Building a relationship with your email subscribers requires offering valuable content that encourages engagement. As content becomes increasingly social and accessible, it’s essential to keep your content strategy ahead of the curve. This requires a careful engagement map to maximize open rates and reader interest throughout the email. Getting a reader from a subscriber to a conversion requires careful attention to design, offers and relevance.
One major trend in 2011 and beyond is the growth of information which hits user inboxes. Through traditional and social channels, the rise in sharing has made it more challenging for email marketers to stand out. Cultivating a long term relationship with your subscriber base can help you ensure relevance. Smart marketers actively listen to their reader base through surveys and analytics to response rates across the board:
Think Carefully about How to Segment Your Subscriber Lists
Readers are more likely to open emails with subject lines and content relevant to their preferences. When building an email list you should allow users to choose individual lists to join. This can allow you to segment your list by preferences, geography, customer type and channel. Improving the relevance of content can help to maximize email open rates as well as overall interest in the content.
Over time, you’ll also want to further segment lists based upon behavior. This means setting up individual lists for inactive users, high conversion readers, hot prospects and new subscribers. Tailoring unique content to these audiences can help define subject line and content strategies to result in better content engagement rates.
Feature Timely, Relevant and Compelling Offers for Readers
People are naturally attracted to timely and relevant offers, and you should tailor your content accordingly. Pay attention to what is going on in the broader economy so you can create compelling headlines and offers which speak to people’s emotional and financial needs. During the holidays, for example, you can tailor your content around inclusion, appreciation and savings to encourage participation. When readers see a preview of an email in their inbox, they are more likely to participate if they can relate directly to its contents. Create seasonal offers which meet reader needs, including offers around their birthdays, special holidays and travel seasons for maximum results.
Carefully Review Analytics on Open and Conversion Rates
Each reader and email list is unique, so carefully pay attention to the results of your open and conversion rates over time. This data can help inform a more integrated measurement and content strategy to improve results.
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