Email Marketing Tip of the Week – Connecting With Your List

With this week’s email marketing tip of the week I wanted to talk about one of the biggest problems that new and experienced email marketers alike have, and that’s the inability to connect with their list members. If you really want to be successful at converting an email marketing lead into a customer, you need to be able to reach out to them on their terms as opposed to reaching out to them on your own.

Some people are at a loss for how to do this but the truth is it shouldn’t be too difficult to change the style and focus of your messages in order to connect with your list at a much more appropriate and effective level. Here are some ideas you can use to reach out to your list more successfully.

Learn when they signup – Find out about your email list members when they signup for your list by providing a checkbox question where they can pick what kinds of messages they want to hear from you. This will help you segment your list (see below) but will also provide you with firsthand information on what your list members actually want to be receiving from you.

Conduct a survey – Most email service providers today come with survey features that will allow you reach out to your existing list with easy to use and effective surveys. Ask them straightforward questions without being afraid of receiving negative feedback. Ask them what they like and don’t like about your emails, what you should change, what’d they like to see more of and so on. Use a combination of multiple choice questions and open ended short answer questions for maximum results.

Segment your list – Using the above information or other data that you have on your list members you should segment them into smaller, more focused groups. This will allow you to send out specific newsletters or blasts that only the most interested people will receive. See last week’s email marketing tip of the week for more information on segmenting and targeting your list.

Get personal – Far too many businesses try to take the approach of providing a completely impersonal message or service. Customers want to buy something, not have a friend, right? Well it’s actually far more effective to personalize all of your communications. Show a small picture of yourself in every newsletter so people can associate a name and face with your business. Share a short anecdote. Take questions and answers. Be honest. Show some personality.

Switch your perspective – Hopefully you view all of your newsletters when they go out. Next time, don’t view them as the satisfied creator, view them as the skeptical list member. If you received this message from another company, what would you think? Would you want to buy something or take another action? Would you roll your eyes at all of the self promotion or ineffective sales tactics? If you can’t give yourself an honest review, have your friends or family members do it for you.

Remember, you have to reach out to your list members on their level. Provide them the information they want in the way they want to get it. Segment your group, get personal and view your emails critically.

Hopefully this email marketing tip of the week can help your organization more effectively connect with your list members and improve the success of your email campaigns.

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