A well-rounded email program does more than just send messages that say “Buy this.” You can communicate effectively and continuously with an email program that includes many kinds of content and messages that align with your email content strategy and goals.
Effective email messages combine captivating images and optimized design with strong copy in articles and offers. Images capture attention. Good design helps readers navigate through the message. Strong copy engages, nurtures and retains customers. These relevant conversations build long-term relationships and increase customer lifetime value.
Don’t lose the customer with too many of the same messages
While sales messages and other promotional content are useful, you can burn out your list if “Buy this” is the only message you send. Your audience will tune out by unsubscribing, hitting the “report spam” button or quietly disengaging (deleting messages without opening them or letting them pile up in their inboxes).
When you send valuable and relevant information beyond the usual “Buy this” or “Sign up for this” offer, you can establish yourself as a helpful and trusted brand – one that will be top of mind when your recipients are ready to act.
Build trust
Content that helps customers find answers or solve problems builds trust – an essential quality today and one your brand must score high on to be successful. The authoritative Edelman Trust Barometer Special Report: Brand Trust in 2020 reveals that trust is second only to price as a factor driving consumer buying decisions.
You have many channels at your disposal to build trust with your customers. That well-rounded email program we mentioned at the beginning can be one of your most effective ways to build trust because you’re reaching customers in that most personal of spaces – the email inbox.
Uncover relevant content
Your email content strategy needs to be about more than what you want to say. Instead, you need to consider what your customers want or need to hear.
Your content must quickly answer the reader’s unspoken question: “What’s in it for me?” Focusing your message on benefits and value instead of features shows subscribers why they should care. Meet customers where they are and remind them–overtly or subtly–why their lives will be better because they engage with you.
Tailoring your content strategy to meet your audience’s needs ensures you’ll send relevant, valuable content that drives long-term customer value.
But what, exactly, are your audience’s wants and needs? How can you help them achieve their goals? What prompts them to act? What keeps your brand in their set of considered brands?
You should be able to form answers to these questions by assessing what you already know about your audience using these two methods:
• Consider your customer’s journey as it relates to interacting with your brand, and make sure you have all the necessary content to support those tasks.
• Review your client engagement data to understand the types of content that gets the best traction.
1. Create content for the customer journey
Your customer journey offers you many opportunities for relevant messages that expands your collection beyond “Buy this.”
Your journey could take the form of a sales/conversion funnel or an email subscriber lifecycle, depending on your business model. Either way, you’ll want to focus on messages that drive actions at key stages. This helps you map content opportunities that best answer the questions we posed in the previous section. The visual below provides an example of content ideas that help support the email subscriber lifecycle.
Automation is the driving force here. You can use new content to optimize your current message programs or to add new triggered messages based on behavior.
For example, customers who just bought from you for the first time would likely find value in content showing them how to get the most from their purchases. In contrast, an email subscriber who is still in your onboarding or consideration phase would be more interested in trust-building or educational content.
You have endless ways to align content with subscribers’ behaviors. That’s why you must prioritize the most important actions you need customers to take to meet your business goals and to identify where you might have more opportunities to deliver a value exchange for both the brand and the customer.
