Reasons email campaigns become irrelevant

The term "relevance" gets used in the email marketing industry a lot. In fact, I remember years ago when a former co-worker of mine used to preach from the mountain tops about how email was all about relevancy. Back then, six years ago or more, fewer people were talking about it, let alone actually doing it. But he had a vision of where this industry was headed, and now it is probably one of the first things most consultants will talk to you about. Quite simply, if your messages aren't relevant to your customers, they are more likely to complain or unsubscribe than follow through with your call to action.

I can't tell you how many client calls I have been on that focused on increasing relevancy to improve delivery rates. But what is relevancy and how do companies go about gaining it in their email marketing campaigns?

According to Dictionary.com, relevancy is defined as "bearing upon or connected with the matter in hand; pertinent." So are your email campaigns pertinent to your end users? Are they connected to the reason why the consumer signed up for your emails in the first place?

When it comes to relevance, the following are some of the common mistakes that brands make:

• Not properly setting expectations during the opt-in process. Do your customers know what value your campaigns will bring them each time they allow you into their inbox?
• Not collecting enough data during the opt-in process to be able to utilize personalization, segmentation, or targeting
• Assuming that because customers were once interested and signed up that they will always find your messages interesting and relevant
• Assuming that because it's coming from the brand, it must be relevant

Let's look at various points in the customer relationship where you can not only gain more information from your customer, but also use that information to gain relevance in your marketing campaigns.

Starting with the original opt-in, you need to understand why your customers signed up for your campaigns in the first place. Did they find a deal they were interested in and want to find out about future sales? Were they referred to your site by a friend? Were they automatically opted in during a purchasing cycle? Did you gain their information from some other source? Understanding this important piece first will allow you to make your messages more personalized and more relevant to all your customers.

Think about it: Someone who went through the purchasing process and was given an opt-out is probably not going to be looking, or expecting, the same type of campaigns as someone who found your sign-up page through another means and actively opted in to your campaigns.

No matter how you added them to your active email database, it is important that you properly set expectations during the sign-up and welcome process. It is during this initial interaction that the end users will make their first determination of whether your campaigns will be relevant to them.

So now that you have set their expectations and they believe that there is value in allowing you into their inboxes, how are you going to make each interaction with your brand relevant? What information do you have in your database that will help you with this goal? Did you collect any data at all during the sign-up process beside name, email address, and state? Do you have additional information that you might be able to gather from other places that will help you optimize your campaigns for each customer?

If you have collected additional data, either during the sign-up process or another time, are you using it? Too many times, I see clients that have a wealth of data on their customers that would enable them to truly "reach" them with an offer, but they don't use it. Many times they don't even think about how they can use this data to connect with their customers, and more often than not, this results in lost customers. When users give you any data, they expect you to use it to better target them and make your messages something that they want to open and view each time you send them.

The final two common mistakes listed above are the ones that are usually the easiest to recognize from a delivery standpoint. If you assume that simply because someone signed up for your campaigns previously that they will always want them, you will see a downturn in ROI. The disappointment caused by not meeting your customers' expectations will likely be seen through reduced opens and clicks and increased complaints and unsubscribes.

As I have mentioned before, more and more ISPs are starting to look at engagement as a source for determining sender reputation. So if you aren't sending relevant information to your users, they will stop engaging with your brand and your reputation will decrease. Overall, if you don't utilize what you have and set proper expectations, your campaigns will be less effective.

Good luck and good sending.

Spencer Kollas is senior director of delivery services for StrongMail Systems.

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