You can't beat a firehose for putting out fires, but if you try to water your petunias with it, you'll drown them. When you channel water through a sprinkler system, you deliver tht water right where it's most needed: some to the flower garden, some to the new grass you've been babying, and none to the low spot that collects your neighbor's runoff.
Your email marketing program is similar. Think of all the email messages you send now: newsletters, offers, alerts, reminders, and transactional emails triggered by customer actions. If you run these messages only through your email channel, you could drown your recipients' inboxes.
Instead, branch out beyond email to all of the channels now available to you. Each one is like an individual sprinkler head that's part of an integrated, synchronized system.
But how can you deliver and interact with messages when and where your subscribers want them?
The email sprinkler system in action
A number of airlines use the "sprinkler system" email model successfully. So, suppose you run the marketing department for Flyaway Airlines. Your email program generates subscriber newsletters, travel confirmations, updates, check-in reminders, alerts, post-flight customer surveys, reactivation offers, and corporate news.
That's a lot of water (er, email) to run through your customers' inboxes. The sprinkler system allows you to offer options to your subscribers to direct various kinds of messages to other sprinkler heads, or communication channels. Here are some guidelines for determining which is most appropriate for each type of communication.
1. Email
No matter what the trendy people say, email is not going away. It remains the linchpin of an effective messaging strategy. But, it is evolving.
Think "shelf life." Use email for any message that can sit in the inbox for a few days without expiring or causing your passenger major grief, or which your passengers would want to retain for directions, proof of purchase, or for legal reasons.
2. RSS feeds
This channel, which aggregates fresh web content into a feed reader, is often integrated into email clients and can funnel daily news or deal-of-the-day offers to RSS junkies. Some multi-taskers even get RSS feeds via email through services like FeedBurner and FeedBlitz.
3. SMS texting
This channel is for real-time news and offers. Any news your customers or passengers need to know right this minute goes here, primarily messages that don't need a click-through:
- Check-in reminders
- Flight changes/delays
- Last-minute deals
- Arrival/departure/in-flight status
4. Social media and social networks
Here, you build community for your brand or company. You can post some promotional content, but selling isn't your primary focus.
On blogs and web-based networks like Facebook, post general news and offers, but also encourage users to contribute vacation reviews, submit travel photos, run contests, etc. Use this content in your emails as appropriate, and with permission. Microblogging services like Twitter are additional real-time channels, handy for conversations about hot deals and alerts.
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