Postcards from the Junkfolder. Bite-sized tips and opinions for email marketers.

I, like many email marketers, sign up for as many emails as I can to see what other people are doing in this space. I like to see what new ideas marketers are using in order to get people to open, click, etc.  I typically won’t give them my real email address because I don’t want to be inundated with tons of email. Instead, I have about 3-4 junk email addresses that I use  to sign up for these emails and occasionally monitor them. And because I’m in email marketing, I know that the only way an email marketing system can track whether or not I’ve opened the email is if I download images or click on a link. Therefore, I typically will select a few campaigns to not take any action on. I want to see how long I’ll stay on their list, or if anything changes if I don’t open or click for a certain amount of time. I’ve been following some campaigns for the last year to see what their strategy is. Here are the common strategies I’ve found:

Situation A: If the company is selling a product, they will typically send campaigns for about 3-4 months to try to get me to engage. If I don’t click on anything within a given amount of time (typically the length of their lead lifecycle), then I get dropped from all emails.

This strategy can be great at the beginning (at least they’re consistently emailing me trying to get me to do something).  But what if I just wasn’t ready to buy yet and still needed some time? Or, what if I was reading the emails, I just wasn’t opening or clicking in them. The company wouldn’t know this, and so would automatically drop me from their list. Lead lost. Out of sight, out of mind, right?! Once I stopped receiving the emails from them, I forgot all about them. Some leads take much longer to convert, and need a reminder dropped in their email box every now and then. Even if they’re not taking an action, the company should continue to send them some sort of email trying to get them interested again, or at least touch base with them with their best stuff once a quarter. One suggestion is to clean the list of all inactive subscribers within a given time (typically 3-6 months). Then send them an email with an engaging subject line like “Is it time to part ways,” “Your subscription is ending,” or even ”Act now to continue receiving our emails.” Tell them why they should take an action. What value will they receive from the company if they open/click on something? Then add a link in there that they must click on in order to continue receiving emails from the company. People react to these types of subject lines, and you’ll likely discover who’s really interested. Those that don’t respond, clean them from the list, and at least a few times a year, send an email to try to get them to re-engage.

Situation B:  I was doing research on a subject, and found an article I wanted to download on a website. I had to give them my info in order to get the article. The form asked me a few questions (name, email, company, website, do you currently have a solution – I answered yes, and when are you looking to purchase – I answered no plans at this time). I really had no interest to buy, or maybe eventually I want to buy, but need them to build a relationship and trust first. I’ve now been receiving 1-2 sentence emails once a week for the last year from them. Each one basically says the same thing, but slightly reworded. They also include a link to download more research they’ve done, however, I see the same link pop up over and over with a few varieties. There’s been no real value in any of the emails I received. Just an automated responder that tries to keep their company in front of me.

This situation has its positives and negatives. It’s great that they continue to email to me, but it’s almost living on an empty hope that I’ll some day convert or take some sort of action if the only type of message they send is the same one over and over. It’s almost a joke to me now to see the email come into my inbox each time. I keep wondering when they’re going to drop me or ask me to do something to say that I’m actually still interested. Now, for me, it’s funny, for the consumer, it’s annoying. I didn’t unsubscribe because I want to see how long they’ll continue this charade for.  What they need to do is try to get me engaged with them. My guess is that they’re not monitoring their list, or they think that the more people they send to, the greater the chance that at least someone will eventually click and convert. Instead, they should follow the process from Situation A, and clean their list once a quarter or so, and see who’s really interested. Move me to a different type of campaign to see if my habits change.

Lessons to be learned…

1. Clean your list on a consistent basis to move inactive subscribers into different types of campaigns (quarterly emails, re-engagement campaigns, or last chance to continue). Not only does this help the consumer, but you’ll also see more accurate open/click rate with your reporting. When you have deadwood in your list that you continue to email to, you don’t have a real idea of how many people are consistently opening/clicking on your emails and staying engaged.
2. Email is all about timing. You never know when is the best time for them to view your email. So if you haven’t seen an action from a subscriber within 3 months of mailing to them, chances are they might not be interested anymore (depending on your typical lead lifecycle timeline). 
3. Not every subscriber is in it for the same thing. Because of this, it’s important to ask them what they want and try different types of campaigns to see what gets them to take an action.
4. If not already doing so, try to only give a teaser paragraph along with a link to view the rest of the story in order to get subscribers to actually click through. If they have all the content they need on a “front page”, they won’t read through for more.

Why are these lessons important to an email marketer? Well, it could be annoying a potential customer if no one is paying attention to their behavior. The company could be spending extra money sending to an email address that will never open anything. I’m pretty sure that no one wants to annoy potential customers or lose money. Kind of a given. I realize it takes time to go through some of these steps, but companies are likely to earn more business and keep subscribers/consumers happy if the effort is made.