Read a great post on Mark Brownlow’s page the other day – The slow death of your email (and how to stop it)

For me, it raised something which I had been thinking about recently and even wrote briefly about in a previous post re-activating inactive subscribers.

In Mark’s post, he raised the issue that throughout time the response rate declined for his subscribers.  He mentioned many factors which may have caused this steady decline with the two most prominent being:

• Increased competition for attention in the inbox from competitors.
• Subcribers becoming less engaged as time passes by

The first of these points is one which should shake up anyone who has moved into a comfortable zone in their email marketing campaign.  More and more companies are moving into email marketing and though they might not be your actual competitors in terms of sector, they are now competitors in your recipients’ inbox.

Couple this with subscribers becoming less engaged over time and you could become old news with your subscribers compared to a new, fresh company.

I personally know what it’s like to be that recipient, as outlined in my inactive subscribers post.  The problem I had with that email was that it hasn’t actually changed over the past 4 years – it was the same thing each week and eventually I became disinterested and stopped opening.

In that post I mention that I had moved away from the main purpose of their emails but still remained subscribed as I may be interested in the future.  The fact of the matter was, I still love music, and though my interest in records had passed, the company wasn’t just a record shop – it sells dj equipment, music production equipment, and music cd’s amongst other things.

The reason my interest had passed in these emails is because I had moved from playing records and decided to catch up with the digital times and now use cd and mp3 emulation software instead.  Essentially my tastes had changed slightly but the campaigns hadn’t changed to match this.

They had lost a subscriber who was still interested in what they had to offer.

In this case, I think that the targeting and segmenting they had carried out actually negatively affected them as I’m sure I’m not the only one who has moved that way with my tastes.

So what could they have done?

I offered some pretty standard suggestions in my previous post as to what you could do to re-ignite interest but after reading Mark’s post I have started to think a bit more behind the scenes.

Alternative Email Budgeting

I didn’t really know what to name it but this seems to describe it the best.  Take your campaign and look at it in yearly/semi-annually/quarterly phases.  Then look at allocating different email campaign types for that period.

For instance, budget yourself to have a couple of emails that offer some big discounts for your subscribers even if it does end up making a loss in the short term – the engagement level will be increased from such offers which in the long term will produce better returns.

Okay, so there’s nothing new in that suggestion but the thinking behind it is different from how this type of campaign is predominantly carried out.  The fact that you have allocated yourself a certain amount for the year means that you can be proactive about your campaigns and gives you a plan for the year.  Instead of being reactive to maybe a recent dip in open rates or responses, you could actually plan it before a dip even occurs.  Also, by having allocated yourself a certain amount for say, a year, you can control the amount of these emails you use – the last thing you want is for your subscribers to become accustomed to these emails and only switch on when a discount offer drops in.

Another variant on your usual campaign could be to look at using cross-selling emails throughout the set period.  Though the subscriber primarily asked to receive information on a certain area of your company, that doesn’t mean that their tastes don’t change and evolve over time.  It can’t hurt to plan out emails that offer them the chance to view and subscribe to other products/services that you offer.

Just by planning your campaign in this way will stave off the monotony that can sometimes creep into a campaign after a certain amount of time.  It also allows you to try and adapt to your older subscribers changes in tastes and wants – keeping them just as engaged as the day they signed up.

More on engagement strategies in my next post….

Making your emails more relevant is the key to 2009 email marketing.  The way you sign up new subscribers can be altered to try and take on board there preferences and enable you to send them emails they want to receive.

But what about those already on the list?  Trying to get them to change their details will always be an uphill struggle.  A great way to do this is through passive segmentation.

As I’ve used them before, let’s use H&M as a working example.  Now they currently don’t do this, but if they did, they could quite easily send some targeted, relevant emails to their huge list.

They send through a generalised email which talks about the sale that is currently on.  Within the email they set out clear buttons which segment their company.  Something along the lines of:

Male

Female

Childrens Clothing

Sale Stock

Just by separating their list to this extent has given them the tools to send emails that will more then likely appeal to their audience more, which in turns sees higher opens and conversions.  To point out H&M’s current method, here is an email I received a little while back.  

Just so you know, I’m neither 8 nor am I a parent.  As you can see, this is virtually like trying to deep sea fish with a rifle.  Couple that with how easily subscribers can be turned off from emails with irrelevant content and you can see that H&M aren’t doing as well as they really could be.

Now relate this example to the list you’re using.  If you think you can clearly split your products into different groups, then it is definitely worth passively segmenting your list.