As email recipients quickly scan their inboxes, seeing the right offer or incentive can lead them to pause just long enough to give your message a chance at being successful. It may seem strange to think about, but that split-second pause is a tremendous victory for your campaign.
The content most likely to catch recipients’ interests is the subject line, which is obviously why marketers place so much emphasis on trying to craft the most appealing subject lines possible. However, emails I’ve recently received from Horchow illustrated what can happen when a sender falls in to a “subject line rut.”
Over a span of less than 10 days, I saw the following Horchow subject lines in my inbox:
10/19: FURNITURE & RUG SALE with FREE SHIPPING
10/20: LAST DAY: for FREE SHIPPING on FURNITURE and Rug Sale…
10/22: FREE SHIPPING TODAY ONLY + save on Marcus bed & bath
10/22: Time’s almost up for FREE SHIPPING
10/26: FREE SHIPPING on almost everything, 2 days only
10/27: LAST DAY FOR FREE SHIPPING
There are a few things about this strategy that I don’t like. For one, that’s a lot of email over 10 days. But beyond that, how much incentive is FREE SHIPPING at this point? Horchow tries to make the recipient think that free shipping is for a limited time, but it’s obvious that the offer is nearly always on the table. So, by consistently recycling this same offer in their subject lines, Horchow is doing nothing more than limiting the amount of characters they can use in their subject lines to promote actual products.
A great subject line can cause your subscribers to take that split-second pause where they consider whether or not to engage further with your message; re-hashing the same subject lines and tired offers is a good way to make that decision for them.
My approach to saving money has changed drastically as the economy has entered into its current recession, and my recent birthday provided further evidence that I’m becoming a Grade-A tightwad. As the big day approached, rather than plan a party, I consulted my email inbox in an effort to unearth the best birthday deals I could find.
Of course, no one emailed me a coupon for a shiny new bike, but I did get a few offers that got me interested. Here are a few of the brands who reached out to remind me that not only is it okay to get older, it’s okay to be a cheapskate:
Do you know your email marketing priority? Are you blasting out messages, or sending more personalized and targeted emails? Watch the latest Email Marketing Minute and see if you have the right email priorities!
With today’s economy bearing down on marketing budgets around the country, many marketers are turning to email marketing to maximize the ROI for their marketing buck.
As marketers begin to feel more heat on their email marketing strategies, it is easy to begin considering weeding out email campaigns that don’t directly generate sales.However, in this economy it is even more important than in the past to continue building relationships with your customers/subscribers.Even if your monthly newsletter only provides information and doesn’t include sales opportunities, this doesn’t mean you should begin cutting out these campaigns to save marketing dollars.
Don’t fall into the trap of sending only “sales blasts” that don’t offer up any incentives for your readers to continue opening your future emails.Instead be persistent in strengthening your relationships by offering relevant information that your subscribers can continue to expect when they see your email arrive in their inbox.
If you come across opposition in sending out these emails that don’t immediately lead to profits, consider incorporating an ad banner in a side column of your email newsletter that promotes your products/services without overpowering your relevant messaging.Another option to consider is selling ad space within your newsletters to bring in additional revenue.See my blog post from earlier this year on this topic for ideas on how to optimize your emails with relevant ad banners.
Take a step back and realize that this is a key time to stay at the top of your customers’ minds.They may not be ready to purchase today, but continue to build your relationship… and you could be the first thought that comes to mind when they are ready to purchase in the near future.
Has your company had success in growing relationships through email that eventually generated sales?We would love to hear your story!
Several weeks ago I wrote about specific retouch strategies and their potential effectiveness in driving revenues. Since that time we’ve had a real-world opportunity to test retouch efforts to recipients who neither opened nor clicked on the initial promotional offer. While the objective of the initial effort was to capture more information about potential buyers and generate actual, measurable sales, the focus of the message was to enter a sweepstakes for a large screen, high-definition LCDTV and test our ability to further generate form completions with a retouch effort four days prior to the sweepstakes conclusion.
What happened was that the “last chance” retouch produced render rates nearly equal to the initial offering and click through rates only slightly less than the initial effort. More important from the client’s perspective was the fact that form completions (which was a major goal of the campaign) were actually higher than the initial effort and unsubscribe rates were lower. Certainly the reasons “why” this occurred has much to do with the high level of engagement the recipients feel towards the client.
Another perhaps equally plausible reason may lie in the fact that recipients of high-value sweepstakes with a limited time entry deadline may actually welcome the “last chance” message and see it more as a friendly reminder, which they appreciate and embrace.
As email recipients quickly scan their inboxes, seeing the right offer or incentive can lead them to pause just long enough to give your message a chance at being successful. It may seem strange to think about, but that split-second pause is a tremendous victory for your campaign.
My approach to saving money has changed drastically as the economy has entered into its current recession, and my recent birthday provided further evidence that I’m becoming a Grade-A tightwad. As the big day approached, rather than plan a party, I consulted my email inbox in an effort to unearth the best birthday deals I could find.
With today’s economy bearing down on marketing budgets around the country, many marketers are turning to 
Several weeks ago I wrote about specific retouch strategies and their potential effectiveness in driving revenues. Since that time we’ve had a real-world opportunity to test retouch efforts to recipients who neither opened nor clicked on the initial promotional offer. While the objective of the initial effort was to capture more information about potential buyers and generate actual, measurable sales, the focus of the message was to enter a sweepstakes for a large screen, high-definition LCDTV and test our ability to further generate form completions with a retouch effort four days prior to the sweepstakes conclusion.
