Sure! Content is King, but the king can kill U

It all comes down to content. That is the golden rule of email marketing strategy. But does having content equal success? That depends entirely on what your content actually is.

The moment you start thinking “marketing”, your emails turn into a stream of letters telling people to buy things — and sooner or later your friends and customers unsubscribe.

Remember: as covered previously, email is exceptionally good at maintaining customer relationships. Do not squander that advantage and let your email become a tool for driving people away.

You need to shift the concept. Email exists to invite recipients to take part in your sales activity, directly or indirectly — and that activity is not sell, sell, sell. It is building your brand image, building long-term mutual trust, and, just as importantly, giving the other party value.

· Your email should let customers know that you (or your company) understand what they need.

· Sharing your experience and useful information makes customers feel that you (or your company) value them.

· Telling them regularly about your recent work, new developments and success stories keeps you front of mind, so they choose you when the need arises.

Follow those three points and you will be using email properly — building a long-term, meaningful relationship between yourself, your company and your customer base.

Working to those requirements, a regular newsletter is a perfectly good format to send. A newsletter can also be forwarded by email to your friends, and over time those friends become a source of referrals.

You can also send greeting-card EDMs — at festivals, on birthdays, on anniversaries of all kinds. These are emails recipients are happy to open, and once someone is willing to receive your email, the online connection between you is already open.