E-mail marketing is a meat-and-gravy kind of web marketing that can drive serious traffic and create highly engaged customers. The trouble with e-mail marketing is that you can’t put it on autopilot and let it fly.
Creating conversions via e-mail, it turns out, is all about maintaining a good relationship with customers by continually offering them something of value. That requires a balanced pitch that won’t scare players off, but doesn’t send them reaching for the delete button.
In a recent Performance Insider blog titled, Top e-Mail Affiliates Use This, Cara Coffman shared some insights on how to keep e-mail marketing campaigns fresh. Here are few of her top tips.
Think About the Players
Whenever you’re offering a bonus or a new deal, Coffman suggests putting yourself in the player’s shoes by asking, “What’s in it for me?”
Remember, every e-mail you send is in a pitched battle for end-user’s attention in a very crowded market.
If you think this is an exaggeration, take a look in your own e-mail box. How many e-mail newsletters have you signed up for over the years? Now how many of those do you still read?
Chances are, the newsletters you don’t read are pitch heavy and value light. This is something you’ll want to avoid in your own e-mails.
Trade Value for Engagement
Simply sending out an e-mail that’s loaded with links from your past week or month’s worth of blog posting doesn’t really add much value for players and it’s certainly not all that engaging.
Engagement is all about creating a voice and using that to build a relationship with your players. Big-time affiliate sites like Pokerstrategy.com and Latestcasinobonuses.com have a lot of personality that shines through in their e-mails.
Coffman even suggests sending out the occasional e-mail that offers no offers at all, just good content and plenty of end-user value.
Think About Retention
What’s your open rate? If you’re struggling to answer that question, there’s no way you’re getting the most out of your e-mail subscriber list. Most lists are top-heavy with subscribers who haven’t paid a lick of attention to your work since they first signed up.
There are tons of simple-to-use, and free, e-mail metrics programs like MailChimp that can ferret out inactive users from your e-mail list. Targeting these folks with special offers may be enough to wake them from their slumber, or at least confirm that they want nothing to do with you.
Change it Up
Using the same e-mail shtick over and over and is a sure way of keeping your open rates as low as possible. Keeping your players interested and engaged is all about keeping things straight.
That promise of, “Top Casino Bonuses!” had sparkle the first few times you trotted it out, but variety is definitely the spice of life. Trying out new subject lines and copy can go a long way towards driving conversions and maximizing your e-mail marketing investment.
Finally
Getting past player apathy isn’t easy but it’s very possible if you’re willing to regularly shake things up.