I wanted to share the results of a survey I conducted two weeks ago about email marketing. Hopefully it will help you with your own marketing campaign planning.
I asked people whether they preferred getting the full text of a article being sent via an email newsletter, or if they preferred a short summary plus a link to the blog post on a website.
I asked the same question 3 years ago — the results were amazingly different!
- Three years ago, 60% wanted full text and 40% wanted a summary and a link.
- TODAY 75% of people want the full text of the article in the email. 15% wanted the link and 10% said they wanted BOTH the full text plus a link.
Why? Why? Why the change?
People told me that it was simply more convenient — they could quickly scan the article for relevant pieces of information. If they found it helpful, they could flag the email to find it again (or move to to a “stuff to keep folder” in their Inbox).
Others said that they were primarily reading emails via their phone and were hesitant to click a link when they couldn’t know if it was legitimate or not.
On the PLUS side, many people told me they would read anything I sent them because they found it valuable. Thanks!!! It’s nice to get the feedback. 😀
So, what does that mean for you as a business owner or marketer?
As marketers, we want our readers to click on a link so they’ll visit our website.
But if your readers aren’t willing to click on links, what is the point of email marketing these days?
It’s still the same as it always has been, but not as a driver of traffic to your site UNTIL you have an offer for your audience (where you have to give them a link).
Think of each individual email as a mini one-page website. If you change your perspective about email marketing, you still get the same benefits:
- Brand awareness – letting people know you exist, and encouraging them to share your article (via email) with their friends and colleagues
- Nurturing through valuable content – building rapport and trust with your readers by sharing information that’s of immediate value to them.
- Building your reputation – your content SHOWS that you know what you’re talking about! Plus you can let them know if you’re a guest speaker on a podcast or at a conference.
- Telling them about more free content – perhaps you have a video tutorial or a live webinar you want to share with them (with link to sign-up page). Or you have a related blog post on your site (and send them a link to that).
- Letting them know about upcoming offers – whatever you’re marketing, a service or a product, email marketing is one of the best ways to drive sales (with link to landing page, of course).
But — what about long articles?
Email service providers sometimes will reject a super long email as not being legitimate. And it can be hard to read and retain all that content in one sitting.
Yet an in-depth article about your topic can be immensely helpful to your audience. This “cornerstone content” is the backbone of your website.
In that case, tell your readers that it’s a long article, and that it’s full of juicy content, then give them the highlights and a link. If you explain why it’s a link rather than full text, they’ll understand.
The disadvantages of not sending them to your site
Search engine rankings look at how many visitors come to your site. So if you’re not sending visitors via email marketing, that could affect your rankings. But there are more options than email marketing to drive traffic, so you’ll have to adjust your marketing plan.
When people want to share your article on social media, it’s hard to do from an email. Explain to them that sharing your article will help your business and ASK for the favor of them clicking a link to share. People often want to help those they trust.
It’s a new world for email marketing — still powerful, but in a different way. I know it’s hard to keep up with the changing world, so when I discover something, I’ll let you know about it. Let me know if you found this information helpful, okay? I love to hear from you!
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