Do You Have What It Takes to Keep Your Audience Engaged?

1.7K

Key takeaways

• Avoid jargon for consumer audiences. Keep email copy short, clear and to the point.
• Make templates simple, obvious and consistent so CTAs aren’t lost or broken.
• Optimize the “path to a click”: test links and ensure readers can easily navigate from email to site.
• Use flash sales and urgency sparingly, maintain a steady flow of regular content first.
• Leverage word‑of‑mouth: offer referral rewards or prompt public feedback and discussions to grow organically.
• Poor list management, jargon and technical/template issues can push campaigns into spam folders or produce very low click rates.

Introduction

For plenty of brands, the hype surrounding email marketing becomes a reality in what feels like the blink of an eye. One second, you’re building a game plan for your first campaign; the next, you’ve got a steady and thriving list of contacts. However, if you’re not careful with how you manage this group of viewers, you could find your brand on the outside looking in just as quickly. With this in mind, let’s take a step back, cover some tactics and tricks that focus on interacting with your audience, and ensure that your brand has what it takes to keep an audience excited and engaged.

A Growing Problem

If you’re already running hot with your content in the inbox, it’s definitely a reasonable response to consider that this advice isn’t designed with your brand in mind. Unfortunately, Tracey Vides of Tech.Co points out that this is exactly what leads so many campaigns into the realm of spam filters and lackluster consumer reactions. In fact, Vides goes on to explain that in some cases, operations that once stood as potent examples of email marketing success fail to barely surpass the three percent mark when it comes to clicks on call-to-action buttons (CTAs) and other requests for interaction.

Skip the Jargon

So if you’re worried about slipping into this inglorious company, where should your renewed commitment to engagement hone in on first? According to Vides, start by skipping out on the jargon if you’re not dealing with a business-to-business (B2B) audience. While other industry experts can’t get enough of buzzwords and other insider lingo, the average customer doesn’t like the idea of being uninformed or confused. In fact, it’s a major turnoff with the vast majority of audiences. Instead, you’re much better off keeping things short, sweet, and to the point with your inbox content.

Clean up the Technical Details

As far as the actual framework and templating of your email offerings go, Business 2 Community’s Corey Husfeldt suggests making things simple, obvious, and consistent for your readers. In terms of engaging the person on the other side of the screen, few things are more damaging than having a CTA button or link that either doesn’t work or ends up lost in a jumbled and confusing message.

Before firing of your next wave of emails, spend some time optimizing the “path to a click.” This means reviewing the content and guaranteeing that when it shows up in the inbox, your contact list membership will know exactly how to navigate the email and end up back on your site completing a purchase.

Try the “Flash” Route

Husfeldt also notes that tweaking the timing and urgency of your emails can help keep the interaction and engagement flowing with your brand’s target audience. Flash sales that incorporate limited duration offers and “act now” wording fit into this approach perfectly, offering plenty of incentive for the person on the other side of the screen to go ahead and initiate a sale. However, using this tactic too often can make the entire method feel insincere, so focus first on a steady flow of regular content, then add in these unique offerings as needed.

Get Back to Your Roots with Word of Mouth Tactics

Finally, Gareth O’Sullivan – also of Business 2 Community – posits that one of the most overlooked methods of engagement is also one of the oldest tricks in the book. “Word of mouth,” or having your current audience help inform others about your brand, definitely has a spot in any established email marketing campaign. Of course, simply suggesting that you leverage these viewers as a marketing asset isn’t the same thing as showing you how best to incite such a response from these viewers.

At the top of O’Sullivan’s list of word of mouth tactics is the notion that referral rewards go a long way with your contact list. By providing an incentive for your audience to bring others into the fold, you can help promote a scenario in which your inbox relationship grows in an organic manner. Even if you don’t offer up rewards for new referrals, there’s nothing wrong with asking for feedback and discussions in public forums. As long as your brand is part of the conversation, then you’ve hit the mark with this new age take on word of mouth operations.

At the end of the day, keeping your audience engaged and focused on your content does require a serious amount of work. However, with these insightful tips guiding the way, you can rest easy knowing that you’ve taken the first step toward making this process run as smoothly and efficiently as possible.

FAQ