Have I mentioned how much I hate the term ‘blast email?” Well, I do. A blast is something that happens in relation to a bomb, explosion or some other violent force. It does not generally bring forth the connotation of a pleasant experience.
I thought about this after reading Kyle Lacy’s post where he talks similarly about the use of the word ‘viral.’ His alternative? Echo and reverberating marketing, coined by Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten.
But I digress. Email-
So how about echo or reverberating email? We already have the “Forward to a friend” feature- let’s be sure we’re crafting something worthy of it! How can we bring the echo of the social media space to a one-way communication tool? Here are 4 tips that I think can help turn email from push marketing into something more relationship-oriented.
- Write like a human. People don’t want to spend time or effort deciphering your corporate-speak.
- Tailor content to personal interests. Please don’t misread this as a suggestion to use fakey greetings via merge fields. I mean: know your audience, their likes and dislikes, and make sure that you deliver the content that matches their interests.
- K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple, Stupid.) Don’t let the shiny graphics and design get in the way of the substance of your email. Sure, make it look nice along the way, but function (value) should win over form.
- Listen. Solicit feedback and make it easy to give.
So what do you think? If you received emails that followed the advice above, how do you think you’d feel about them? What would you add to this list?
Flickr photo by Asheview
