Best Practices for Email

Sammy Pizza Does it Right - Building Your Email List

It is always refreshing to come along and see a company doing an excellent job of building their emarketing list. Today's hero of the day is Sammy's Pizza.

Recently , Sammy's opened up a location near my home so Tuesday night became Sammy's Pizza night. Right there in the middle of the table was a table tent asking me to join the e-club (By the way if I did I would get a free pizza next time I come in). How's that for a company understanding the value of being able to market via email to a customer base (That was a $10 - $14.00 value!) What is an email adress worth to your company?

They followed thru with a proper double opt-in and then my welcome email arrived immediately - not a month later like so many other companies if at all. Guess what? I have already forgotten that I requested your info - I just might end up deleting your message or marketing you as Spam. Timing is everything. Their welcome message tells me exactly what I wil be receiving - let's me know thay value my business - and my offer is enclosed with an expiration date.  Very nice Sammys!!

How to Stop your Customers from Unsubscribing

Every new subscriber to your emarketing program has a lifcycle.  We add a new subscriber into our email marketing database, send that person a  welcome series, and then send relevant emails, hopefully.  At some point this subscriber will start ignoring your emails and become inactive. So what is your strategy to keep that contact in the fold longer?

Provide incentives for subscribers to stay engaged early in the relationship. Remind them what they receive for being part of your program in regular messaging from time to time. 

Ask your new subscriber about the content they want, frequency of emails, and types of offers.  The sooner you provide relevant offers to your new subscribers, the stronger (and longer) the relationship you build might be.

Alert customers if the benefits of a product or program have changed since their last activity.

Provide other communication options (SMS, social, etc.). Okay so maybe they do not want to receive your enewsletters anymore - but how about have them like your facebook page or connect with your company twitter feed.

Have an active winback program in place for inactive customers.  Give incentives to help them fall back in love.  People love special  Email ONLY sales and free offers.

If the customer unsubscribes, ask them on your exit page (if your ESP allows) why they are unsubscribing. Provide some other options rather than just globally unsubscribing.