Know what your customers actually want
There are seven kinds of email you must send to your contacts and recipients:
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The invitation email This is the first email you send a reader, inviting them to become a subscriber and promising them important, valuable information.
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The welcome email The second email you send, welcoming their subscription and promising to treat them well. Responding immediately matters a great deal — it tells the recipient how important they are and makes them look forward to further contact.
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The newsletter A significant email for building the company brand, and a tool for building an ongoing relationship. A regular newsletter gives recipients a sense of progress.
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The digest email Structurally this is a newsletter. What makes it useful is that it highlights particular items from the newsletter, and it goes out between issues.
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The lead nurturing email Sharing valuable information and your own distinctive, constructive ideas or observations, so recipients gradually build confidence in you and, from there, intent to buy.
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Cyclical emails — greetings at festivals and on birthdays.
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The offer email A CTA email. People always like a good deal; it makes recipients happy while reminding them to help raise the profile of you and your brand.
How much recipients like each type of email:
- Newsletter — 14%
- New product introductions — 15%
- Real-time delivery tracking — 21%
- Promotional coupons — 21%
- Special offers — 27%
- Other — 4%
You can see that preference is spread fairly evenly across the eDM types, which means they complement each other. So set a plan, and keep growing the number of recipients — your customers.