How to Keep Your Email Marketing Strategy from Losing Traction

Why do you send emails to your customers? Are you using them to generate more sales, better loyalty, and lower costs? Or, are they a simply a vehicle for moving products or selling services? Spend a little time looking at the emails coming from a variety of industries and brands and you’ll see a cookie cutter approach reminiscent of catalogs in the 1980’s. The strategy generates revenue and short term success but it doesn’t build the relationships between customer and company required for longevity.

The opportunity to create one to one relationships with thousands of customers has eluded marketers until now. The high costs associated with personalized marketing messages prevented companies from connecting with people on a personal level. Things have changed. The combination of low cost email marketing and extensive data availability makes creating individual messages an affordable option.

Few companies are doing it because email marketing works so well now. Why should they invest resources in changing a strategy that profitably generates sales with every send? History has a way of repeating itself. The catalogs that modeled themselves after each other are gone now. Their short term vision failed to build brand loyalty. The catalogs started to look outdated and stale as competition heated up. Customers quietly disappeared over time.

The same evolution is happening with email marketing today. Competition is heating up with more business emails being sent every day. Newcomers are following the lead of their predecessors and sending template messages. Why shouldn’t they? It’s a strategy known to work well.

Before long, email marketing programs will start losing traction. Opt outs will start increasing while opens and clickthroughs decrease. The companies that change their strategy now will continue to have a successful email marketing program. Their outgoing messages will enhance customer relationships while generating sales. To get started:

• Use behavior analytics to identify the best opportunities for marketing to your customers.
• Create personalized email messages that speak to individuals.
• Provide useful information that educates customers about your products and services.
• Make it easy for people to connect with your company.
• Use trigger emails to improve service, capture abandoned carts, and make the buying decision easier.

Moving from cookie cutter marketing to personal messages is an evolutionary process. The sooner you start, the faster you’ll start receiving the benefits.

For more details and specific examples, check out 31 Ways to Supercharge Your Email Marketing.