For many, just sending email to subscribers is missing the point. There is a person behind every email address and that is an important fact which cannot be forgotten. Email marketing is not the blasters of the world who may find ROI in the short term with low open rates, but a few big sales. Deliverability may start to fail that marketer. It\u2019s the long-term game of creating sustainable success by having a conversation with your subscribers.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s work backward for a second. When talking to Millennials, have you ever stopped to count the number of social media accounts they\u2019re using let alone actively using? Listen more closely and you\u2019ll see how many times in passing conversation they\u2019ll say they didn\u2019t get a notification or the notification was buried in dozens of other notifications that are piling up with each point of contact across their network. The fact is, Millennials are overwhelmed with social media data. The email account they have however is now one of the most competitive places you can go to get their attention and engage them. Hardly anyone else is there vying for their attention.<\/p>\n
For the rest of you – the older generations – email sounds outdated because of how this group specifically sees email. They see it as a chore rather than the opportunity it is: a direct, uninterrupted one-on-one time where you get to say more than 120 characters. It\u2019s the place where once they\u2019ve clicked, they\u2019re in your world. There are no other comments or advertisements or scrolling sidebars competing for their attention. They\u2019re yours.<\/p>\n
This is where customer engagement begins. It begins with realizing that emails aren\u2019t a memo shoot, a black hole vacuum where messages go in one direction into an abysmal void of no return. In truth, email is the most real time digital space you\u2019re going to get where YOU get to focus on the audience.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a mindset shift and it starts with eliminating the word email and replacing it with \u201ccustomer engagement.\u201d So while your competitors are still doing email marketing, you\u2019re at the frontier of communications. You\u2019re engaging.<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t a totally new concept to be asking a lot of you to get your head around. Your business is probably already in the engagement gear. Let\u2019s take a look at how that\u2019s the case: you\u2019ve just gotten done reaching out to your audience for the holiday season. Maybe you\u2019ve thrown real time events to bring brand and customer together. Or you get on the phone and hear the latest concerns from your subscribers and readers. You\u2019re ALREADY engaged. You\u2019re just now stretching that to make sure your email campaigns reflect the same value in your direct brand to user contact.<\/p>\n
The question you invariably end up at is how to measure engagement? Is it the number of clicks, open rates, or the follow throughs? Maybe it\u2019s a combination of all three, but per campaign, it will depend on the desired call to action. So for that reason, don\u2019t stick to a hard and fast rule about how engagement is measured. It is a moveable goal.<\/p>\n
That said, customer engagement means you\u2019re also measuring success by engaged customers versus just the numbers and analytics. For example, a 100% open rate is wonderful for any company. Yet, even with stunning return rates like that you can\u2019t guarantee there was any engagement. Engagement might look more like 35% open rate mixed with 3 reader responses directly to you and 2 shares on social media. That\u2019s how you measure customer engagement.<\/p>\n
In simpler terms think of throwing a dinner party. Everyone on your guest list attended, but no one engaged you. No one laughed, had a drink or shared stories. How much more \u2018real\u2019 is your event if just 5 out of 55 people showed up but everyone had a really great time and talked about your stellar party with their brunch pack the next day?<\/p>\n
That right there is what customer engagement should look like. It\u2019s not about who is on your list or who pops in the door. It\u2019s about who stayed to play and walked away with a shareable experience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For many, just sending email to subscribers is missing the point. There is a person behind every email address and that is an important fact which cannot be forgotten. Email marketing is not the blasters of the world who may find ROI in the short term with low open rates, but a few big sales.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":309,"featured_media":15739,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n