Buy, Buy, Bye: The Perils of Overly Salesy Emails

Email marketing excels at driving sales. That’s in large part due to consumers’ overwhelmingly preference to receive deals, discounts, and other promotions via email rather than through other channels. However, there are very real dangers to being overly promotional with your email messaging mix.

In this column for Internet Retailer, I discuss what’s driving these risks up and what the consequences are. I also talk about the following soft-sell tactics and share real-world examples of each:

• Education. For many products, consumers don’t know they need it until they’re educated about the product or about the circumstances that drive its need.
• How-To. Similar to education, how-to advice is rather critical for suppliers of raw materials, like home improvement stores and art supplies stores.
• News & Information. News and other updates can keep subscribers engaged with the product category that’s key to your business.
• Social Interactions. Part of what becomes grating about promotional emails is that it’s always the brand talking at the subscriber. By leveraging social interactions, you can bring the voice of your customers into your messaging.
• Cause Marketing & Branding Building. What does your company care about besides selling things?

>> Read the entire article on InternetRetailer.com