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Keeping Readers Off the Unsubscribe Button
By Woody Huizenga | June 2, 2009
At The Conference Publishers, we receive a surprisingly small number of unsubscribe requests for our company newsletter.
We know a lot of people read our newsletter, but it’s hard to get good comparative data—we don’t know how well we’re doing compared to all the other companies vying for people’s attention online. (If anyone knows where we can find that sort of comparative information, we’d be delighted to hear from you.)
Last September MarketingSherpa conducted a survey whose findings are instructive for anyone publishing an e-newsletter or blog:
I have taken some key learnings from these results:
- The most important quality people demand of business emails is relevance.
- The total volume of messages in inboxes is less important than the volume from each sender.
- Social networks won’t replace email for a while.
The great (and growing) volume doesn’t mean all messages will be lost in the electronic jumble. But it does mean it will be harder and harder to craft a message that meets the all-important test of relevance.
If you’re sending a message that “doesn’t apply to me,” odds are that I won’t read it. You’ll waste your time and money.
It’s always been important to understand your audience. As competition for your readers’ time grows more intense, it will be even more important to tailor your messages to your readers’ priorities and values. That’s not news—at least it shouldn’t be—but it probably bears repeating.
There’s still room at the top, but these days, you’ll have to overcome a lot more competition to get there.
Topics: The Conference Publishers |