Many of my posts always say only send an email when you have something relevant to say.  The problem is, a lot of companies don’t even know what they should be sending in the first place.  I have offered a few questions and ideas to help you get on course:

What kind of Campaign are you doing?

Clearly define that so you know what your goals are.  If it is a sales campaign you’re performing, too much content will water down the email and distract the recipient from the main goal.

If it is a newsletter you’re sending, try to only send when you have something to say.  People are subscribing to you to receive content and so want something worthwhile to read.

What did you promise when they signed up?

Now this is something which I see a lot of companies lack when they are placing subscription forms on their site – an outline of what their subscribers can actually expect to receive.

Just briefly outlining what you are intending to send them will help for them to decide whether to sign up.  Some might just be scared off by the lack of info or being too vague on what they will receive as they might not want irrelevant emails. 

If though, you already have a list that has been built without this in place, have a look at a couple of my posts to get some ideas on how to resolve the issue:

Passive Segmentation

Preference Centres and Positive Unsubscribe Processes

When Less is More

I find that some emails are just too long and I lose interest in what they have to say.  Most recipients viewing habits are spent just skim reading the email, which is why call to actions have always been heavily endorsed so you can still get your message across.

If you really do have a lot to say, why not put it all into a summary article that has many links in it directing them to the full articles on your site.

Otherwise, keep the message limited to a certain amount and don’t exceed it.  One of my favourites for doing this are ebuyer.  They provide a weekly email, that I feel has just the perfect amount of offers and content in it (view an example here).  I can skim through the offers quickly and see what appeals without getting caught up in too much needless writing.  I know some of you will be looking at the email, thinking that I’ve forgot about some email fundamentals, but hear me out.

Obviously, this email isn’t perfect for everyone and is a bit of a lazy approach to it but I feel that if you’re going to send a sales promotion, don’t divert from it.  Coming back to the issue at hand – sometimes less really is less.  A prime example of this can be found on one of my previous posts.  I receive an email with not a lot in it, and it doesn’t even relate to me. Tut tut.

Content that keeps them Returning

I have always been an advocate of linking through to interesting media from your own newsletter.  Obviously depending on the kind of company you are depends on what links would be “appropriate”.  Linking to interesting articles, relevant and funny news stories and videos will have that mass appeal that will have your subscribers forwarding on the email to their friends and colleagues.

For more on this subject read my post about viral emails.

Tags

email content | email marketing strategy | list segmentation

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