How Valuable is Your Email?

By Stefan Pollard - May 29, 2008

I'm not talking about calculating the monetary value of an email address this time, or even the lifetime value of your email subscribers.

Instead, how valuable is your email to your readers? Do you offer them something unique, necessary to their daily living, something they anticipate each time? Or does your email give off a whiff of "same old same old" or "buy buy buy"?

Put yourself in your reader's shoes and look at the last email message you sent out. Why would that reader ever want to get another message from you?

This is really the heart of deliverability. When you send email messages that your readers want to read, that they anticipate and that speaks to their needs and wants, they will overlook all kinds of problems just to see what you have said.

Getting to this Nirvana position is not so easy. In fact, you have to know your customers inside and out. Not only that, but you also have to make sure you do nothing to get in the way of your email and distract them from your actual value.

Why Email is Still Worth the Effort
No matter how often some pundit declares email dead, it's a fact that value-laden permission email does work. The latest report from database marketing firm Merkle noted these two key findings based on its annual consumer survey, "View from the Inbox”:

50% of respondents had bought something based on a permission email message, up 3 percentage points from the previous year.
50% also said a company that "does a good job with email" influenced their purchase decision.
Conversely, a negative experience can drive customers away:

32% said they stopped doing business with at least one company because of its poor email practices.
We talk a lot about how to improve your deliverability by using opt-in, managing your reputation, segmenting lists, optimizing content and testing, but it all boils down to this: provide demonstrated value in each email.

Promote Email Value Throughout the Relationship
It would be nice to think your email program's value would be so obvious that readers would see it in each message. Alas, we live in the real world, so we know we have to sell the value at all points in the email relationship, and even before it begins officially.

Promote your email value at these crucial touchpoints (Need more info on each of these? Find resources at the end of this article):

1. Your home page

This is your first chance to sell potential subscribers on your email value. "Sign up for email updates" and a link doesn't begin to hint at what they will receive if they hand over their email address.

"Join our site now and receive email-only discounts and advance sale notices" makes the value clear and begins to set subscriber expectations.

Not just your homepage, either, but every page of your Web site should invite visitors to join your party. You can tailor the invitation to suit the atmosphere of each page if you want. The most important thing is to make sure readers know they are welcome and that they will receive benefits not available to the casual site visitor.

2. Your registration page

This is your showcase, the best location to explain the benefits of signing up for email, including the kinds of email you send, how often and what the content entails.

All too often, though, companies who otherwise have an excellent email program give this short shrift. They rarely dedicate a page solely to the value of their email program.

Instead, they slap up a checkbox and a one-sentence value statement more focused on the subscription function itself.

These elements convey your email value proposition more effectively:

a. Explanation of benefits (what's in it for them)
b. Privacy policy (assurance that you'll treat their email address responsibly)
c. Preference choices (increases message relevance)
d. Sample messages (subscribers see what they're getting)
e. Links, images and transactions (subscribing, confirming, even unsubscribing) that work reliably each time
f. Graphic design that models the email message template to help readers recognize it more quickly
g. A thank-you page that appears immediately after subscribing that acknowledges the subscription, restates the subscription elements and the value of your email, provides instructions on how to confirm the request, asks subscribers to add your sender email address to address books or contact lists with directions for the major ISPs or email providers, links to key locations on your Web site and links to key areas including your privacy policy and unsubscribe form.

With all of this information, be careful not to come on too strong by asking for too many details up front. Get just what you need to start the relationship, and then go back in the next phase to flesh out a profile or preferences.

A note on add-to-address-book instructions: Your email template probably lists these in every message you send. Trouble is, waiting even for the welcome message to deliver these instructions is too late.

Instead, be sure to post these on your thank-you page. If you post them on the sign-up page, they'll get lost in all the other business your subscribers are doing to get their messages going. If you wait until you send the welcome message (see next section), this all-important message could get lost or routed to junk, and you will have missed a key opportunity to build your relationship with your reader.

