Email Marketing Insights, Strategy & Best Practices

My $400 Bagel and Cup of Coffee this Morning

On my way into work this morning I decided to stop and pick up bagels for the office and a cup of coffee for myself. As I pulled up to the bagel store, I noticed that I was 5 minutes early, because they hadn’t opened yet. So, I parked and got online behind the 3 people standing at the front door waiting for the store to open. I only waited about 10 minutes, but by the time they opened the doors, there must have been 20 people waiting in line behind me. Since there were only 2 people behind the counter, it seemed to be moving pretty slowly.

When it was my turn to order, the guy in line directly behind me leaned over my shoulder and asked the girl who was getting ready to help me if he could try the cinnamon raisin bagel. They had samples of each of the bagels cut up for customer to ‘try before they buy’ behind the counter. The counter girl politely asked the customer to wait his turn and asked me what I needed. Before I could give her my order, the guy behind me quickly interrupted me again and said he simply wanted to try a piece of the cinnamon raisin bagel. The girl behind the counter said she would be with him as soon as she finished with me. I attempted to try and give her my order again and once again, this annoying guy interrupted me and said, “Just give me a piece of that bagel to try”. At this point, I turned to him and explained that I was next and as soon as I get my order he could try as many different bagels as he would like. He looked at me with a blank, somewhat dumbfounded look on his face and went silent. While I thought that was it and began to place my order, you guessed it, he interrupted me again and in a pissed off tone said he wanted to just try a piece of that cinnamon raisin bagel.

As you can imagine, by this point I was getting twisted and somewhat aggravated at this clown, for his continual interruptions and I figured I better put an end to his ongoing obstruction in my attempt to get my bagels and the cup of coffee I came for, so I could make it to work without a pit stop at the police station for assault. Without taking another breath, I asked the girl behind the counter how much it would cost for all of the bagels they had. After a few seconds of her comprehending my question, she turned around, looked at the rack of bagels, turned back around and said, “I’m not sure…. Maybe $400”. I then said, “OK, I’ll take them all. Give me a black cup of coffee and bag up 2 dozen bagels for me. Then give everyone else in line, except this guy standing behind me, all of the bagels they want for free – my treat.”

As the ear-to-ear smile slowly appeared on the counter girls face and the guy behind me started bitching and saying “you can’t do that”, I simply turned to him and said, “Yes I can – and – I just did”. After I finally got my cup of coffee and bagels and walked out of the store, a few people in line behind me thanked me and the ‘cinnamon raisin, impatient, bagel taster guy’ stormed out bitching about something and mumbling under his breath.

Patience is not simply the ability to wait – it’s how we behave while we’re waiting. Besides the moral of the story being, “Don’t be an interrupting asshole and wait your turn”, I started thinking about people being over-aggressive, not being patient and waiting their turn. Since I am involved in the email marketing space, this brought me to think about why companies are over-aggressive and send their email campaigns non-stop and how their overzealous campaign strategy can alienate their customers, piss people off and lead to unsubscribes. Calculating the correct number of deployments per month takes time to figure out.

Don’t Annoy your Customer with your Email Marketing Strategy

Most people think the more they send to their email list, the better chances they have of converting a new lead or sale. In actuality, the more you send, the more your engagement per campaign goes down. If you over send to your email list, besides the reduction in engagement, you’ll also have to consider that your subscribers might think you’re spamming them, and exit your list very quickly. There is no magic number when it comes to the frequency of email campaigns or newsletters you send to your customers on a weekly or monthly basis. Be sure to send them relevant information and don’t simply send, just to send. Keep your subscribers loyal and don’t give them a reason to opt-out. Make your message relevant and to the point. Find what feels to be a comfortable middle ground and send relevant information and tweak the frequency based on campaign engagement.

We find that sending to our customers and newsletter recipients twice per month is the sweet spot for us, although this is not set in stone. If we have more to share, we’ll send more often and if we have less to share… well, you get the idea.

Update:
So, for Shawn (last name omitted on purpose) from Newsweek and the 2 other emails I received questioning the validity of the events in the bagel store, I’ve posted the receipt below.

It’s Time to Start Dating Your Customers

Imagine walking into a bar and immediately proposing to the first person that catches your eye. Unless you have the body of David Beckham or the lips of Angelina Jolie, I am going to go out on a limb here and say that your approach to finding a life-long partner is a bit skewed. And I bet you would agree with me. As we all know, dating can be extremely exhausting. It’s a large investment of time, money, and emotions in your search for “the one” that makes it all worthwhile in the end. What it all boils down to is that the world of dating and the world of marketing are one in the same. I am not suggesting that you pursue romantic relationships with your most valued customers, as that could lead to sexual harassment charges that could do more damage to your business reputation than it’s worth. What I am suggesting is that you should align your approach to dating with your approach to marketing.

The problem with marketers today is that we go straight for the gold. We are attempting to go fishing without bait. We tend to interrupt customers and try to sell them our products and services without realizing that, without offering some kind of incentive to spark the conversation, they have no reason to pay attention to you. This is essentially equivalent to proposing marriage before asking them on a second date.

Think about applying for a job, for instance. It’s a process. You can’t submit your resume on every job search website and expect to get hired on the spot. A well-crafted resume will earn you an introductory interview. Given that you are well-spoken and present yourself in a professional manner, you may get the opportunity to come in for a second or third interview. Once proper measures are taken to determine whether or not you are a right fit for the company, only then should you expect an offer. After paying hefty fees toward your schooling and investing your time in an effort to gain relevant work experience, you are now armed with the knowledge and expertise to enter into another line of work and eventually reap the rewards of your initial investment.

