what does this remind you of?

This article reminds me of an entry Seth Godin wrote on his blog recently. The only thing is we've taken his thoughts and expanded on them with a few key links back to email marketing and how to maximise your success.

Seth spoke about how we all compare during our first interaction. He said that "every time you visit a new website, enter a new airport, visit a new store, examine a new book... the question you ask yourself first is, what's this like?".

He's absolutely right. Comparison forms the foundation for decision making and aids our ability to interact with new things. The first time we see an email newsletter we'll ask ourselves "what does this remind me of?". Is it one of our favourite brands or is it the company that sends terrible emails every Friday? The challenge for you is to be associated with the good and to use association and recognition to achieve your email marketing goals.

how can you achieve this?

There are two key things you can do to help achieve a positive association. The first is to do your research and the second is to ensure you do not re-invent the wheel.

doing your research

We're often tempted to put an unnecessary amount of work into creating something unique. This can have negative impacts on your marketing. Firstly, with uniqueness there is risk. If something is truly unique you'll have limited knowledge of how it will perform. You'll also have to dedicate a large amount of time to create this unique communication and possibly invest a lot of money too. Combine these and you can see that uniqueness can be an extremely high risk strategy. Research has always enabled businesses to consistently achieve excellent results. Doing the right research will help to reduce risk, predict potential performance and it will often reduce the time and money required to achieve your desired result.

What  research should you do for your email marketing?

Below are our top five areas of research you need to do to achieve your email marketing goals. The aim of this research is to build a picture of what your subscribers are currently experiencing:

1. Subscribe to your competitors emails. What do they send, how often and how are they designed?
2. Visit your competitors websites. What do they look like, how are they structured and how successful are they?
3. Build a picture of your subscribers or target audience. Who are they, what do they like, where do they go and how do they behave?
4. Find the most successful email campaigns in your market. Are there any award winning designs and campaigns that can guide you?
5. What have you done before? What worked, what didn't work and how can you build on these successes or failures?
    

don't re-invent the wheel

One of the biggest mistakes marketers make is to place too much emphasis on creating something new and unique. When you create something truly unique you run the risk that the consumer may struggle to understand what they're supposed to do with it, how it works or how they should interact with it. Often the most successful marketing follows an already established pattern. The consumer immediately recognises it and understands what is expected. This can increase your chances of achieving your goal. 

You can use this in your email marketing. It starts from your opt in. If you carry a signup form on your website make it easy to use and ensure the process is familiar to the visitor. Then design your email to reflect your other branding and to incorporate standard structures the recipient will recognise. Ensure your emails reflect the best practice in your industry and always present your brand in the very best light. Presentation is extremely important in the early stages of decision making. We use it to help us decide whether to continue reading or delete the message. Think of how you present yourself. Would you turn up to an interview dressed in dirty jeans and a ripped t-shirt? Probably not. You need to treat each customer interaction as an interview, whether it's face-to-face, written, verbal or electronic communication.

a final thought from Seth Godin...

"Before you make what you're going to make, find something you want people to be reminded of. Feel free to discard this model if you want to make a point (the iPod did not remind you of a Sony CD player), but discard it on purpose. If you're writing a book, for example,  your goal (probably) isn't to reinvent what it means to be a book. You're merely trying to reinvent the words and ideas."

So the next time you're creating a marketing communication or a new product offering think about what it'll remind people of . As Seth says "your target audience will thank you, because it's one less thing to process."