Different subscribers will engage with e-mail marketing campaigns in different ways. Some are relatively unengaged, and may have just signed up to get updates on a particular product or campaign. Others are extremely engaged, and might have actively sought out your business just so they could subscribe to your mailing list. In both these cases, each type of subscriber wanted something different from your site. Why, then, would you ever send them the same, exact e-mail? Sure it may be easier to write out, and monitor, just one marketing message, but you’ll undoubtedly have to make compromises in order to craft out a message that appeases all of your subscribers. And when you set out to make everyone happy, you wind up making no one happy. Instead, consider this advice when planning out your e-mail marketing strategies.
For the relatively un-engaged
There is probably a chunk of subscribers who joined your mailing list to stay up to date a particular product, article, or post. They want to know about updates to it and it alone – anything else could wind up getting your e-mail address blacklisted and your marketing messages dumped into spam. Worse, it could annoy potential customers/repeat visitors from every coming your way again. Keep their update e-mails simple – and I mean simple. Put in a link to whatever they are following, a couple of social buttons, your logo, and, in the corner, some sort of call-to-action. Plug a sale, or the chance to get a free sample of something. This will get them on the path to using your website for something interesting articles. If you’d like, you can also put a landing page on the site that your call to action linked to asking whether or not they want to subscribe to your normal newsletter. Alternatively, you can just bump them up on your list once they agree to try out a free sample of whatever you sell.
For the leads
Leads are those subscribers that haven’t quite made the jump to customer yet, but still sought out your website and subscribed to your e-mail list. In essence they are sniffing you out, seeing if they want to take the plunge and actually buy something from your business. That could mean they signed up for a sample of something you sell, or a service you provide. Treat these subscribers like you would a normal lead. Send them offers, discounts, sales e-mails – things to convince them finally to buy whatever you use your site to sell. Since your list of leads should be fairly short, this is a good opportunity to have somebody personally reach out and offer to talk the lead through a purchase. After all, the end goal is to convert them into fully engaged, money paying customers.
For the truly engaged
This group is for those wonderful men and women who actually bought something from you and signed up for your e-mails. Continue to send them your regular, informative newsletters – chances are they are interested in hearing what is going with the company, or on reading whatever advice you’re giving – but don’t let them slip through the marketing cracks. Part of this process will be trying to sell them services or products that would allow them to more effectively, or efficiently, use their original purchase. So, for example, if you sell social media consultation services to small businesses, plug SEO and traditional marketing consultations as well. Of course you shouldn’t send a barrage of add-ons and marketing e-mails, but the occasional prod towards further purchases is a good idea.
Chances are you’ll have a base newsletter full of information and advice that you send out, but remember that on top of, or in the case of the un-engaged in lieu of, that newsletter, you need to send targeted marketing messages. Part of treating your subscribers differently is also figuring out how, exactly, they differ. The more groups you can divide your subscribers into, the more targeted you can make the e-mails sent to those groups, and the more effective your campaign will be. Take some time to go through your list of subscribers and figure out why they subscribed in the first place, so that you can begin leading them to become more engaged with your e-mail marketing efforts.
