Email marketing and social media marketing are two critical marketing tools for communicating to your customer.  Many look at these as separate disciplines, but at ClicBlox Digital we view them as the same. When we post items on our social channels, we are looking for engagement.  We want to see what our followers react to, comment on and share. These small interactions on social media give us an indicator of what will get a customer to open an email. 

These will help us build the important Subject Line. Stop trying to sell your customer in the subject line. The subject line is the most important part of the email.  It is what the customer uses to decide to open your email.

What we see from most brands is usually along the lines of:

“One Day Sale”
“Your Favorite Items 25 -60% off”
“Tuesday Specials”

Stop it!  Stop selling for a minute because you are just turning off your customers! Email and social media are a way to connect with your customers.  It is a way to engage with them.  To tell them about your brand and what you stand for.  Consumers want to be educated on why they should by from you.

Customers respond to the benefits of using your products. 

I have been in the skin care business for many years.  When we send out emails our subject line is generally around education.

“The Reasons We Get Dark Circles Under Our Eyes”

This email had a 63% open rate.  So, that subject line worked because the customer new, our sole purpose was to HELP them solve a problem.  Not just sell them with a discount. As we discussed the five reasons in the body of the email, we linked to various products and showed various products to solve the problem. With some minor modifications, we used this on social media as well with equally impressive engagement.

Provide Solutions To Connect With Your Customer

This is marketing 101.  Customers shop for solutions to problems.  The reason that the Apple stores are so successful is that they teach people how to use the technology to enhance their lives. Your email and social posts should relate to your brand message. If your branding is to inspire people, then your posts and emails should be inspirational, not discounts.

Personalize your emails

There are so many tools today to personalize emails that there is no excuse for not doing this.  Who wants to open an email to “Hello Valued Customer” vs “Hello Janet”. Do your research and know your customer inside and out.  If you truly know your customer, then you can personalize the emails in so many other ways by addressing the points that matter most to your customer.

If you are in fashion then you want to talk about how to look good for any event and lead them to your products that make them look good. If you are in the software business, then show them how your software can make their job easier. But talk to them.  Stop selling them. I read an article the other day about how a Fortune 100 consumer products company was abandoning their social media advertising strategy because it wasn’t working.

I was curious so I went back and looked at what they had done. I use it to show what not to do with social media.  It didn’t work because it was just ad after ad after ad about their products.  Coupons and discounts. Email and social media are engagement builders for your customer.  It is an inexpensive and effective way to connect with them and sell to them without selling.

Chuck Reynolds
Contributor