Don't Call It a Comeback: Why Email Marketing Still Matters

"The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated." – Mark Twain

There's been some chatter around the Web in recent years about the looming death of email at the hands of social media.

Scandalous as it sounds, though, many of us wouldn't mind seeing our bulging inboxes go away. The Telegraph recently highlighted a study connecting email to stress at work. Not surprisingly, participant stress levels spiked at points in the day when inboxes were fullest. Shocking revelation, right?

But whether the thought of email extinction unsettles or elates you, a closer look at its role in our work and lives reveals that the reports of email's death are greatly exaggerated.

State of the union email address

Social media may be doing the heavy lifting when it comes to sharing our lives, but email remains a valued, private and protected channel for conducting life and business online.

We use email to keep up with the brands, organizations and communities we care about through e-newsletters, news alerts, daily deals, group activity digests, etc.

We use it to conduct business online, such as registration for services, support requests, banking e-statements and payment confirmations. You can even get receipts emailed to you from the registers of many brick-and-mortar retailers now.

Ironically, even social media is using email to keep us engaged. How often do you receive notifications from Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and the lot about new followers, daily/weekly activity digests, new comments on conversations and suggestions for new connections?

Marketer's know the inbox is alive and well, and they're still pumping out white papers and webinars about email marketing. Email service providers like Constant Contact and MailChimp—and a half-dozen others—are still thriving.

Email still matters because it is so closely connected to our identities and our lives. It's less transient than social media. People delete their accounts—ask Facebook after a privacy policy change. Social sites rise and fall in popularity—last year it was Pinterest, this year Instagram. Some professionals hardly check their LinkedIn accounts. But nearly everyone online has an email account that they check regularly and some of us have had a particular address for 10, 15, and nearly 20 years.

So if email is closely connected to who we are as people, it's important that we as business growers frame email marketing efforts in this light. Forget open rates, click throughs, bounce rates, etc. for just a moment and let's focus on three keys to connecting with customers in their inboxes.

Key #1: Relationship

By signing up to receive your emails, customers are inviting you into their inbox—a personal space. They "opt-in" in faith that you will deliver value and not abuse the privilege.

This transaction of trust is as important as the ones involving money. Your email recipients are in fact customers even if they've never spent a penny on your products or services. They are paying for your email content with their time and attention.

Unfortunately, many businesses today don't understand (or ignore) this relationship dynamic and treat email like direct mail, using "spray and pray" tactics—"I've got a message to get out and a database full of email addresses. Let's do this!"

If you "e-blast" your customers, by the way, you may be guilty of this kind of marketing terrorism.

As customers welcome you into their inboxes, treat them with respect. Give them value. Be a guest they'll want to come back again and again. Essentially, don't be self-centered or rude.

Ultimately, the key to building relationships with your customers through email is the Golden Rule.  Email as you would want to be emailed.

Key #2: Content

Email marketing is content marketing ...  And the first key to great email content is to give subscribers what they want.

Give 'em what they want

If you offer multiple email subscription options for your customers—for example deals, company news, e-newsletters, etc.—then honor their wishes. If all I want is deals, don't send me your press releases.

If you don't segment your email content like this and basically have one big mailing list, then it's important to actively get feedback from subscribers to determine what types of content they're interested in—and how often want to get it, but more on that later. Consider polling your list once or twice a year to see which features they like best. Or better yet, make your emails "reply-able" and end them with a question like "How can we improve the content of our emails for you?" This type of engagement with the reader make the email more of a two-way conversation.

To increase trust and interest earlier, at the email sign-up form, make it clear what customers will be getting by subscribing. The more clarity you provide the more comfortable and more emotionally invested they will be.

Be interesting

It may sound obvious, but make it a priority to have something interesting to say or share with subscribers. Give them a reason to keep reading.

NextDraft is an an email newsletter published daily by Dave Pell in which Dave simply currates news from all over the web and delivers "The day's most fascinating news" right to your inbox. His description of NextDraft is better than any I could offer:

Each morning I visit about fifty news sites and from that swirling nightmare of information quicksand, I pluck the top ten most fascinating items of the day, which I deliver with a fast, pithy wit that will make your inbox vibrate with delight...

Imagine this: You'll actually look forward to email again. It's totally free and almost no one ever unsubscribes. The subscription form is up there, just a few pixels away. Go ahead. Give your inbox some awesome.