The same goes with marketing in that the customer acquisition costs far outweigh the customer retention costs. Take American Express, for example. This credit card company invests nearly $150.00 to get a new cardholder. Although this makes you wonder how they are still in business, it’s because they have adopted the permission-based marketing model to generate loyal customers who stick with them for the long term. Instead of approaching new customers with the intention of making a sale right off the bat, they woo their customers with an offer that they can’t resist. They focus their media efforts to sell their permission to engage in conversation, and have earned much higher response rates as a result. While $150.00 seems a bit steep at first glance, American Express leverages that expense by engaging in a continued, mutually beneficial relationship with their customers. Rather than exhausting their resources into selling their product pipeline to as many new customers as they can find, they extract the maximum value from each of their loyal customers.

But how do you initially open the lines of communication with those who want to hear from you? In this information age where owning a computer or smartphone is just as common as owning a toothbrush, we can target and reach business decision makers or consumers in around the globe through email marketing for a fraction of the cost of more traditional forms of advertising. As advances in technology have enabled us to track consumer interest and buying patterns online, we have the ability to choose who to target. As long as you provide something of value and demonstrate how it will enhance the lives of your audience, those who are interested in your offer will come to you for more information.

In addition, smart marketers acknowledge the fact that marketing does not end with the first sale. Rather, that’s where true marketing begins. Now, the question lies in finding the secret to keep our customers satisfied and wanting more. Not to keep referencing the dating analogy, but try to spice things up every now and then. Eventually, we all get sick of going for dinner and a movie.

Successful business lies in continually fine-tuning the products and services you offer while also expanding your selection to meet the ever-changing wants and needs of your client base. It means revamping your advertising strategy and adjusting your incentives to continually lure them in.

The bottom line? Sell more to fewer customers.

Your Customers Called…They’re Lonely

“Hey, it’s me… your old customer… remember me?

Customer disengagement happens when businesses stop communicating

I bought from you a while back. I’m in need of your service again, but I didn’t know if your business was even in existence anymore, nor did I even remember your company name. I decided to go with another company who actually cared about my business.” This is how the story goes. You celebrate over the fact that you made a sale to a new customer. Either a product is delivered or a service is performed. An order is filled out, and that customer now goes into a manila file folder in the office file cabinet. A year passes. As you wipe off the dust that has collected on your file cabinet over this period of time, you now ask, “What ever happened to that customer, and why haven’t I heard from them?” I’m here to give you a reality check. Most likely, that customer moved on because they simply felt that you didn’t value their business. They switched to a competitor of yours who actively took the time to continue the conversation, even after the product was delivered or the service was performed. In many cases, that breakdown happens quietly in the inbox. When customers stop hearing from a brand, they don’t always complain or unsubscribe—they simply disengage and move on.

This makes perfect sense when you consider that the majority of customers come to you because they developed a relationship with you prior to purchasing your offerings, or were referred to you by a friend or business colleague. When you fail to open the gates of communication and keep them informed of your brand existence, you no longer become the company that comes to mind when the need for your service arises once again.

The goal of marketing executives is to stretch their marketing budget as far as they can in an effort to gain the maximum benefit using minimal amount of resources. Without unleashing the power of marketing, any opportunity or potential for business growth goes out the window. However, our focus toward acquiring new customers is oftentimes so strong that we become blinded by the reality that 80% of your business is right in front of your face.

Instead of spending the majority of your time and resources going after new clients who must be persuaded and convinced that you are a reputable business and capable of delivering above and beyond consumer expectations, why not capitalize on those who have already chosen you over your competitors at least once before? Why not engage your customers with your business and continue the dialogue? Maybe It’s Time to Start Dating Your Customers. Before re-engaging past customers, it’s important to ensure that your outreach is going to real, reachable people. Outdated, abandoned, or invalid email addresses can undermine even the best engagement strategy.

Nurturing, retaining, communicating and maintaining the relationship with your existing customers is the key to keeping the sales rolling in, especially when, on average, repeat customers spend 33% more than new customers and are also more inclined to refer additional business your way.

It’s not rocket science. It doesn’t require any strategic thinking or a reallocation of your marketing budget. It’s actually easier than you think. All it requires is a simple email every so often, or perhaps a follow up phone call every now and then will do the trick. Pick up the phone and start calling. Make that call just to say “Hi, how are you doing. I’m here if you need anything.”

Email newsletters are the most effective method of outreach to keep your customers in tune with news of your business, new products or services you have on the market, blogs or press releases that discuss insight into your field of expertise, or anything else that will provide a value-added benefit to your customers. Never underestimate the value of an effective, relevant, and informative subject line to capture the attention of your most prized asset, your customer database. Prior to launching re-engagement efforts, a practical hygiene step is removing known junk and high-risk addresses from your database. PureList’s email list cleaning service focuses on cleaning lists so re-engagement campaigns are built on accurate, current data.

So what’s the hold up?

Acknowledging that your imploding in the basics of simply generating sales and have been screwing up for the last year or so, will not get you any closer to your goals. Do something about it. You just blew your opportunity to increase your sales by 50%. Failing to simply keep in touch with your existing customers, is unconscionable. Now pick up the phone, and make that call. A good customer is a terrible thing to waste.

This article is part of our broader resource on email list cleaning and hygiene, which explains why maintaining clean lists supports stronger engagement and long-term customer relationships.

Email Marketing Insights & Best Practices Hub

My $400 Bagel and Cup of Coffee this Morning

It’s Time to Start Dating Your Customers

Your Customers Called…They’re Lonely

“Hey, it’s me… your old customer… remember me?

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