Carrying on from part one of this article, I will continue on the subject of marketing emails. Part one covered the subject line and the sender, part two will go into more detail and cover the actual content of your email. First, a warning. None of this is set in stone, what works for one company may not necessarily work for their competitor. There are, however, some things that should be avoided (unless you are really really sure it’s a good idea!).

Unexpected content

The content of your email should match your subscriber’s expectations. I cannot stress this strongly enough. If I sign up to a newsletter about pet health care, that does not mean I am interested in “20% pet food discount massive sale”. Similar, but not the same. If I did not ask to be informed about your pet food discounts there is a good chance I will view your company as spammers and unsubscribe from your newsletter, or simply mark it as junk.

Failed personalisation

Using custom fields in your email can be a good thing. More often, it’s completely unhelpful. Adding “Dear customer” to the start of your email might seem like a good idea, but most of the time it gives an impersonal feel to the email. “Dear customer, 15% off final offer” is even worse. The message looks like spam even before you put “Dear customer” on the front.

Getting too personal

Don’t put anything in an email that you would not say to your customers in a face-to face conversation. This is even more important if you products/services are quite personal in nature. Don’t alienate potential customers by pretending to be their friend, this strategy may work on a few people but will quickly alienate the rest of your customer base.

Misuse of segmentation

Segmentation, when used well, can be a very powerful tool. Unfortunately, it’s rarely used well. If you have access to detailed information about your customets, it’s possible to send tailor-made newsletters. This is usually done as a 2-part arrangement. First you get your customers to take part in a survey, so you can segment them into interest groups. You then use the results of this survey to send targeted marketing to a subset of your customer base. Don’t be tempted to guess! If someone has not taken your survey, if you don’t actually know what their preferences are, don’t try to sell them a subset of your merchandise.

Neverending Offers

You’ve probably seen these before… its a common strategy used in retail outlets. “Closing down sale” does not necessarily mean that the store is closing down. Some stores I could mention have been “closing down” for years. This approach is considerably less effective when applied to email marketing. If you keep bombarding people with the same offer, they will quickly learn to ignore it. If a high street retail store is having a “closing sale” you may not be aware that the same “sale” has been going on for the past 6 months. Perhaps you will be tempted to come inside and buy something before it’s “too late”. However, bombarding someone’s inbox with sale promotions will not have the same effect, its very easy to see when a retailer is trying to mislead you.

If you manage to avoid these common pitfalls, whatever remains is probably quite good. Good luck with your marketing plan!