Whether it is at work, in a relationship or even what you eat for lunch, everyone at some point falls into a rut. Before you know it you are just going through the motions while weeks or months pass before you even realize it.
The same can happen with your email marketing efforts.
When was the last time you actually thought about what you put in your emails?
Every week you add fresh content and promotional offers but do you ever stop and think, "is that all I need to do?"
Not everyone will experience the obvious signs of change like response rates declining, unsubscribes increasing or subscribers becoming inactive.
But that does not mean you should stay the course as if nothing is wrong.
Successful email marketers understand that shaking things up is key to keeping subscribers interested in their service or product.
If customers know what to expect from you, they probably won't bother reading the message after a while.
Here are some tips you can use to evaluate and refresh the contents of your future email marketing campaigns.
Take a good look back
For an ongoing email marketing campaign that has gone flat, take a look at every individual email over the past several weeks. Now, ask yourself these questions:
1. If I opened up every single email, would they look different?
2. Do the offers tend to feature the same few products?
3. Does the design look the same from week to week?
Look for habits you can break change the offers. Create new offers or promotions. Especially if the offers tend to cover the same few products or features. Maybe your subscribers would like to know about something else. Change the depiction of the offers. Try adding or subtracting information about your product or company. This could pique subscribers' interest and move them to want to learn more from your website. For instance, swapping out product features for customer testimonials may put old products in a new light. Everyone likes to read what other people have to say about their experience. You could also reduce long copy to a few key bullet points that could work better in driving subscribers to your site. Try out simple design tweaks. Change a background color, highlight a call-to-action or try adding smaller or larger images that match the email message. Implementing more eye candy will certainly help draw people in as long as you don't make it look like Atlantic City. SimplyCast's email marketing software features over 1000 free templates to choose from so you definitely have options. Go text-only for a few campaigns. Think of plain text as a real change of pace. The occasional plain text email can increase clicks simply because it stands out from fancy HTML emails. The effect doesn't last forever, but it keeps subscribers on their toes. It will also make the next HTML email look a lot better in comparison. Consider content other than offers. Your customers don't always want to buy things. But most subscribers want to learn new things. So trying an email that focuses on content can really grab attention. This could include blog posts from your website, articles on your company, or how to use the product better. If people get the idea that you are not just trying to bombard them with deals and special coupons, they may take the time to open the email. Monitor any change After making any of the previous changes, watch your email marketing campaigns to see if response changes among your subscribers. You can test old vs. new examples head-to-head to identify what works best. If the new changes actually decrease response rates, you can quickly go back to what was working before.
But for the most part, making basic changes should improve response, if only because the email looks a little different than before.
Email marketing is a very successful medium but you have to remember it does not fit into the set it and forgets category. Don't be afraid to try out new ideas and steer your email marketing campaigns in a new direction every once in a while.
