“I” of the Consumer Week in Review

It’s Memorial Day Weekend! For many of us that means the unofficial start of summer. In New York, things are getting warmer and more active. Many people escape the city in the summer, I think it’s even better. Maybe because the crowds are gone. When there are fewer people competing over the same space, it makes it easier to maneuver and enjoy your time there. And if that doesn’t translate to the marketing world, I don’t know what will.

If you spent this past week preparing for BBQs and beaches, you may have missed the following posts:

1. The Value of Your Email List
2. Wondering How Email Works?
3. Email Newsletters: The What and the Why
4. Why Do I Care? ON24 Email Review

Happy Sunday!

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Why Do I Care? ON24 Email Review

The following email popped up in my inbox the other day:

I knew it was prime for a “review” post because I immediately had a number of questions that I wanted answered. First, I wondered if they had the rights to call anything “_ for Dummies”. Do the “for dummies” guys know about this webinar?

Second, I was intrigued by a webinar on hosting webinars. It was kind of like a thought I had awhile back on starting an email marketing class delivered via email.

The email itself is strong. Well composed, visually simplistic, and detailed with great calls to action. But the final question remained, how’d they get my name?

I seem like someone who should be getting this email. It’s for marketers. Surely they made the decision to include me. But I never signed up for updates from ON24, and this is my introduction to their promo emails.

And while I don’t think it’s the worst thing in the world to send a cold email to someone whose name you added to your list, I do think there is a need for introduction. Segment your first time recipients and tell me why you thought I needed to see this. Prove to me that there is value in being a subscriber, and let me unsubscribe right away if I disagree.

Overall Grade = D for Don’t send to me anymore!

Email Newsletters: the What and the Why

In my book, The Fundamentals of Email Marketing, I break the different types of marketing emails up into four categories. Today, for the first time, I will take a stand and tell you which of those is the most important.

It’s the email newsletter.

What is an email newsletter?

In the book, I describe a newsletter as any email that goes out to a subscriber list on a regular basis with news, updates, or exclusive information but no direct sales message. In the United States, 1 in 2 people now subscribe to at least one company’s email list. And chances are, most of them belong to a newsletter list. They might go out daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly. But whenever they do, people are expecting them.

Why is the email newsletter so important?

They have the most global functionality. A newsletter list can be the easiest to implement and grow, because consumers know that generally, a newsletter will present a pushy sales message, and it will come on a regular basis so that they know when and what to expect. Once you have a loyal newsletter following, you can begin to use that audience in other ways. Build brand loyalty, create specials and offers specifically for your newsletter subscribers, push them towards your social pages. It all starts with the reliability of an email newsletter.

Bonus:

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