The Importance of Setting and Meeting Expectations In Email Marketing
Have you ever been so excited about an email that you couldn’t wait for it to hit your inbox? That’s the kind of excitement to strive for in your own email marketing.
But while you may not be able to create that amount of interest with all your emails, there are some things you can do to create a little buzz and get subscribers looking for your emails.
Part of it, of course, is to deliver great content, and share things they are interested in. But you can go further. You can create buzz and anticipation by using foreshadowing in your emails. This just means that you tease them about what’s coming in the next email from you.
By far, the most important thing you can do to ensure that your readers are looking for your emails is to be consistent. You set, and then meet, expectations in your email marketing. You want your readers to get an idea for how often you’ll be emailing them.
For example, you can let them know that you’ll be emailing about once a week. That’s setting email delivery expectations.
If you are sending your emails out newsletter style, tell them what day of the week they should look for your next issue.
If you’re setting up auto-responder messages, let them know you’ll share a new tip with them every day for the next week. Then at the end of that email series, share what they can expect to happen next.
You can also set expectations for the type of content they can expect in emails from you. Ideally you want to share a mix of both helpful content and offers for products and services.
Letting them know that you will mix the two, and will only promote products you’ve tried yourself, for example, or have made sure are of high quality and will be helpful to them, can go a long way towards building trust and not sounding pushy or “salesy”.
Once you’ve set those expectations, your most important job will be to meet and even exceed them. If you’ve promised your readers a new email every Wednesday morning, make sure that happens. If you promised to share a case study of a client for using a particular product the following week, make sure that happens.
Yes, life will get in the way, and yes, there will be times when you can’t keep your promise. But do what you can to meet and exceed the expectations you’ve set with your readers. Think of it as a promise you made them that you don’t want to break unless absolutely necessary.
If they learn that you’re a trustworthy person, and they can take your word at face value, they will be that much more likely to take you up on product offers. And they will go from subscribers to happy customers, who will buy from you again and again…and that, my friend, is a key to email marketing success!
