Four Ways E-mail Marketers Can Boost Customer Relationships

At a time when most consumers are watching every dollar they spend, e-mail marketers must be attuned more than ever to their subscribers' needs in order to stay relevant, buoy response and keep their e-mail programs healthy. In short, they have to do everything possible to keep subscribers engaged.

But what exactly is engagement? For marketers, engagement goes beyond the old staple of relationship marketing and into truly anticipated content and communications. An engaged customer not only knows who you are, but is genuinely interested in what you have to offer. Even better, an engaged relationship goes two ways — marketers are not only talking, they're listening.

What's the best day and time to send e-mail?

Of course, not every recipient is ready to be engaged. But marketers need to move beyond a least-common-denominator approach and engage with customers who are open to it. Identify those recipients who regularly interact with your Web site and e-mail programs. Make an effort to understand them as individuals. Send them a survey. Learn when they're most likely to be online. Analyze the types of content they respond to. These are the first and most important steps for truly entering the world of engagement marketing.

Next, consider the qualities your favorite e-mail senders have in common. They're giving you the very best, most relevant and timely offers, tailored precisely to your needs. They understand what appeals most and they're delivering exactly what you want.

In return, you respond by opening, clicking or purchasing. You may even choose to respond in channels beyond e-mail — for example, by posting the message to your favorite social network or a customer review to the Web site. That's the new world of engagement.

HOW TO DO IT

Here are four strategies for boosting customer engagement:

• Make a good impression with a welcome campaign. A welcome program is an automated series of e-mails that begins right after someone opts in to your program. It gets your new subscriber relationship off to a solid start.

  The first welcome message engages subscribers immediately by acknowledging the opt-in, while it's still fresh in their minds, and builds on new subscribers' enthusiasm. Research by MarketingSherpa shows that interest — as measured by open rate — begins to wane as early as two weeks after someone opts in. Beginning your e-mail relationship with a welcome series reinforces your brand, your presence in the inbox and your subscribers' expectations, which builds trust.

• Send when customers are most likely to open. What's the best day and time to send e-mail? The only way to really know what works best for your list is to test. Even so, testing only narrows it down to a day and time that's best across your entire list or a segment of that list. A truly effective technique is to send when it's best for each individual recipient.

  One of Silverpop's clients recently mailed to a control group at the same day and time every week and to a test group based on the day and time of each recipient's last open. The result was indisputable: The test group generated 52% higher revenue and 47% more average value per order than the control group.

• Reactivate dormant subscribers. Recipients may stop responding to your messages for a variety of reasons: they were never fully engaged as new subscribers; their interests have shifted and your mailings are now irrelevant; or your messages didn't meet their expectations. But you still may be able to win them back.

Create an e-mail campaign to re-engage those who have drifted. For example, send a survey asking how your e-mail program can better meet their needs, and what kind of content and products would be interesting to them. Then set up new profiles for these preferences and personalize e-mails accordingly.

While you're at it, evaluate the program for inactivity triggers. Are you mailing too often or too infrequently? Are you delivering what you promised at opt-in? Is your competition taking better care of their subscribers than you? If so, examine what they're doing…and do it better.

---

BILL NUSSEY is CEO of e-mail marketing services provider Silverpop, Atlanta.