Select all, Delete

by Evelyn de la Vega, Account Executive

ACT NOW!  HURRY IN!  LAST CHANCE!  FINAL OFFER!  IMPORTANT UPDATE!

Ahhh I’m stressed just writing about all these emails with sales and offers that yell at me on a daily basis with their letters in CAPS, exclamation points and aggressive active words.

 Which one do I open first? What’s more important to me? Am I really missing out if I ignore your final notice?

In my opinion… No.  I am not missing out and I probably will not open your email. At this point, all your offers have annoyed me vs. attracted me, and the most time I will spend on your email is grouping them all together and pressing “DELETE.” At one point in time, I trusted the emails and would open it right away because “I could be the winner”, but really, if I go a whole day with out checking my personal email, do I really need 10+ emails from the same company telling me different reasons to open their email!?? 

Don’t get me wrong, email marketing can be effective. There are many companies that do it correctly. They know and relate to you as a consumer and speak to you by offering you relevant information.

However, this blog is more about the misuse of email marketing and raising awareness that over-crowding consumers’ inboxes should be a primary concern to all marketers. Loosing a consumer’s trust can not only affect the perception of your brand, but also their loyalty to you.   

So how do you make sure your email/offer is the one that makes the cut and doesn’t simply get deleted at first sight? Here are some tricks of the trade I’ve picked up from attending a webinar or 2 (Thanks Frank):

1. Have strong and concise subject lines. Please don’t yell at me with all CAPS and exclamation points.
2. Test your subject lines to see what works and what doesn’t. Not all target groups will respond to the same call to action.
3. Develop relevant creative that reflects the personality/style of your brand.
4. Build an effective list – No matter how enticing your offer or creative, if you don’t email the right target group, you won’t get the response you want.

Now, I’m sure I’m preaching to the choir here and shouldn’t be giving tips on the top 10 ways to tackle email marketing, but my point is this….Through TV ads we want to stand out and entertain, In print we want to stand out and entice, In social media we want to stand out and relate….So, in emails lets strive to stand out and not annoy.

Take the time to realize that you may be catching your consumer “after hours” – give them a break – provide them with something that truly calls their attention …. Have them look forward to receiving something from you. Don’t have them feel that sorting through your email offers is a chore to clean out their inbox the way they take out the trash…Indulge them….

For your reading pleasure – here is a deck with useful email marketing stats, facts, and consumer attitudes from a webinar we recently attended (presented by Lyris, INC).