How's your email unsubscribe rate?!
If you have services that people subscribe to, don't make your first email contact result in them clicking "unsubscribe"
We get inundated with first emails from people we’ve never communicated with before on the back of the research we do for ourselves and clients.
Never has the difference between two methods been so vivid than between the two contact attempts highlighted below. One led to instant action on my part which eventually resulted in me clicking on the call to action which was to book a meeting. The other led to an instant unsubscribe.
Every marketer knows the Attract, Engage, Convert, Delight cycle (or a similar version of it). It takes a fair amount to Attract my attention, Engaging me is even more difficult. It usually requires a display of professionalism and an understanding of the challenges/goals I’m currently facing. Do this well though, and I’m one of the easiest Conversions you’ll get and I’ll turn into one of your greatest advocates if your service Delights me.
So, let me explain the difference I experience in the two Engage attempts this week. Having already been attracted, and subscribed to free services which have the potential to develop into lucrative relationships for these vendors, this is what I got.
Let's start with the poor (that's being kind) example.
This email came out of the blue after creating a new account (I think – I’m not even 100% sure how this process kicked off). Having had no information from me other than my email address and name, I received this.
I’m all for keeping things brief, but if you’re going to contact someone and actually want to engage them, you need to make sure your message is personal and relevant. And if you really can’t do a little research on your contact to find out a bit about them and perhaps their challenges, don’t highlight the fact (as shown in red). Apart from the “dancing logo”, the thing that stood out most for me in this email was the “click here” link to unsubscribe – see ya!
And now for the gold standard.
I don’t often get surprised by how good something is, but this one stopped me dead in my tracks. There’s so much to love about Dani’s approach here.
It is immediately obvious to me that Dani has invested some time on research which is demonstrated by the image of the embedded video. On seeing this, I’m interested enough to look back up at the intro and can see that she’s already acknowledging that I’m busy and the video is an effort to save me time.
The link to her calendar offers an opportunity to book time if something goes wrong with the video or I stop watching before the very end, but turned out to be redundant in my case through the outstanding use of technology which allowed me to click a link to her calendar directly from the video once it had ended.
We’re not done… it gets better. On selecting the time of my choice in Dani’s calendar, I was presented with the 10 minute option as promised, but also an opportunity to book 30, or 45 minutes if I wanted (I took 45, and it was time well spent!).
Good job Dani! Look forward to working with you as we continue to apply your services to our (and our clients’) Marketing Strategy.
