Good communication comes from knowing the needs of the targeted audience. If a strong relationship exists with the audience the message goes to then it becomes a matter of addressing the needs and desires positive and negative.
With this scenario a marketer becomes free to indulge in customized messages with particulars for that audience. For most marketers that is a dream market. Long-term customers, well known parameters and a level of trust. Of course that is the ultimate goal of any business large or small to have a central group of mainstays. In any business endeavor portions have to become about growth and in growth a business person takes steps into the unknown. Here good communication becomes about presenting a product or service in a way that proves or catches the attention of a business person who has a need that has to become filled to serve their customers.
Content
It begins with good content that displays the product or service in a light that makes it palatable but is crucial for success. After all especially in small business spending money means making hard decisions and sacrifices. Good emails that sell product and services have a poetry to it. A flow and rhythm that says what it needs to say in an intriguing credible way. Email marketing does work. According to Convince and Convert 44% of email recipients make at least one purchase because of a promotional email. It is the content which conveys the message.
Before the Content
What gets people to read the content? Literally hundreds of emails pass through programs. Why does a consumer choose to open a particular one? Here lies some answer:
- Subject lines of 10 characters long or slightly less had a 58% opening rate as well as a 22% more likely to open survey if the subject line is personalized says Adesta.
- Chadwick Martin Bailey reports that 64% of the people open emails because of the subject line.
- 82% of emails are open if a consumer sees it is from a company.
Making sure this piece portrays the gist of the business goes a long way in minimizing wrong turns.
Innovation
Email automation is having a crisis of faith. The technology works well and makes sales. Recent years it has been in a period of experimentation. It has not overcome all the issues of automation to make it seamless. It is not standardized so plenty of opportunity to for startups and innovation in established companies. Those that can make automation creation quicker and easier as far as emails will have an edge. Personalization of the message continues as a trend as well as using third party vendors to accomplish specific tasks. All of this has been a response to practices or emails that have gone wrong or given the wrong response.
Trends on the horizon suggested by experts have been the need for more speed and more adaptability. A need for data services that track contacts and frequency once the email is sent. Integration and cloud based services will continue to play into the field. Of course any change to software email or web based emails means the whole game changes. A system of announce it, do a follow up, and then send reminders will become a common practice as maintaining long term customers become a central goal.
Whether a large firm or one just starting up talking to experts in the field can help navigate past the major pitfalls of such an enterprise. Nothing replaces knowing your customers and their needs. That will always be a given in marketing.
