It’s Monday afternoon and clearly we have a few UK online retailers worried about their end-of-month figures….
I can picture the excuses emerging from the Marketing meetings;
‘The weather – nobody’s using their computers in the sunshine.’ mmm hmm ‘The football - nobody’s spending money during the World Cup.’ mmm hmm ‘The tennis - everybody’s sat on Henman Hill waiting for the next great British success at Wimbledon’. mmm hmm and last but not least, they old favourite… The Recession
To these particular retailers’ credit, they have succeeded from one important aspect. I did ACTUALLY click the links. Unfortunately, not to purchase a product (mainly due to the fact no actual products were mentioned in the email content…) simply to gauge why they would be sending out ill-timed and ill-written email content.
One question to any retailer toying with the idea of blanket dispatch of an email this week – Do you not realise the importance of your email database?! … I lied, make it two questions… Do you not realise that these existing clients, or at the very least, interested parties, are the lifeblood of your business?
The campaigns which found their way into my inbox this morning (one or two flagged as Spam due to the fact they carried no content and were simply one large image with no links or no direction) were out of sheer desperation. The mentality of ‘well, nobody’s buying through our SEO or Paid Search campaigns, let’s rely on the old mugs who’ve already bought from us, they’re always there for us when we need them‘ shone through.
Do not assume your existing database is there for you to rely upon in the case of a financial emergency. Look deeper into the reasoning as to why your sales may be faltering. If your business mentality is to hit your database in a last ditch attempt to secure a few additional sales at the end of a poorly performing month – why would you expect your existing clients to buy products that potential customers are ignoring?
Before pressing the “Launch Your Campaign” button on your next email news shot, contemplate the following;
- Are you telling our database something new? Something they don’t already know about our service? You can be sure that if a particular product didn’t see any sales from a front-page promotion, or prior newsletter, it’s certainly not going to fly out the door with your current customers.
- If you’re not announcing a new line of products, is there any other reason why customers would be buying a product? Don’t be fooled into the old ‘repetition syndrome’. ‘Ahhh… if we tell them enough times they’ll HAVE to buy our product‘. Tell me enough times and the Unsubscribe button is just as close to my mouse pointer as the ‘Click Here to Buy’ button
- Please please please, do not lead your email with a bland subject such as your business’ name or a term you use inhouse to describe your newsletters. Your subject line is your headline – tell me something interesting. Inspire me to click
- Think about the timing of your campaign. Monday morning? I don’t think so.
- Lead with content and use graphics to support that content. One giant image file will either be eaten by spamfilters, be ignored by anybody using mobile technology to access inboxes, or simply lose the focus of your newsletter. One particular newsletter wasn’t even hyperlinked to the relevant product! Come on, if I have the decency to at least open your email, at least give me the opportunity to click to view the product you’re displaying!
- Don’t rush out an email … there’s no real deadlines in place with email campaigns. If you’re not ready, you’re not ready! Reactionary email campaigns not only perform poorly, your existing customers will remember your company based on your poor campaigns, not the excellent service you may well have provided them.
- Segment your database. If you know you offer a range of differentiated product lines, don’t tell me about a product that you KNOW will not be of interest to me. It really isn’t that difficult. Outsource your email newsletters to a company or service that CAN provide you with segmented customer data.
- Track and learn. Your email database will react differently to offers than those who stumble upon your website for the first time. Analyse their movements and make sure that your tracking software allows you to see exactly which items they click through on and their response rates. If your current database don’t buy into a particular offer, what are the chances a new user will?
- Test, test and test again. How long does it take to run an email campaign through a Spell checker? How long does it take to ensure each of the links works correctly? I can assure you it’ll take far less time than the energies and finance exerting into winning that customers trust to allow you to market to them in the first place. Have the courtesy, for your own business’ benefit, of delivering campaigns that are professional and work correctly!
- Don’t hide your unsubscribe. Your thought process may well be to include the tiniest size 4 font ‘unsubscribe’ text at the very bottom of your campaign. Why exactly? Don’t you have the confidence that the offering will be greeted with a positive response? If I’ve decided I don’t want to receive your campaigns anymore allow me to navigate to a one-click process to unsubscribe. If you don’t? It won’t just be my email address you’ll be losing from your database, it’ll be my future custom.
Devising and launching a new email campaign can be seen as a simple task. For the benefit of your future business, if any of the above examples apply to your business, now is the time to re-evaluate your Email Marketing strategy. Your existing clientbase should be treated like gold dust. These are the guys and girls who you’ve already sold an item to, or have trusted you to provide them with offers that apply to THEM. Don’t do them the discourtesy of assuming they’re there as a last-ditch attempt to hit sales targets.
Treat your database with the respect they deserve…. they’ll be more than happy to relay your service in good times… and bad.
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