3. Your welcome program

This is another opportunity that too many companies waste with a simple "you are subscribed" message. Accurate enough, but it does nothing to remind subscribers about what they signed up for and what value your message brings.

When you launch a welcome program, you capitalize on your newest and most enthusiastic subscribers. Enthusiastic, yes, but not yet engaged. The welcome program brings them into the fold and helps them get up to speed quickly.

It consists of two parts:

1. The welcome message, sent immediately upon confirmation
2. The welcome program, a short cycle of emails that offer special benefits outside of your regular program emails.

The Welcome Message
This welcome message, sent immediately after opt-in confirmation, has become a generally accepted best practice for conveying value before you mail your very first program email.

The ideal welcome message includes these elements:

1. Subject line that welcomes the new subscriber
2. Personal greeting if you capture name at opt-in
3. Restatement of the email content, frequency and format the subscriber chose
4. Link to privacy policy, customer support and unsubscribe
5. Instructions on adding your sender address to address books or contact lists
6. Design that delivers key information in text, not images. This ensures that the subscriber can view it in the preview with images turned off, as well as in full view with images showing.
7. Links to any incentives you offered (use links rather than attachments that could trigger blocking)
8. Link to your current newsletter or offer
9. Invitation to return to your Web site to fill out a profile or preference page.

The Welcome Program
The optimum welcome program includes these elements:

1. The current newsletter issue or offer if you don't link to it in your welcome program
2. The subscription incentive if you didn't deliver it in the welcome message
3. Quick explanations of how to use your Web site or your service
4. Invitation to fill out a profile or preference page along with a benefit statement
5. Survey of subscriber attitudes and expectations to assess how well you're performing
6. A subtle reminder of when the next message will be coming so they can look for it.

The value of your email program should shine through in each message, reminding subscribers of what they signed up for and that they need to open each message or they’ll miss out.

4. Regular Program Emails

These are the regular emails you send as part of an established programming cycle. However, if all you do is sell, sell, sell, you'll wear out or bore your reader. And, a bored reader is one that is likely to click the report-spam button to make you go away, especially if they don't trust your unsubscribe to work.

These elements help remind subscribers about your email program's value:

a. Email-only discounts (one-time or permanent, only for subscribers)
b. Invitations to fill out surveys or complete profiles
c. Directions on how to use products or to contact company reps
d. Account statements, membership numbers and links to key functions at your Web site
e. Company or product news
f. Changes that affect their email subscriptions
g. Links to blog articles and requests for reader comments.

5. Transactional emails

Naturally, the first job of a transactional email is to confirm an action, deliver an account statement, ask for a payment or conduct other business. However, you can remind subscribers of your email value here, too, provided you keep the focus on the transaction.

To do this, put the business in the top half to two-thirds of the message content, then put your email value proposition and a subscription link in the bottom third to half. This is also called putting it "below the fold," a reference to a standard broadsheet newspaper page where the most important stories go up in the top half, above the fold.

6. Mid-cycle messages

You don't want to wear out your list by sending more email than you promised. However, a carefully chosen and timed message sent between campaigns, or in the middle of a publishing schedule, can restate and refine.

Use these messages to remind subscribers, especially less active ones, about email benefits or account details to bring them back into the fold. Invite them to update their profiles. Send a short survey. Offer incentives for referrals. Explain any program changes that could affect their subscriptions.

Final Word: Emphasizing Value is Easy
It might sound as if you have to overhaul your messages to make the value clear, but you might need just a simple retooling.

Put yourself in your subscribers' shoes again, and see where you can add information or functionality, improve design or boost convenience. Never waste another chance to remind your subscribers of all the benefits they have coming.



Additional information:

How to Grow Your Opt-In List: The Ultimate Guide
A Good First Impression Equals Stronger Opt-In Relationship
Don't Give Away Your Downloads Too Early
Getting Added to Recipients' Address Book/Personal Whitelist
Recognition is the New Email Must-Have
10 Ways to Engage Newsletter Readers