Kerisma

Some of us look forward to it and dread it. You would be surprised to find that teens actually embrace email. Perhaps it’s a special offer, a promotion to receive coupons, announcements, or daily information about news and trends.

Are they actually reading it?
For the most part, some of us forget why we signed up for certain email campaigns. Email is one promotional tool that provides the lifeblood of information to different digital channels. Time sensitive reports should be made known immediately through your social media channels and cross promote on your emails. However, is it the most effective medium to get your message across to teens? Email might be that one opportunity to get your message across to them during their busy day. It should be viewed as an intimate conversation with your customer. Social media is a place to share a conversation with your customers, friends, family and perhaps colleagues to gain feedback, interact, and stand up for your beliefs. As social media and mobile usage have become more apparent in our lives, Millennials and teens will appreciate your emails if you give them a reason to feel important in your communication style. Remember some teenagers don’t have access to text, smartphones, or permission to use certain websites or online services. Email can also be used to appeal to parents, teachers, or their peers to influence teens to take action.

One may think email would not be popular with teens because they have used more social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter to connect with brands. According to a recent report in Mediapost, “95% of Millennials who fan companies on Facebook also subscribe to commercial email. 95% who follow companies on Twitter subscribe to their email list.  While less than 2% of Millennials only engage companies through Facebook.”

Teens continue to request information via email and value its importance. Yet, no catchy sales gimmicks are going to go over well with this audience. You better be careful following strict permission-based tactics. No one likes surprises or SPAM in their inbox! “Millennial subscribers receive 7.4 permission-based email messages a day. 87% of 15-24-year-old consumers that use email sign up for permission-based email.”

Make sure teens are well informed about what they are subscribed to with your email campaigns. If possible, show an example of the type of mailing and make it easy to potentially unsubscribe with one click.

Be courteous to your audience who is giving you their personal contact information and don’t abuse that privilege by sending out too many mailings. Use email to promote specific announcements on sections of your site, personalize a message, or guide them to what’s happening on different social media channels. It’s important to ask your audience their thoughts to guide them to make comments to Facebook/Twitter, or direct them to address concerns with your customer service and/or marketing department. Respecting teenagers thoughts, opinions and creativity will in turn reward you with respect for your brand.

In response to Ken Magill’s article, Opt-in Dead , I hear you loud and clear! I just hope others do soon.  I’ve preached and preached to other marketers advising them do’s and don’ts of email marketing and sometimes it falls on deaf ears. Blasting out emails to unsolicited customers will only shoot oneself in the foot in the long run. It’s important to put list management controls in place and look to alternative ways to build one’s list through social networking, contacting individuals directly via phone, or direct mail, cross promotions with other programs for lead generation, or partnering with other organizations making sure to give explicit directions for one to opt-in. Better quality opt-in leads are more valuable than every Tom, Dick and Sally.

Instead too few marketers are putting his/herself in the shoes of their customers and jeopardizing their future relations, rather than following better standards that could help to potentially build more loyal customers for life. KEN, KEEP TOOTING YOUR HORN TO OTHERS…I’ll continue to do the same!

Marketing is key to the life blood and growth of ANY business today, especially online. Putting best practices, good customer service in place and utilizing skilled-marketers that can understand how to integrate a message to stand out in a crowd is important. Hopefully, someone is out there reading this and would be interested for me to align myself with their organization that seeks to make a change and embrace new ideas, technology and talent for the future of their business.

Email Me (Keri): , kerisays@gmail.comkerisays@yahoo.com

Too many times I hear from others, “This email needs to go out now,” without little or no preparation or a careful analysis of the message. It’s best to plan and work ahead of schedule before delivering the message to gain the best bang for your buck with each mailing. No need to rush because you’re more prone to making more mistakes. Besides, do you really think the audience is saying SEND ME THIS NOW! Of course some things are time sensitive. If that is the case, there should have been more planning involved. For the most part, it doesn’t have to be sent now. People read their emails at different times of the day on different days. Demographics are spread out across different regions, time zones, etc. If an organization wishes to receive their client’s repeat business, one needs to provide a far greater service than just an email blast, but rather provide further guidance with each campaign. Your clients will value a company that is more knowledgeable and takes the time to personally best drive their campaign to a larger audience. At the same token, one has to keep in mind how each mailing may change the perspective of your audiences’ opinions about the brand. Don’t make a sale for a client to distribute a poor message to your audience at the expense that tarnishes the image of your brand. A sale is not worth the time and effort if one is not promoting information that provides value to the audience in a well constructed manner.