The dangers of subscriber loyalty. Eh?
Latest posts | Feed | | By Mark Brownlow
Having loyal subscribers makes things easier. Once you've earned that loyalty, the pressure comes off the email production process.It doesn't mean you can sacrifice on the value you send in your content and offers. That way lies ruin. But it does give you a little leeway in terms of packaging.
What starts to happen is that such things as subject lines and sending times diminish in importance. Provided your email is easily recognized, people will look for it, find it and consume it.
Loyalty drives attention
If, for example, you send out a B2B newsletter on a big public holiday, you'd expect responses to that newsletter to fall below average. People aren't at work and we know most opens are normally recorded in the first few hours after a send.
Here the numbers from a real example sent out on September 7th, a big US holiday (Labor Day):
The results are not that different to a "normal" send day. People simply open the email the next day:
How can this be a bad thing? Well, it isn't. If you're lucky enough to have a loyal audience, this is great news. But there are dangers associated with such loyalty.
Danger 1: Complacency
Loyalty, like permission, is not permanent. It depends on continuing to deliver the value that turned them loyal in the first place.
Loyal subscribers may be more forgiving of the occasional dip in quality. But they have their limits, too. You don't want to risk falling below the extinction threshold.
Danger 2: Not everyone's loyal
As a list ages, new subscribers make up an ever-smaller proportion of the total list size. So their response to email elements like subject lines, offers and send times is effectively masked if you have a particularly loyal subscriber base.
Your current email approach may be turning new subscribers into ex-subscribers or inactive subscribers without you spotting any big shifts in response rates.
Danger 3: Clique speak
A related problem is to assume subscribers are all very familiar with you and your emails. This can lead to clique speak, using jargon or an insider style that long-term subscribers can relate to but leaves newcomers confused or excluded.
Another problem is that you assume everyone read the last 50 emails. But for some people, this email is their first from you. Oblique references to past content simply leave them confused.
These dangers mirror problems that online forums encounter when forum growth plateaus. Newcomers can feel like they're intruding on a private gathering where everyone knows everyone else.
While some newcomers are incented to gain access to that insider clique, others simply won't bother to familiarize themselves with the tribal rules and wander off to somewhere more welcoming.
See if you have an issue
If you do have a loyal audience, pull out statistics for new sign-ups and see how they compare to the average: look at response and unsubscribe rates.
Under normal circumstances, these should be better than the norm, since the original interaction that led to a sign-up (like a purchase or website visit) is still top of mind. New subscribers should be more engaged than average (to begin with).
If they're not, perhaps you have a loyalty "problem".
Solution 1: Consider welcome streams
You probably have a welcome message for your email program. Consider broadening this into a series of welcome messages to ease new subscribers into familiarity with your messages before adding them to your standard email flow.
These links will help with the theory:
- Tactics 3 and 4 in this post outline why you do this
- Best practices for initial emails after sign-up
- The power of welcome emails
- An award-winning welcome series by REI and Smith-Harmon
- One bank's approach to "onboarding" emails
- An evaluation of how Netflix does it
Solution 2: Get a fresh perspective
Consider showing your messages to someone who is not familiar with them. They can help pinpoint elements that make no sense to the newcomer.
You don't want to remove every "insiders only" element from your emails. After all, it's often those elements that help your emails stand out and cement loyalty in the first place.
But a fresh perspective may identify small changes in tone, style, language, vocabulary etc. that retain the character of your emails but make life easier for those new to your list.
Solution 3: Continue to work on improvements
If your tests are not throwing out clear winners, look at the results of each test for different subscriber groups. While subject line changes may not move the needle much for long-term active subscribers, they may be showing you how to get more attention from newcomers.
[This post brought to you by Campaigner Email Marketing]
Permalink | October 05, 2009 | 0 comment(s) - add yours!
Get posts like this: as an RSS feed | biweekly email | via Twitter
Permalink | October 05, 2009 | 0 comment(s) - add yours!
Get posts like this: as an RSS feed | biweekly email | via Twitter
Sign-up for the Email Marketing Reports NEWSLETTER
Twice a month, free, packed with email marketing advice and all the posts from this blog.
Twice a month, free, packed with email marketing advice and all the posts from this blog.
0 Comments:
