It’s critical to occasionally step back and review the goals of your email marketing program. Every so often, you should be asking questions like, “What is the main point of this email?” or “Who is the intended audience for this campaign?” In direct marketing, we tend to be very focused on these questions. However, when it comes to email, the answers to these questions are often vague (”Our goal is to do X…and Y…and…Z.”).
Unfortunately, while having many goals (aka, calls to action) may work for the sender, it can often mean a cluttered, irrelevant email in the eyes of the recipient.
Everything beyond the main call to action should serve as a compliment. If you are segmenting your audience, which you should be, you have the ability to send relevant information based on specific interests. In general, as the NFL proved, you will see a higher response if you send relevant, timely information to people who want it.
Following are some examples of marketers exhibiting this best practice (click the brand name to see the full email):
In this email, BR ties two different product lines together with a unifying theme (the color black). The main focus of the email is very clear and at no point in the email does the message detract from that. Even the special holiday offer at the bottom ties back into the preheader, which ties into the body of the message, etc. This is cross-selling personified. Bravo, Banana Republic.
I love this email from Horchow. When I look at the animated gif portion of this email, I fancy myself an interior decorator. I also picture what each of these product combinations would look like in my home. The landing page the email takes me to is even more fun and interactive - and concentrated on the same goal. The point is, Horchow had a focus for this email and built a marketing plan and landing page to support the concept.
Sometimes, however, the main point of an email can be lost when a marketer is trying to accomplish too much in an email, as Bluefly displays below.
This email invokes what I would call a “smushie” effect: pushing two entirely different emails together into one. Bluefly could have made it work, as it makes sense to cross-sell clothing to an audience interested in shoes, but they could have tied the two together be it through a single, targeted promotion or by showing how the shoes could compliment a Robert Rodriguez outfit.
To summarize:
- Maintain your focus. Develop a main point of the email and build out from there.
- Remember your audience. Segmenting your list based on interest, demographics, psychographics, and so on, should help you develop relevant content for the right audience.
- Keep it simple. Following the KISS principle, don’t over-complicate your message.
- Cross-sell sensibly. Establish a relationship between the products (or ideas) and maintain the main point of the email.
Feel free to share your thoughts below.
Kelly Lorenz
Account Manager at Bronto Software
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