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(Strategy / tactics) The real challenge for email marketing
There's a super Asian restaurant chain in Vienna that delivers orders taken online. Their website is great and the ordering process simple and efficient. They always deliver quality meals, on time, at a decent price. And they send me a regular email newsletter, too.
The emails are rubbish.
They're not rubbish for all the usual reasons. They're beautifully designed, seamlessly integrating with the colors and flavor of the website. They look good in my email client. They address me by name and they don't send too often or too little.
They're just boring.
They send me a copy of their current menu. That's about it. You could argue that the emails are relevant, which is the big buzzword of the moment in email marketing (why just now?). But, frankly, they could save the fancy graphics and simply send me a line of text saying, "Just wanted to remind you that we still exist and still sell food."
That's actually not a bad start - keeping them top of mind. But I don't look forward to their emails. If a competitor could match their product and service, but did a better email, they'd probably get my custom.
Now email marketing may be potty-trained these days, but it still has a lot of growing up to do. The bad news for you is that an awful lot of small businesses are (still) yet to catch on to the value of email as a marketing tool. But they will do so eventually.
Soon every customer relationship an individual has with a business is a potential email promotion or newsletter subscription. A crazy level of competition for inbox attention.
And you can be sure that a lot of your competitors in that inbox (which is everyone sending email to that address) will get the mechanics right, just like my Asian restaurant chain.
They'll have an Email Service Provider that does a halfway decent job of delivering properly-formatted emails to readers, while ensuring the sender follows best practices on things such as opt-ins and list hygiene.
Those kind of mechanical best practices will just get you on the starting grid. But to win the race for your customer's attention, you're going to have to do much more.
Assuming you don't have the benefit of being inherently unique, which takes the pressure off, you're going to have to offer more value, more relevancy, or more entertainment than the rest.
Even then, advanced technologies, automation and third party services will see to it that a lot of emails are relevant and targeted, just like yours.
So I think you're going to have to dare to be different. Either by being way, way ahead of the competition in the value your emails offer, or by catching people's imagination. With wit, personality, innovation, whatever it takes.
The bad news about that is that nobody can give you a template, book or checklist which shows you how to do it.
But perhaps a first step is a step back. Get out of the daily grind, the business ritual, the herd mentality and think a little. Think about how your emails can be different enough and interesting enough to warrant priority attention from a busy reader already swamped by useful, relevant information.
Not easy.
Just how does the Asian restaurant keep me interested with its monthly newsletter? How about amusing tales from the kitchen, to show me how much thought and effort goes into the creation of the stuff I order?
Some dietary pointers so I know which meals to pick if I'm watching my weight?
Some advice on what to drink with different meals?
An indication of the proper presentation and table decoration for classy Asian food?
A bit of jocular banter from our crazy chef?
Some interesting stories behind the meals or their ingredients? What makes Mongolian crispy lamb so very...Mongolian?
That five minute brainstorm threw up enough ideas to start finding content that gives me a reason to open the newsletter rather than automatically hit the delete button.
And they can still include their latest menu.
There's a super Asian restaurant chain in Vienna that delivers orders taken online. Their website is great and the ordering process simple and efficient. They always deliver quality meals, on time, at a decent price. And they send me a regular email newsletter, too.
The emails are rubbish.
They're not rubbish for all the usual reasons. They're beautifully designed, seamlessly integrating with the colors and flavor of the website. They look good in my email client. They address me by name and they don't send too often or too little.
They're just boring.
They send me a copy of their current menu. That's about it. You could argue that the emails are relevant, which is the big buzzword of the moment in email marketing (why just now?). But, frankly, they could save the fancy graphics and simply send me a line of text saying, "Just wanted to remind you that we still exist and still sell food."
That's actually not a bad start - keeping them top of mind. But I don't look forward to their emails. If a competitor could match their product and service, but did a better email, they'd probably get my custom.
Now email marketing may be potty-trained these days, but it still has a lot of growing up to do. The bad news for you is that an awful lot of small businesses are (still) yet to catch on to the value of email as a marketing tool. But they will do so eventually.
Soon every customer relationship an individual has with a business is a potential email promotion or newsletter subscription. A crazy level of competition for inbox attention.
And you can be sure that a lot of your competitors in that inbox (which is everyone sending email to that address) will get the mechanics right, just like my Asian restaurant chain.
They'll have an Email Service Provider that does a halfway decent job of delivering properly-formatted emails to readers, while ensuring the sender follows best practices on things such as opt-ins and list hygiene.
Those kind of mechanical best practices will just get you on the starting grid. But to win the race for your customer's attention, you're going to have to do much more.
Assuming you don't have the benefit of being inherently unique, which takes the pressure off, you're going to have to offer more value, more relevancy, or more entertainment than the rest.
Even then, advanced technologies, automation and third party services will see to it that a lot of emails are relevant and targeted, just like yours.
So I think you're going to have to dare to be different. Either by being way, way ahead of the competition in the value your emails offer, or by catching people's imagination. With wit, personality, innovation, whatever it takes.
The bad news about that is that nobody can give you a template, book or checklist which shows you how to do it.
But perhaps a first step is a step back. Get out of the daily grind, the business ritual, the herd mentality and think a little. Think about how your emails can be different enough and interesting enough to warrant priority attention from a busy reader already swamped by useful, relevant information.
Not easy.
Just how does the Asian restaurant keep me interested with its monthly newsletter? How about amusing tales from the kitchen, to show me how much thought and effort goes into the creation of the stuff I order?
Some dietary pointers so I know which meals to pick if I'm watching my weight?
Some advice on what to drink with different meals?
An indication of the proper presentation and table decoration for classy Asian food?
A bit of jocular banter from our crazy chef?
Some interesting stories behind the meals or their ingredients? What makes Mongolian crispy lamb so very...Mongolian?
That five minute brainstorm threw up enough ideas to start finding content that gives me a reason to open the newsletter rather than automatically hit the delete button.
And they can still include their latest menu.
Permalink | September 12, 2005 |
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