Key takeaways
- Permission to email is necessary but not sufficient, relevant content sustains campaigns and drives conversions.
- Many consumers give permission: 73% to companies they’ve bought from and 51% even to companies with no prior relationship.
- Relevance is individual and time‑sensitive, tight segmentation alone won’t guarantee relevance for every recipient.
- Use opt‑in data plus habits, demographics and consumer history to personalize content and improve hit rates.
- Targeting based on life events (getting married, having a baby, moving house) can make optional products (e.g., certain insurance) more relevant.
- Prioritizing relevance reduces unsubscribe risk and increases the chance recipients will act on emails.
Introduction
Permission is usually considered the necessary element to promote successful email marketing, but relevant content may actually be the only thing that can sustain a good campaign.
Many marketers spend the majority of their time trying to build their subscriber list, however this is only half of the battle. Gaining permission to send emails to recipients is relatively easy, but turning those readers into customers is the hard part, and it is also a place where many marketers fail to convert. Just because someone is willing to receive an email, does not mean they will be inspired to act by its content.
“A new study among 2,000 consumers carried out by integrated marketing specialist GI Insight has found that nearly three-quarters (73%) have given permission to be emailed by companies they have previously bought from,” reports David Reed from Marketing Week. “Even more strikingly, half (51%) have also given permission to companies they have no previous relationship with.”
This demonstrates that people are open to receiving email marketing, but it does not prove that this consent is inherent to everything that a marketer sends. Any good marketer knows that blasting out emails without content pertinent to its recipients can lose readers as quickly as they are gained.
What Is Relevant To Readers?
Relevant is not a stable term for most readers. It can change daily and it is totally dependent on what a recipient is seeking at that time. No matter how tightly segmented your emailing list is, content that is relevant could be different for every single person.
“If you view relevance as being binary – a message either is or is not relevant – then there is a 50/50 chance of getting it right,” says Reed. “Using the data recorded when a consumer opts in ought to significantly improve that hit rate.“
For example, if you were trying to market accidental death insurance, it could be considered totally irrelevant if the consumer is not looking for something similar to it.
“That does not mean the product itself is irrelevant, since insurance is something any consumer might need, but also one that is optional,” says Reed. “Using information about changes in lifestyle – getting married, having a baby, moving house – should help to boost the chances of aiming such a product at a relevant target.”
Recognize Reader Preferences To Stay Relevant
In order to keep a reader’s attention on your email and their name on your subscriber list, it is necessary to analyze their preferences and provide them with content that creates a fair value exchange.
“Marketers should be placing a higher value on the permissions they gain and doing everything possible to avoid triggering an unsubscribe response,” says Reed. “Failing to use available data in email just leaves marketing to chance.”
This is why it is so important to know your audience. The more detail a marketer has about their habits, demographics, and consumer history, the more accurately they can tailor their content to their audience. This means a higher chance of conversion and a better method of engagement for building a strong relationship with clients.
It also means that readers are far less likely to unsubscribe, even if they don’t end up purchasing something from every email blast. As long as you can keep providing recipients with something that is relevant to them, they will keep their name on your list.
FAQ
Permission gets recipients onto your list, but it doesn’t guarantee they’ll act. Irrelevant emails prompt unsubscribes and poor conversion, relevance of content is what sustains a campaign and turns readers into customers.
Relevance isn’t a fixed label, it changes by person and over time. Use the data collected at opt‑in plus details on habits, demographics and consumer history to infer what each recipient is likely seeking at a given moment.
Use the information recorded when consumers opt in and combine it with known habits, demographics and consumer history. These signals help tailor content so it matches recipients’ current needs and increases the chance of conversion.
Life changes such as getting married, having a baby or moving house are useful triggers. Targeting optional products (e.g., accidental death insurance) around those events can raise relevance and improve response rates.
Sending irrelevant emails can lose readers as quickly as they are gained, trigger unsubscribes and leave marketing outcomes to chance, reducing conversions and damaging the subscriber relationship.
Tracking conversion (whether readers become customers) and unsubscribe behaviour are primary indicators: relevance should increase conversions and lower unsubscribe rates. Use opt‑in and behavioral data to refine content based on those outcomes.
