Don’t Take Your Email Subscribers for Granted, Delight Them Instead
Email marketing best practices alone don’t ensure email marketing success. But sometimes we get so caught up in making sure we learn them and implement them, we forget to think bigger and more creatively. Let’s change that up a little.
Here’s an idea: Take some of the focus off of getting new subscribers and put a little more focus on rewarding the subscribers you do have.
It’s a common mindset in marketing: Go after the new customer, yet we often neglect the existing. Customer acquisition vs. customer retention.
And for us as email marketers who are not only going for sales (i.e. customers) but people to sign up for our email promotions (i.e. subscribers), a signup is like a sale, and a subscriber is like a customer.
Are you wondering why I’d even suggest this, since these subscribers are getting some deals already because they signed up to get your emails? You have that covered. Since you might think that you are already rewarding them. But in a way, they are only getting what they expected to get. A 10% off promo code? They expected that. A sneak preview of an upcoming event? They expected that too.
It’s a little challenging, trying to surprise and delight customers in this day and age of entitlement and expectation.
But that’s what gives you an edge. Good is the enemy of great. If you’re doing “good enough,” that means you could be doing better. And with so many other businesses and brands vying for your customer’s loyalty, great should be your goal.
What if, when a cashier asked a customer if they wanted to be added to the email list, and the customer said, “I already get your emails,” the cashier handed the customer a candy bar as a reward?
What if your email subscribers got a snail mail recognition from you? My inbox gets inundated with holiday greetings from the businesses with my name on their lists. You know what would stand out? A real-life, physical holiday greeting.
What if a subscriber got a free gift when placing an order, not one you told them they’d get, but a surprise that was included in their package with a note that said it was a gift of gratitude for being an email subscriber?
In any of these cases, you’d make a huge impression for a low cost…and make that subscriber anticipate your next email promo that much more.
Sometimes adhering to email marketing best practices alone isn’t enough. Sometimes the savvy email marketer has to think outside the box. Don’t give up on the email marketing best practices! But don’t limit yourself to them either.
About the Author: Jared LaRock
