I'm talking retention, not acquisition. CRM, or Customer Relationship Management, is emerging as one of the most crucial weapons in a marketeer's arsenal. As the market place gets more and more noisy, aggressive and competitive - nurturing loyalty among those who already know you is a sure fire way of cutting through.
I, on average, get about 20 marketing emails land in my inbox every day. More often than not, just like the circulars you get through the post, they end up in the bin. So it might be easy to dismiss this type of marketing as antiquated, irrelevant and offers little ROI. However, making copy work harder could result in conversions and plenty of brand awareness.
Subject lines
- Keep to 50 characters or less including spaces
- Make them catchy and memorable
- Avoid 'help, %, off and reminder'
- Be clear, not creative (but test this to see what works for your brand)
- Be personal
- Avoid salesy language
- There are 152 killer keywords and 137 crap ones (offers, news, video, etc.)
- Avoid caps, free and exclamation - it'll go to junk
- Use geolocation
- Frame as questions
- Avoid emoticons, RE/FWD, SOS, %
Body copy
- Write for scannability
- Keep it short and pithy
- Use links - signpost to existing content, don't reinvent the wheel
- Create a readable flow
- Appeal to the reader's emotions
- Think about tone of voice
- Provide proof - show, don't tell and lead with the benefit
- Repeat offers and CTAs
- Use persuasion tactics (reciprocity, commitment and consistency, social proof, liking, authority and scarcity)
- Write timely content, whether it's personal to the customer or a national/international event, ie Christmas, Valentine's Day, Bank Holiday, etc.
Call to action (CTA)
- Use verbs and give direction
- Use buttons
- Make the copy attention grabbing
- Minimise number of CTAs
- Think about where it appears on the page
Segmentation
Of course, none of the above will work unless you have solid data and you write for that specific audience.
Remember not to expect positive engagement across all channels. It's also important to recognise and acknowledge your data source, people are increasingly suspicious about data sharing between companies. And don't assume instant engagement, they may come back to it.
Don't underestimate the importance of your pre-header, as all email communications should be written mobile first.
Emails are getting increasingly complex and innovative with the introduction of dynamic content that can be continually personalised to a person, place and time. And with the resurgence in popularity for GIFs, email has a huge remit to be engaging, creative and informative. So, use it wisely as it could be your best tool to reach out to a loyal customer base who will wax lyrical to potential customers and non-considerators.
