Once you have a product or service you are proud of and want to share with the world, you want to build a brand to attract like minded people. People who agree on your values, direction or morals and people who see their problems solved by your business. There are many ways to attract these people … but how do you keep them on board?

Email Marketing is an excellent channel to build and maintain brand awareness within your space. An email address is an easy exchange but in many cases not valued to its potential.

When businesses ask for email addresses they tend to use the “carrot on the stick” idea to attract as many people as possible. “Signup now and get this FREE ______.” This is good, but make sure the “free” item is related to what you do. Too often, I see businesses offering freebies with their signup that have nothing to do with their business and then complain that their open and click rate is too low. They don’t get the engagement they hoped for and abandon email marketing entirely.

Email marketing is not a numbers game. If you treat it like one, you will fail in the long run. When offering freebies, it’s important to offer something that YOUR audience would like. For example, we, as an email marketing company, would love to give you this mobile email marketing study done by our friends at Edisonda, that will help you understand how people read your emails on mobile devices. A freebie like this may not attract millions of people like the latest album from Kanye could… but it will attract the right people.

As you attract the right people to subscribe to your emails, there are 2 basic strategies to keep them engaged and interested with your emails.

  1. Consistency
  2. Consistency

You must be consistent with your brand, vision, morals and you must be consistent with what you promise from the signup. If you promised a monthly newsletter that talks about cats in hats, please don’t send me a newsletter that talks about dogs in boots. I know these examples are ridiculous, but I’m just trying to point out the obvious here. Send what you promise to your subscriber and send it as often as you promised as well. Keeping a consistent schedule will engage your subscribers and create a sense of habit. If you promise a monthly newsletter, send an email about every 30 days, or choose something like the last Thursday of every month. Doing this will keep your subscribers engaged and will create a habit.

When creating your emails, you should also be consistent with the format and colors of the email. You know how you read your own emails. The 3-second likability rule turns into a 0.5s likability chance. If your subscriber can’t identify your email as he or she skims their inbox, they won’t open it.

Also, by keeping your emails consistent and not changing much save for the content, you will be able to get your emails done in no time! All you’ll have to do is add in your new content and schedule the email. Marketers who are at this point can normally get their emails done in under and hour.

Takeaways from this?

  1. Attract the right people to your newsletter.
  2. Be consistent with your email format and style.
  3. Be consistent with your promise. Vision and frequency.

By following these basic tips, you will see a higher open and click rate and your emails will be easier to make.