Are Your Emails Anticipated & Appreciated?

This article was originally posted on Email Insider by Ryan Deutsch.

As with many of you, I have been in the marketing technology space for a little while. During that time, I have heard (and certainly spoken) my share of buzzwords. In fact, I could probably throw together 500 words on email marketing buzzwords — stay tuned for that blog post in the coming weeks! Anyway, two words I do not hear often enough in relation to email are “anticipated” and “appreciated.” There are two interesting trends occurring in the email marketing space that make these particularly relevant: the flash sale and localized marketing.

The flash sale. Online shopping sites like Hautelook, Gilt Group, Rue La La, LivingSocial and others have created hugely loyal followings based on incredible offers that are exclusive to the members of their communities. Email is a critical component of their business, essentially allowing flash sale vendors to deliver large volumes of email simultaneously to an opt-in subscription list and have their customers race to the shopping cart and check out with their items before the “deal” disappears.

Why are these programs so successful? The complete transparency between the brand and the subscriber coupled with constancy in messaging results in a base of subscribers who anticipate the marketing offer. These opt-in programs are not interruption marketing tactics; rather, they represent the ability of an email marketer to create a program that is so valuable, consumers actually anticipate its arrival.

Unfortunately, email marketers have become complacent due to their own success. Email is a highly profitable channel, yet only a fraction of recipients actually engage with daily promotional messages from brands. Marketers must take a very close look at their programs and ask themselves, “Is my subscriber anticipating today’s email communication — or is he/she simply going to ignore the message, along with so many others?”

Here are some strategies to improve the anticipation factor of your email marketing communications:

Continue reading the full post on Email Insider.