Email marketing - keeping the magic alive

Email lists age quickly and the email marketer has to fight a ceaseless battle against boredom, indifference and irritation.

It's just like marriage, with the added problem of spam filters. Actually, it's most like a Hollywood marriage, with the road from altar to divorce-court often very short.

So how do you keep the magic alive? How do you keep your email leads happy and stop them divorcing you by pressing the dreaded unsubscribe button or, even worse, ignoring you completely? 

If you know it's all going to go bad in the end – because let's face it, it probably will, opening rates will drop, response will flicker and fade - how can you get the maximum value from your lead while their interest is at its peak?

The honeymoon period

Here's your brand new lead, all fresh and keen and excited about being on your list, looking forward to you fulfilling all those promises about free information and useful tips.

This is the time to be aggressive. The first email you ever send will be the most opened. Your aim is to convert the lead to a paying customer and during the first month or so, you should send them all your best stuff.

Get the balance right

The first thing to consider is the ed-ad mix: how much editorial vs marketing, you should send.

You have to fulfill your promise to deliver useful information because this is what will keep them interested and wanting to read your messages.

How much information depends on the nature of your market. If you're catering for a fast-moving sector, a daily news or opinion-based email should work.

If your leads are not looking for such intensive information then a weekly editorial email will do the trick.

Keep the marketing light, but don't forget it. For example, you can use extracts from the latest articles in your publications and say: 'To read more like this…'

You could even think about selling third party advertising in these emails, as long as they don't distract readers from your central message.

Familiarity breeds contempt

Once leads have been through the honeymoon stage and received the best marketing, they should go into a big pot where they get everything that everyone else gets.

It's not that they've become any less special – in fact, send them more fresh editorial after this stage because you'll have to try that bit harder.

This is when the marketing mix becomes most important. While some email marketers concentrate on one product an alternative is to promote a variety of products with an emphasis on the most popular, as leads quickly get bored of seeing the same old thing.

However, the risk of sending everything to everyone is that your leads will feel like a lot of the information you're sending them is irrelevant to them.

One way round this is to collect demographic information, such as areas of interest, when they sign up and target them accordingly, making sure they get regular, relevant information.

It's still possible to promote the same product but make it seem like something new using varied copy.

It goes without saying that good copy is vital. You should use a number of copywriters as every copywriter will find a new angle or new way of addressing your readers. Some lists will respond best to promotional copy, others prefer information and different copywriters can help you test this.

Love triangles

A great way of getting more from your list is to promote third party products – a rare case when a third person can enhance a relationship.

You should join affiliate programs or do direct deals with other businesses (who will often reciprocate by promoting you to their list).

For instance, if you know that there is a segment on your list with specific interests that you can't cater for, find a company that can, promote their product and take a cut.

However, bear in mind that it's important you don't endorse anything that you wouldn't be happy to have produced yourself.

Whetting the appetite

Another potentially rewarding method to try is a countdown offer: send a sequence of emails promoting a particular product but don't make the product available for sale until a certain date and time.

You can start by announcing that there's something very special coming, unveiling details over the coming days.

At the end of each message you tell them when the next will appear and in the penultimate message, the exact time when the offer begins. By the time the final email arrives, their appetite should be so whetted that they'll be desperate to take you up on the offer.

The drawback of countdown offers is that you cannot send any other emails to the list during the countdown or it will spoil the effect. This means you won't get any other email sales during this period, which should run between 7 and 10 days. 

Therefore you should initially send the offer to a test segment of your list and work out if the rewards will make it worthwhile sending it to everyone else.

The seven-month itch

If you're lucky your leads will love you forever. They'll want to open every message you send them because they value and cherish you so much. 

But this is a numbers game and although some people will keep getting their credit cards out, the majority will get less and less likely to convert as time goes by.

Don't give up though. There are still ways to get value from the older parts of your list.

The most obvious example is to send them cheap special offers that no one else sees.

You could try an anniversary offer: 'It's been a year since you joined our list and to celebrate we've lined up a very special deal for you.' This can be done easily using an autoresponder set to 365 days since they joined the list.

It's important that you never stop promoting to the older leads because they might have been sitting around waiting for you to come up with what they really want - your new publication could be just the thing.

One final tip – don't forget to send them flowers or gifts occasionally.  An unexpected free gift, with no strings, can really boost your image.

Golden wedding rules

The golden rules for a happy, lasting relationship between you and your leads are:

1.         Give them the most attention at the start.

2.         Use variety to avoid things getting stale.

3.         Don't be afraid to invite third parties into your relationship.

4.         Love them till the end.