Just as captivating as the 10 intriguing stories Dave highlights each day is the smart writing he uses to set up each story and string them all together.  Here's a sample:

Put a little art in their inbox

I always open emails from Berlin-based software firm 6Wunderkinder because they are the most beautifully designed ones in my inbox. Great design is core to the 6Wunderkinder brand and products, and this commitment carries over into their email, which always look great and announce something worth reading about. Here's a recent sample from my inbox:

You don't have to be a design firm or developer to put together attractive html-based emails. Most email services providers have templates with drag-and-drop customization. But ... HTML-based email can be a little tricky in the ways it's rendered by various email software, so if in doubt, it's probably better to get some professional help.

Customize content to show you care

A growing trend in the email marketing world is email personalization, serving up different types of content to customers based demographics like location, sex or age as well as cues from their interactions with the brand or where they are in the sales pipeline. Personalization increases the value of your emails by providing content that fits more closely with customers interests and other characteristics.

For example, IKEA is a global brand, so the emails I get from their loyalty program, IKEA Family, are specific to my local store in Charlotte—not Stockholm.  In the example below, they even offer a deal in collaboration with the local minor league baseball team, the Knights. And local store information—location, hours, and contact info—is included at the bottom.

While this level of personalization involves some pretty robust marketing software, businesses without such resources can still tailor messages to specific groups of readers by segmenting their email lists through criteria like geographic location. Additionally, the major email service providers do offer some basic tools for email personalization. Just remember that the goal of any customization is to deliver a better, more personalized email experience to your customers.

Key #3: Frequency

A recent marketing study conducted by The Economist Intelligence Unit and Lyris, asked participants, "In your opinion, what frustrates you most about companies’ use of online communications?" Eighty percent of respondents chose "Too many unwanted email messages," outpacing the second place option by more than thirty points.

Most of us have grown accustomed to the tidal wave of information that is social media, so we're used to ignoring a lot of it. But email has to be managed. We generally touch each piece of mail, much in the same way as postal mail for centuries past. So the motivation here is to send only enough mail to provide value to subscribers, without being associated with inbox burnout.

Research by Eloqua shows that a judicious frequency of emails sent isn't just good for the customer, it's good for campaign performance. In essence, it appears from the chart below that when it comes to getting customers to email marketing that gets results, less is more.

Behavior-Triggered Emails: The Secret to Boosting Your Open Rates by 152%

When it comes to email marketing, personalization is the secret to success. But how can you effectively personalize a tool that is by its very nature designed for mass communication?

The answer? Behavior-triggered emails.

Behavior-triggered email is a versatile personalization technique that allows your business to engage with customers at timely touch points. For example, when RunKeeper, a pedometer app, sends a message to one of their registered users with a prompt that reads, “You went running last Saturday at this time. Why not go for a run now?” — that’s a behavior-triggered email. Although highly personal to the recipient, messages like these are easy to automate by taking advantage of data points that are relatively easy to mine and collect thanks to modern technology.

While there is an almost limitless range of ways to execute behavior-triggered emails, the keys to crafting a successful campaign are specificity and creativity. To help you better understand what this is all about and provide inspiration that you can implement in your own marketing, let’s take a look at just a few of the brands that are using this tactic effectively to connect with their customers:

Harris Teeter: Welcome

The strategy: Sending a welcome email is standard protocol almost any time someone signs up for an account on your website or app. However, this message from grocery store chain Harris Teeter goes a couple of extra steps beyond extending the typical thank-you for registering.

First, it offers a discount on the service fee, providing an extra kick-in-the-pants incentive for new account holders to seize the day and place their first order.

Second, it takes advantage of this inbox inroads to remind customers of the benefits of their personal online shopping service and offer a few helpful hints for getting started, thereby reinforcing the sales messages that prompted the user to sign up for an account in the first place.

Soap: Come back

The strategy: In most relationships between customers and brands, there comes a time when the customer begins to drift away, whether because another competitor has caught their eye or because any of life’s myriad responsibilities and distractions have bumped their need for your products or services down in their list of priorities.

If it’s been a while since a customer last visited your site or made a purchase, it’s time to reach out and give them a gentle reminder that you’re still here for them, which is exactly the objective behind this message from Soap.com. Their approach is particularly effective because it is not just a one-time offer that might entice a customer back only to lose them again after making one purchase in order to reap the benefit of the discount. Rather, the offer code is good for every purchase made for two months, a smart sales strategy aimed at coaxing the customer back into becoming a habitual Soap shopper.

Williams-Sonoma: Abandoned cart

The strategy: Another staple of e-commerce email marketing is the abandoned cart reminder. While this strategy is not earthshakingly innovative, it is nevertheless effective.

