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That tweet above is no exaggeration. Virtually every single clothes store I checked out had the same approach to email marketing.
They would often start off strongly – in that most of them had a sign-up box somewhere prominent on their site. They would typically continue this promising start by offering something to encourage you to sign up – dangling a coupon code or something like that which most prospective customers would be interested in.
So far so good.
In fact, this stage was generally executed so well that it just made the ensuing missteps even more puzzling. And every single one of them made the exact same mistakes. Huge mistakes.
I ended up unsubscribing from all these stores within a week or two, even though I wanted to be on their lists for a few different reasons. They forced me to unsubscribe because their approach to email marketing was so bad.
Unfortunately, it’s an approach that is becoming more common, and I see it filtering into the author space as well.
These guys were relentless. All of them emailed me every single day, which is a very aggressive strategy. The only chance it has of working is if you put something of genuine value in each email.
They did not do that. In fact, they did the opposite. Most of them just reminded me to use my 10% off coupon code, or whatever it was. And then reminded me again in the next day. And then again the next day in slightly more shrill tones. “Act Now! This discount code expires in 48 hours!!!” That kind of thing, just with more exclamations and capitals.
Even when the time period had elapsed fully and the coupon code was supposedly no longer valid, they would drum up a new one, and call it a “Second Chance Code” or some such.
The marketing part of my brain really wanted to stay on their list just to see where they would take this next – how long would they keep this wheeze going? – but I just couldn’t take the machine gun of emails repeating the same tired offer, over and over again, in ever-increasing shrill tones which just smacked of desperation.
The sad thing for these companies is that I actually wanted to be on their list. In some cases, perhaps the clothes were a little expensive and I wanted to stay on their list until they had some kind of sale. In other cases, I wasn’t quite ready to buy something for whatever reason but was totally open to a future purchase. And then in a handful of cases, I had actually bought something and was very much primed to buy something again – once I saw that everything was delivered okay and there were no issues – but their approach to email had driven me mad, and to that Unsubscribe button.
They didn’t just lose a subscriber, they lost future business – i.e. actual money. And it all comes from having the completely wrong approach to email.
It’s such short-term thinking – valuing the immediate sale over building a customer relationship. Or going for the hard-sell, to be more accurate.
And for authors who really need to build those customer relationships if they want to have a career, it’s a classic case of what not to do.
Don’t email too regularly – find the right cadence for your audience (that’s weekly for my non-fiction audience, and monthly for my fiction peeps – yours might be different).
Don’t keep repeating the same offer over and over again. You might scoop up a few stragglers by shoving the same deal in their face repeatedly, but you’re just going to annoy a much greater people who have already decided they don’t want that offer. Even worse, you’ll annoy the people who did avail of the offer as well – your actual paying customers!
(Am I breaking that rule in this email? Or is there enough value in it to skate by with that softer push? You decide! On that note...)
Don’t send any email which has no value. (To the receiver, to be clear, not you!) This is harder than you might think, especially if you take my advice and set the bar on that pretty high. Try and put real value into every single email you send, and you’ll see an uplift in your open rates. If you don’t put value into your emails, people will stop reading them, and then stop opening them. At that point you’ll either get a load of unsubscribes, or worse: dead weight on your list, dragging your numbers down. This also affects overall deliverability BTW. Meaning those on your list who do want to keep getting your emails might start seeing your emails go into Promotions or Spam. Your most loyal, paying customers!
Don’t view your subscribers as a bunch of marks to be worked over, lemons to be squeezed, numbers on a page. They are people. And if you treat them like people – i.e. with a basic level respect – then you will see better results.
Fancy that.
For the sake of balance, not all companies I started purchasing from during lockdown were terrible at email. Portuguese craft brewers, for example, are marketing heroes! Slick websites, great customer service, and a really top-notch approach to email.
What do they do differently?
- They don’t hammer you with messages every day. Each email genuinely has real value in it.
- They show their human side and speak to you like you are a real person behind that email address.
- They tell stories about their products – interesting stories.
- They share stuff that you have mutual interest in (and not just about themselves or their own products BTW).
Getting their emails is actually… fun. I open them as soon as they arrive. I read the contents. And when they have a sale, or some special offer, or some new beer, I jump on it.
I’m an engaged, happy subscriber, and I’m sure I consume a lot more of their product purely down to their approach to email marketing.
Sorry, liver!
Dave
P.S. Writing music this week is The Psychedelic Furs with Love My Way.
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