If you business owners or business marketers who send newsletters to thousands of customers each week, you must have asked yourselves more than once – is the recipient going to read my newsletter? Is he or she going to enjoy it in a way that will motivate towards action? And more than that – how can i make them interested in visiting links or sharing the content over the internet?
In order to answer these questions we need to consider what makes an email marketing message successful? And is it really enough to settle for just successful, or should we aspire for more? After all, sale offers and benefits are a very necessary element in any email marketing message, and they are usually predictable and mundane. One way to distinguish your email marketing concept from others is to incorporate added value.
Delete or read?
Your recipients want value for their money, and without a doubt they also want value for their time. Your job, when you write and design your email marketing campaign, is to identify what added value they will be most happy to receive. Many times, creating the newsletter using an email marketing system provides design and technological advantages that will upgrade your mail.
Added value ads to customer loyalty.
In order to achieve your business goals, customers must identify in the newsletter the benefits offered to them for performing the action they are requested to take. First of all, emphasize the value of your product without overestimating or underestimating it. Secondly, provide your recipient with added value, something additional which is likely to interest him or her, which they can enjoy regardless of whether they take any requested action. This added value and the fact that it is given without requiring anything in return, will create a positive relationship with the brand and make a positive impression that will increase the probability of purchase; if not now, then in the future.
Isn’t my product good enough?
It’s far too simplistic to think that the fact customers joined your email marketing list suggests that they know your product or love it. They may have joined because you offered a benefit or they received a recommendation about the quality of the product or even about the quality of the content you tend to send. That’s exactly why it’s the business’s duty to prove that the choice made by the customer to create the relationship was worthwhile… and to do that time and again! After all – just as the customers signed up to receive your email marketing messages, they can also remove themselves from the list if they’re disappointed.
There’s no doubt that customers love gifts, benefits, special offers, discounts etc. but apart from this, it is possible and recommended to supply emotional value. Otherwise, as soon as customers receive a better offer from a competitor, they’ll have no problem moving to the other side. It never hurts to wrap the sale offer or the benefit in added value – something separate from the quality of the product or service.
How do you create email marketing with added value?
Useful content – content should be written according to the typical areas of interest and goals of the target market. Useful content is professional information or advice which can benefit the customer during his or her day or while fulfilling his or her goals.
“Bonding” content – content of an emotional nature that generates openness or assists the customer in perceiving the business as having similar emotional qualities to their own. For example: an intriguing or romantic story, a funny joke, a wise insight etc.
Useful or bonding content usually create a desire for sharing (so your email marketing message will reach far more recipients than you had originally intended), and sometimes even create a connection which is translated into fondness towards the product, without knowing much about it.
Another type of added value is simply writing from the heart: let the customer feel important, valued, understood… and of course, let the communication be bilateral and listen to customers who respond and share with you their opinions and feelings towards the business or the brand.
