The Team thinks we need to sing this jingle one more time…not because you begged for more, but because we think “relevance” is extremely important, but the topic can be a bit abstract and therefore easily dismissed. So what is “relevant” content?
We think it means information “pertaining to” or “applicable to” or (my favorite) “useful” to the recipient. For example, using your email analytics and behavioral stats to customize product offers, messages, template designs and conversational style to appeal to certain audience segments. In other words, the complete opposite of the “batch and blast” or “spray n’ pray” type emails of the early days, right?
That’s what we thought too, until we looked at some recent studies, including the CMO Council and InfoPrint Solutions Company’s “Why Relevance Drives Response and Relationships”1 and a follow-up discussion called “Relevance Remains a Challenge for E-Mail Marketers” on eMarketer.com 2. In fact, every one of the analyst sites and industry publications we researched agreed on the importance of relevance in winning the “inbox wars” − and that much work still needed to be done.
So no matter how frazzled or pressured you feel this season, try to do the extra work it takes to collect and apply relevant, personalized content in your email marketing messages, offers, invites, videos, even tutorials and presentations. (Why not be industry or business specific?!) And NOW is the time to get serious about this because Forrester predicts promotional email traffic will double in the next 5 years!!
We’re not trying to scare you, but just to add some support for our daily mantra…go the extra mile to be relevant and increase your campaign ROI. Here’s why:
“More than nine in 10 respondents to the CMO Council survey had unsubscribed from an e-mail newsletter at some point. Relevance—or lack thereof—was the No. 1 reason. “ 3
What this tells us in a nutshell is that recipients want QUALITY, NOT QUANTITY and that means USEFUL, RELEVANT INFORMATION! At least 22% of consumers admitted that if they receive too much generic email from a company, they unsubscribe just to cut back on inbox clutter. Another 41% said they would probably do the same…OUCH! We’re talking about losing almost two-thirds of a group of prospects FOREVER!
Now, as far as the types of emails that actually get opened, transactional emails still lead, as we reported in previous blogs. But get this…only about 4 in 10 recipients said they “always” opened promotional emails or newsletters. That’s what you’re up against!
We hope we’ve made our point without too many boring statistics. Now please write and tell us what we can do to help you get there, OK? Do you need more tips, data, examples, or perhaps you have questions? Maybe you’ve solved this problem and can share your results?
1,2CMO Council and InfoPrint Solutions Company: “Why Relevance Drives Response and Relationships”.
3 http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007389.