Today we will see a simple trick that will help you check whether your newsletter would be approved by the best antispam.
What is the best anti-spam?
Your subscriber, of course!
The subscriber is who ultimately decides whether an email is useful or not.
If he should be getting this message or not.
If it is spam or not.
The difficulty we have when creating and sending a newsletter, is that when viewed from our perspective, it’s not always easy to be honest with ourselves.
It’s normal.
I’ll give you an example, a user creates a typical newsletter with a discount, to ensure that all subscribers have the opportunity to seize the opportunity, he sends several times the email, thinking that it is impossible to annoy the subscribers, because it is a very good offer! Why the subscriber will not be interested?
You may have seen it several times, right?
It is quite common to think that our newsletters are always interesting because they are advertising our products and services and we strive to provide the best for our customers.
But is it true? Would these emails be useful to our customers?
I’ll show you a simple trick.
The 5 whys?
Wikipedia defines this technique as the 5 Whys? This technique is used for iterative questions to explore relations underlying cause and effect on a particular issue, you can read more in the Wikipedia article.
Although at first glance it may seem a more appropriate technique for solving technical problems, it is applicable to other situations, I have seen this technique be used to storytelling, for example.
The idea is to ask 5 times why? until you can find the cause of the problem, or, in our case, the reason why a subscriber would like to receive your newsletter.
I think we will better understand the concept with an example.
1) I will use the newsletter we send with the Article Technical preparation of landing pages and websites for email campaigns
To find out if this newsletter may be interesting, if it will be useful for the subscribers, we will ask 5 times Why?
We can confirm that we can solve a basic need of our customers or subscribers.
Let’s start
-This article will be useful for our subscribers?
Why? It explains how to check the proper functioning of a landing page before sending large volumes of emails
Why? Email marketing campaigns can generate a lot of traffic
Why? In many cases, discounts or actions are sent to attract a lot of visits
Why? These campaigns are used to increase the volume of sales
Why? Customers want to maximize the profitability of the campaigns and increase their profits
We can conclude that the analysis showed that the article can offer Important information for any company to improve its ROI.
It is a content that most likely will be useful, interesting, for our customers.
2) Another example
Imagine that we are sending a newsletter with a 20% discount on women’s shoes for parties and events. We will use this technique to analyze why a customer would like to receive this newsletter:
Why? Because women like to go to parties and events with stylish shoes and always be fashionable
Why? There is always a Protocol and they will need to purchase it
Why? Typically, all participants of social events must be dressed correctly, following the recommendations sent by the hosts
Why? Nobody would like to go to a party with shoes that are not what was recommended in the invitation
Why? This could make the participant feel embarrassed.
We have reached a common interest, most people want to be integrated into society, to be accepted within a group, the garment can play an important role, especially at social events.
This knowledge can be used to create email marketing, for example with a subject like this:
1) -20% of discount on party shoes, your perfect look, 2) Would you like to be criticized?
Obviously creating email marketing requires other points, but this technique already offers a good starting point ( social acceptance), so the campaign can be more effective. We are no longer talking about saving a little money, but social values, which can make a difference.
You can also use the 5 Whys? on other stages of your strategy
It is possible to use this after you send the campaign, to understand what happened, if the results were not as good as expected.
Returning to the example of a 20% discount on shoes.
Let’s imagine that this campaign was sent, and, unfortunately,
It didn’t work very well:
Why? The number of sales was very low
Why? Few subscribers opened the campaign
Why? It may not have been as interesting to the subscribers
Why? The mailing list includes customers who are not interested (men, etc.)
Why? The segmentation was not done properly
It’s not a perfect analysis, but it can help,
Conclusion
It’s not a perfect technical analysis, but it is a tool that can help us to think, to focus on the goal we want to achieve.
It is an interesting strategy.
And you, have you ever tried this technique?