When executed effectively, email campaigns can be one of the most powerful assets in a marketer’s toolbox. They drive sales, increase brand awareness, nurture the personal customer relationship and create opportunities for engagement. (Not to mention all of the valuable Smart Data they will yield!)

SailthruEmailCampaign

Yet, as valuable as an email campaign can be, brands should be mindful about how they communicate with each and every unique customer or risk alienating them all together. At Sailthru we always have the end user in mind; if you make the brand experience relevant and engaging for your customer, everyone wins.

We’ve identified six recommendations to foster positive user interaction with email subscribers:

  1. Signup Headers on Every Page. Keep your signup form in the header navigation of your website. If a user is interested in subscribing to your newsletter, it should be very easy to do so. Make sure that your signup field is visible on every page to avoid losing potential subscribers.

  2. Tell Your Customers What You’re Offering. On your signup form, be extremely descriptive about what the user is signing up for. For example: “You’re signing up for our daily newsletter on current events with content that is chosen exclusively for you and delivered to your inbox each morning.” This sets the expectation for the user as to how many emails they will receive and the content included in the message of the email. In email, no surprises is a fantastic thing.

  3. Redirect to a Confirmation Page. We recommend that once a user completes the signup form you redirect them to an onsite confirmation page to ensure that their registration was successful. It’s also a way to re-engage the customer with your brand, and set the precedent of transparency.

  4. Never Forget the Welcome Email. Sending a welcome email to the user after they subscribe has a twofold effect: it ensures the customer that their information was successfully processed and it increases overall brand recognition with an additional touchpoint. To gain valid email users, we recommend that you include a double opt-in within your welcome email (i.e. when a customer opens your welcome email they must confirm that they opted in to receive your email.) This can help prevent delivery problems in the future and also increases the potential engagement of that customer.

  5. Create a User Management Page. A user management page allows the subscriber to manage the frequency and content of the emails they receive, or to opt out of them entirely. If you wish to have a user management page, we recommend including an unsubscribe button accessible to the user without logging in, as well as offering other forms where users can unsubscribe. This feature can help retain subscribers by giving the chance to simply scale down the campaigns they receive from your brand.

  6. Opt-Out Pages Are a Must. The unsubscribe page should always have clear language to direct the user to unsubscribe; the goal is for the user to have the ability to opt out as easily as possible. Protect disruptions in the customer/brand relationship by providing them choice and transparency. No fuss for the user shapes a long-lasting customer lifetime value.

Questions about these Sailthru email interaction recommendations? Get more information.