Let's Talk About Email

It's important to evaluate the target audience for each email campaign. Ask yourself, "does every single subscriber need to hear this?" It's always worth considering the relevance of messaging and then segmenting your audience accordingly. Consider customer purchase history, geography, past engagement, product interest, and any other relevant data you've gathered from your subscribers over time. Maintaining healthy open rates and CTR  will make your email marketing efforts sustainable. 

Deliverability is everything. If ignored, your sender reputation suffers, increasing your chance of landing in spam boxes. Be sure to watch bounce rates, spam complaints, and unsubscribe rates. If these are consistently high, your deliverability will suffer. It's hard to communicate or sell when your message is flagged as spam. 

If a subscriber hasn't opened your email in over 6 months, they probably won't today either. As hard as it can be to let go, it's essential. Continue to build your list and engage an active audience - don't be afraid to move on from those that are not interested anymore.

In a recent Paddle North campaign, I omitted a segment of subscribers that had not engaged in over 180 days. What was the result? Our highest open rate, CTR, and order rate YTD. It was a good reminder. 

Be sure to value and respect your list of subscribers. Nurture it and care for it. Clean it. Play by the rules. Study the analytics. Repeat. Keep it sustainable.