If you focus hard on big sales blitzes only to send stodgy emails in between these major events, you’re not only being counterproductive, you’re probably boring your subscribers.
Instead of sending status quo emails simply because your recipients expect to hear from you each month, you should think outside the box on what you’ll send between those big campaigns. Here’s how to do that:
Learn From The Tire Dealers
Northern tire dealers see two overwhelming sales spikes each year: The first day of snow and the first day of warm weather. Those are the days when most motorists want their snow tires put on, and then replaced with street tires! Wise dealers schedule their campaigns appropriately. Although not all businesses need to adhere to schedules that are quite as capricious, each brand has its own specific periodic structure that should be taken into consideration.
The Major Sends
Your Events – If your business calendar is not peppered with special events, you’re missing valid email marketing opportunities. Although it’s easy to go too far with this approach and launch Andorran Cuisine Week or Pong Commemorative Week, structuring your year to feature periodic highlights helps you capture your prospects’ attention.
Holidays – Surely Thanksgiving is your big day if you sell turkeys or cranberries, but what about how the essence of each holiday affects your customers? Can you leverage the family get-together angle to make a relevant point about your brand? Are you treating Christmas as just an unfocused shopping fracas or are you honing in on how your brand’s appeal is actually meaningful during the holiday season?
Maintenance & Upgrades – Very few brands sell products or services that are not subject to regular maintenance or upgrades. Dentists can remind customers of periodic requirements for teeth cleaning; car dealers can inform motorists of upcoming obligatory service; and software publishers can tout the advanced capabilities and advantages of their latest version.
Of course, the big one is:
Seasonality – This fundamental aspect of the calendar goes far beyond BBQ tools in the summer and snow boots in the winter. Virtually every brand’s allure can be tied into seasonal relevance. Cosmetic retailers can direct attention to the different colors and formulations to suit the season; television marketers can tout the glories of watching the championship game on their largest screen; and grocers can promote the freshness of seasonal produce that hasn’t been shipped in from Chile.
The Preferred Approaches For The Lull Times
These are the major “big sends”, but what strategy works best for the lull times between these campaigns? Defaulting to conventional marketing pitches on your regularly scheduled sends is not only unimaginative, but will also fail to captivate your prospects.
There are various options that allow your brand to maintain visibility while continuing to challenge your readers with novelty and excitement:
Give-Aways – It’s remarkable how many marketers will readily bear costs in the hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to design, test, and deliver their email campaigns, but will balk at giving away a few hundred dollars in prizes or rewards. Providing a relatively minor jackpot or bonanza to a “lucky” prospect can take your email response metrics to the next level.
Tip Sheets – Learning more about the refined faculties of a product a customer already owns can significantly increase their pride of ownership and result in additional sales. No matter what product or service you market, there are countless factoids you can provide to extend its service life, maximize its capabilities, or customize its effect to your customer’s needs and preferences.
Testimonial Reviews – The basic lesson of our Social Networking Age is that expert and celebrity endorsements run a poor second to Uncle Jethro’s testimony that the WigglyZiggly lure caught him a trout the size of a whale shark. “Real” people’s testimonials carry significant weight and a collage of the salient aspects of your brand’s benefits to the average customer can help drive sales in “off-times.”
Mix Up The Frequency
Predictability is not a positive aspect in email marketing. Your customers don’t want to see your email just because it’s the end of the month and you’re trying to milk them of their paycheck proceeds. Ensuring that every send has a specific purpose and resonance to your prospects is a great way to ensure success in your email campaigns.
