Do you remember when little Goldilocks was sampling the bears’ porridge (‘this one is too hot…this one is too cold…”) then laying in their beds (“this one is too hard, this one is too soft…”)? In both cases, she was looking for the one that was “just right.”
When it comes to email marketing – what you send and how often you send it – your customers also want the ‘just right’ version. Blast them too often and they will probably unsubscribe. Not often enough and they will forget about you. If the content is right on target every time they will be happy – but two ‘boring’ articles in a row may be all it takes for them to lose interest.
How can small business owners get it ‘just right’ in such an ‘information overload’ era? There is one, and only one way. Fortunately, it’s remarkably simple: ask.
Ask your customers how often they want to receive updates. Ask them what kind of updates they want to receive (stand-alone announcements or more comprehensive newsletters?). And ask which topics they would like to hear about.
Some of your clients might not mind receiving an email every day. To me, that’s remarkable. But it’s true. Others will want to receive only weekly or even monthly updates, with occasional ‘special announcement’ pieces if you have something really unique going on.
To maximize your open rate, grow your list and keep your readers engaged, you need a content strategy and a segmentation plan.
Content strategy is about the kind of information that people want to receive. They won’t all be interested in the same things, so it’s unwise to assume that a one-size fits all email policy will work. The best approach is to identify different interest areas and create content that is relevant to each one – then make sure you deliver only the content that your readers have expressed desire for.
Segmentation is about content and frequency. Once you know what I want to hear about, for example, you also need to know how often I want to hear it. This example may help:
If you own a landscaping business you might be an expert and service provider in several different areas such as:
Mowing
Botanicals (which plants, shrubs and trees are ideal for your customers environment)
Irrigation
Lighting
Masonry/hardscapes
Off-season service such as fall clean up and winter snow removal
Commercial/residential
Can you see how the interests of someone living in a standalone housing residential area might be significantly different from the needs of your commercial customers?
Once someone opts into your list, you’ll want to use a survey tool (like SurveyMonkey, which is free) to better understand his or her needs. Simply ask which services they would like to hear about, and how frequently, then drop your subscribers into unique groups such as those who want information about basic services such as mowing, snow removal and fall clean-up, others who want only hardscaping alternatives, and those who want everything. Sort by frequency as well. This approach means that you will have to do some work up front, but you can use auto-responders (which I’ll cover in my next post) to automate a lot of it. It’s worth it, as you will see right away when your targeted approach leads to increased open rates.
Once your marketing strategies start to pay off, please consider me for your bookkeeping needs.
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