always tell if a message was written by a professional copywriter based on a number of criteria.
I’ve never been a stickler for things like sentence structure or perfect grammar in email. Email is a conversation and conversations rarely follow these rules, but I’ve seen grammatical sins committed in emails that were beyond salvation. The point is simple: Find a good middle ground. Be conversational but coherent.
If you feel like your ability to strike that balance is lacking, you should be working a professional custom writing service, like Beez, at least for your first few campaigns. The money spent will net you some great content and a valuable education about what makes it successful.
5. You Aren’t Tracking Your Metrics
It still dumbfounds me how so many marketers manage to skirt this one area of analytics. Email metrics are vital to developing an increasingly successful marketing strategy, so start paying closer attention. Most autoresponder services provide a comprehensive set of metrics that can help you determine everything from how to most successfully segment your list to the time(s) and days(s) you’re most likely to get more opens.
So, just to recap:
Subject Lines — Short, relevant, and direct; steer clear of ###gonzo characters###, ALL CAPS, and pointless punctuation!!!
Messaging — Show your audience you’ve got your finger on the pulse; glean what you can from influencers and thought leaders and come up with unique ways to frame your messaging.
List Segmentation — Click the links; you need to learn how to do this.
Quality — Consider collaborating with a professional copywriting company, like BeezContent, to streamline your messaging; you can always take the reins later if you’re confident.
Numbers — Keep track of your metrics and use them to streamline your email marketing to meet the demands of your market segment(s).
I hope this gives you enough of a framework to start steering your marketing efforts in a more profitable direction. If you need help with that, contact us. We employ and collaborate with talented marketing email copywriters who are eager to help!
