The 5.5 Rs of Email Marketing

I spend a lot of time speaking to people about their email marketing and quite often, they haven’t got a strategy, haven’t sent a mailout, don’t know their statistics and haven’t been nurturing their email list so quite frankly, it’s a recipe for e-saster.

It’s no surprise really that so many people tell me email marketing doesn’t work for them when they’ve got that cocktail of cock-ups and we’ve not even got onto their actual content yet.

So in today’s blog post, I’ve put together the 5.5 R’s of email marketing to consider so that you’re not just creating a pretty mailer, you’re thinking strategically and marketing effectively. After all, email marketing is one of the most affordable and impactful things you can do as part of your content marketing strategy.

The 5.5 R’s

Regularity and Rhythm

How often you send is often the first hurdle where people fall down. They send sporadically or burn out quickly, giving up after the first month. Truthfully, it’s not about sending loads of emails but it’s about rhythm and regularity, setting the tone for what to expect and when you’ll be mailing. Get your frequency right and make sure it’s achievable for you to stick to. An email database is for life, not just for Christmas.

Relevance

It’s lazy to have just one list and send to them all the time so you need to segment your contacts into sub-lists so you know certain shared information about them eg for me, I have a dedicated list for clients, one for people who have been on Contented, one for those who have been on Audacity, one for my most high value clients who purchase from me regularly etc. This means, if I wanted to email an offer to the people who had been on Contented, I can do that quickly and easily, keeping it relevant to where they are on their content journey. Segmenting and targeting allow you to keep your content relevant, valuable and razor sharp, sent straight to the right people.

Readability

Consider your design, layout and look. The aesthetic of each email campaign is not talked about much but you’re competing with a whole lot of noise in their inbox. So keep it concise, clear to read and clean to look at, not too cluttered and easy to scan. Also make sure it looks good on a mobile and not just a Mac as most people are consuming email content on their phones. Less is more when it comes to email. Cut the words but make them count. And ensure your email is easy on the eye.

Relationship

Don’t just use your email marketing to sell your offerings or talk about new launches or releases. This is a space to build relationship, to share your brand, behind the scenes and speak to your most loyal audience. The audience that actively sign up to receive updates from you are the ones you most need to nurture. This should be a space to create conversation and not just try to sell your product.

Reward

Don’t forget, these are your most loyal advocates so be sure to reward them. Whether it’s early access to sales, exclusive discounts or first looks when it comes to exciting news, be sure to reward them rather than throw it out to Instagram. On Instagram your content won’t always be consumed and the platform isn’t actually even yours. Your email marketing is content you have complete control over – it’s important to retain readers, build relationships and reward them for their loyalty.

EnRiching

The half an R as there’s an R halfway through! Your content needs to be enriching. It needs to add value. Engage, educate, entertain or enrich their lives – this is the basic premise of your email marketing. What are you GIVING to your audience? This is perhaps the most important (non-R but kind-of-R) of all.

If you’re looking to up your email ante and create compelling content to convert your customer and earn that click, why not check out my dedicated content marketing and strategy course Contented. Starting on 12 September, this 7 day course will talk you through email, blogging and social media content that is both effective yet authentic, with me on hand to help you personally as part of the Contented community. Check out Contented here.