As the old saying goes, timing is everything.  I can’t think of many areas that this is more true than in email marketing.  Great email marketing is all about timing.  Prompt welcome messages, great educational messages, instant confirmation messages, and relevant and timely offers are the basis for good programs.  It’s a good idea to do a periodic “timing tune-up” to make sure things are flowing smoothly.

I believe there are a few key times when you can get your message out and establish a strong relationship with your customers.

• The Welcome Message – A quick thank you message is crucial.  Acknowledge that you have my information.
• Education Messaging – I love the series of messages after sign-up that do nothing but tell the customer about your site, where to get help, what to expect from the email program, and other great things you offer.  Customers are open to this type of dialogue after they sign-up and appreciate the fact that you aren’t hard selling them right away.
• Confirmation Messages – These are so critical from a timing perspective.  When we make a purchase, we’re conditioned to look for a confirmation email right away.  If we don’t see it, we start to panic.  Panic leads to a call to customer service, which leads profit right down the drain.
• Relevant Messaging – Nothing better than a company anticipating what we want before we want it.  It’s impressive to the consumer and keeps you top of mind.
• Cadence – Do you send too many messages?  Do you not send enough messages?  A thorough statistical analysis of your numbers can help you determine cadence.  Sometimes less is more, and sometimes more is better.

I encourage you to put yourself in the shoes of one of your customers.  Walk through the sign-up process and make a purchase as if you were a new customer.  What do you think?  Do you pass the timing challenge?

If you work with me at all, you’ve heard me ask this question.  Why do you send email? I will usually preface it with something like.   This is going to sound like a an odd question, but… It IS an odd question, but one that almost all of the time, doesn’t get a real answer.  It seems strange that we wouldn’t know the reason we send email, but most of us just do it because that’s what other companies do.

Let’s dig a little deeper into my question.  Here are some reasons why a company or organization would send email marketing messages.

• Acquisition
• Transactional messages
• Traditional Marketing
• Build Brand Awareness
• Newsletters
• Revenue Generation

All of these are very valid uses of the email channel, but they are all very different.  Knowing what you want to accomplish before you actually start trying to execute can make a huge difference in the route you take.  Strategy is something that every email program needs.  Everyone doesn’t need to spend 50 hours per month analyzing each open and click, but you should have some type of plan.  The end-goal dictates what content you will send, how often you will send it , and the construction of the messages.  Your audience can differ greatly based on the types of messages you want to deliver.  Certification requirements can change based on the types of email delivered.  Strategy can mean many different things, but above all it means being prepared with a beginning, middle, and a long-term plan.

You have a budget each month based on how much you make and what you have to spend.  That’s all a basic email strategy needs.  You know how much of what variable you need to produce, and the strategy is a plan (or budget) of how you need to get there.

I hope when I ask the question in the future, I get some snappy responses.  The better prepared we are, the better our email marketing results will be.