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E-commerce Link: Engage Your Readers

How direct marketers are using content and offers to capture customers.

October 2006 By Regina Brady
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When you read studies showing average e-mail open and clickthrough rates, do you compare your own results to these statistics with glee or chagrin? In either case, you have the opportunity to improve your results if you put a laser-like focus on your audience members. Give them content and offers they want, and you have a better chance of engaging them.

The best e-mail marketing campaigns inject elements designed to stimulate interest and encourage interactivity. In short, they delight and engage readers. And, if your recipients feel this way about your program, they will be with you for the long haul. They’ll be much more likely to open and read your e-mails. The goal: to make your campaign one your recipients look forward to receiving.

Here are some ways to do this, along with examples from your fellow direct marketers.

Value-added Content

If you include engaging editorial content in your promotional programs, your readers will begin to anticipate this information and be more likely to open your e-mails. Content can take the form of tips, factoids or how-to information of interest to your audience.

Breck’s, a mail-order gardening company, promotes its flowers and bulbs in its weekly e-mails. It includes a feature called “Breck’s Expert Tips” near the bottom of most campaigns. That’s a smart strategy, because recipients who look forward to the regular column must scroll down and view all of Breck’s offerings before they get to it.

Doctors Foster and Smith, the pet supplies cataloger, sends specialized versions of its newsletters based on pet ownership. Its cat owner program, for example, usually includes a link in the header that points to articles on its online Doctors’ Information Center for Cats, a site loaded with more than 100 useful articles.

Use Customers’ Comments or Compelling Quotes

Share feedback you’ve received from your readers or give them something to think about.

Film Movement sends a monthly newsletter comprised of information on upcoming movie releases, special offers and events. A regular column called Members Thoughts on Our Films provides both positive and negative reviews. It turns into compelling content when one customer posts a negative review—and others chime in on a subsequent issue to explain why they liked the film.

Weight Watchers spotlights one customer’s success story in each of its weekly newsletters. Readers may identify with a real person who slimmed down using the Weight Watchers system.
 

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