Williams-Sonoma takes this approach to the next level by including a unique discount code that provides a strong incentive for the customer to return to the site – or the store – to complete their purchase. The code is valid for less than 24 hours, creating a sense of urgency to take advantage of the deal.

One caveat to this approach: You shouldn’t always include a discount offer in your abandoned cart reminder email, or you’ll run the risk of training your customers to put their desired items into the cart and then wait patiently for your message to arrive before checking out with their discount code. Rather, mix up your pitches and include a discount code in some messages but not all. Below is an example of a follow-up email from Williams-Sonoma that does not rely on a special offer to create an urgency to act but rather a mention of limited quantities and a reminder that the previously selected items will soon be cleared from the cart.

Old Navy: Product review

The strategy: If you’ve ever purchased something online, you’ve undoubtedly received one of these emails. Again, the reason they’re so popular is that they’re so effective.

Reaching out to someone who has already made a purchase from you to ask them to share their opinion about the product or services they received is a winning approach all the way around. The simple act of making the request conveys to your customer that you’re a brand that cares about your customers and their satisfaction. Moreover, when they click through to provide their review, you’re getting the benefit of a first-hand testimonial that will help you sell that product to future customers. You’ve also successfully brought an existing customer back to your site, where hopefully something new will catch their eye, leading to a purchase that will begin the cycle all over again.

Grovemade: Survey

The strategy: The survey request is another sure-fire winner. Similar to the product review prompt, the survey request conveys to the recipient that their needs and opinions are valued.

In this example from Grovemade, customers who have previously purchased a related product are sent a link to a survey to provide input to the company on the design of accessories for the new Apple Watch. This accomplishes two smart marketing objectives. First, it gives the company valuable insights to shape their new product line so that it delivers exactly what their customers want. Second, it creates anticipation among their customer base for an upcoming line of products even while they are still in the R&D phase.

Nike: Celebrate a milestone

The strategy: If you have a website or app that tracks customer activity, you likely have data that will allow you to recognize your customer for reaching a milestone, whether it’s a birthday, the anniversary of their becoming your customer or even a personal accomplishment based on activity logged via the site or app.

This example from Nike is a great case-study in how to make this particular approach work for you. In the email, Nike puts the recipient front and center by keeping acknowledgment of their achievement the primary focus. As a secondary message, Nike includes a “reward” for reaching this milestone in the form of a discount on Nike running shoes. While this is obviously a bit self-serving on Nike’s part, it’s also a great way to foster customer loyalty by providing an incentive to buy at a time when the recipient is most likely to be in need of their product.

The proof is in the results

Market research shows that behavior-triggered emails are a valuable but underused tactic. EmailMonks reports that open rates for triggered emails are 152% higher than those for traditional email marketing messages. Even so, over 75% of marketers are not yet using behavior-triggered emails or auto-responders.

A word of caution

Before you go all-in on behavior-triggered emails, take a moment to consider how your correspondence will come across to the recipient.

Online privacy is a hot-button issue these days. Just because you can capture and use data about your customers doesn’t necessarily mean that you should. The last thing you want to do is alienate a prospect or customer because you are blatantly tracking their activities without their consent. The best approach is to apply the principles of trustcasting and allow your customers to opt in to receiving your messages and to tell you what types of communication they’d like to get. The simple courtesy of obtaining permission can make all the difference between being perceived as a helpful partner or an obtrusive snoop.

Also, as with any email marketing strategy, make sure you don’t wear out your welcome in your customers’ inboxes. Use good sense and restraint in the timing and frequency of your emails. For example, if I browse your e-commerce store, don’t make a purchase, get an email, browse again but still don’t commit, are you going to send me another reminder that I still have items in my cart? These are the kinds of rules and parameters  that you’ll need to establish judiciously for your campaign in order to walk the fine line between smart marketer and pushy salesperson.

Getting started

If you’re not so sure about diving in without your water wings, there are tools that specialize in sending triggered emails, like Vero for e-commerce, Intercom for B2B and SparkPage for B2C campaigns. If email marketing is one of the primary vehicles you rely on to win and retain customers, then it may be worthwhile for you to partner with an experienced software development company to design a customized system that integrates with your website and your CRM and SFA systems to effectively capture and leverage the customer data you need to create the most powerful conversion engine possible.

Setting up an automated behavior-triggered email program does require an investment of time and tactical thinking upfront, but once it’s implemented, your company will reap the benefits of having a razor-sharp communication strategy that resonates with your customers by providing timely information that caters to their interests, preferences and habits.