What do you look forward to?
Maybe it’s finishing a project. Or going on vacation. Or perhaps it’s as simple as getting together with friends for a good time.
My daughter’s dog (pictured above) falls into that last category. His favorite thing is going to the bark park. Even if no one is there. He goes inside and waits.
Often another dog comes along. They play.
Sometimes no one shows up. And he gets sad. But he’s a dog. He’s ever hopeful a friend is just around the corner.
When my daughter gets home from work, her dog perks up his ears. He says, “I’ve been looking forward to the bark park all day.”
Do your readers perk up their ears when they see you in their inbox?
Or do they automatically hit “delete”?
Being a smart marketer, you know readers aren’t engaged with your brand if they mostly delete your emails.
These emails might be deleted because every email is selling.
People love to buy – but they hate to be sold. So if you’re not selling, what should you talk about?
6 Ways to Engage Email Readers Instead of Selling:
- Give helpful advice. Discuss how your product – or process – is a cut above.
- If you’re a contract manufacturer, give tips on how they can market your product.
- If you’re a reseller, talk about complementary products such as diet, exercise or mindset.
- Announce the news. Not that you’ve won an award. But what’s going on in your industry that might impact your customers.
- Tell a story.There are stories everywhere:
- Industry stories– how tackling an issue together is making life better.
- Company stories– how employees are solving problems.
- And customer stories – how your product is untangling a health dilemma.
- Use humor. Funny stories from the microbiome or from your company add a light touch.
- Be sympathetic. A lot is going on in the world these days – from Covid to natural disasters, to the war in Ukraine.
- Your customers don’t live in a bubble. Talk about the issues. Customers appreciate you showing you’re human.
- Show empathy. Customers buy your products to solve a problem. Make them feel heard and understood by using their words and language.
Engaging through Segmentation, Personalization, and Monitoring.
Although you’re familiar with segmentation and personalization, monitoring might be a bit new. This simply means you can’t just automate your emails and forget about them.
To monitor the emails you send, you can either have a team looking at behavior, or incorporate AI for deep-dive personalization.
As email delivers a whopping $36 for every $1 spent, you want to continue nurturing your audience through email.
And if you ever find yourself slammed with work and need someone to take over all, or part, of your email written, contact me.
I take email creation from idea to completion.