Moreover
Here are some additional ideas which can improve email engagement.
Brand message: The poster-style images for a mass segment need to be replaced with more personalised and interactive content. Brands need to think of email as their “third place” after their website and app. AMP enables apps to be created within email. Every ecommerce brand needs to integrate search, shopping cart, recommendations, and payments inside email. The aim should be to eliminate the friction of a clickthrough for most of their customers.
Frequency: Brand emails should be sent daily at the same time. This way, they become a habit – rather than random spam. (I have termed this as microns – micro newsletters).
Action Ads: Brands can also have ads in the email footer. They can be ads promoting internal products or external non-competing brands. There are four attributes that set these ads apart: they are linked to PII (personally identifiable information) so they can very targeted, they are in “push” messages and thus don’t want for user action, all actions are in-place (and not requiring a clickthrough to a landing page), and they can support payments which means the ads could drive impulse purchases.
Mu Statement: The email footer needs to have a real-time update on the Mu points and a list of the last few transactions. This is important for email recipients to know that their action has an immediate reaction.
Pan-brand footer: The interesting thing about the email footer is that it can cut across brands. It can take on a life of its own. Along with the Mu in the subject, its sole purpose is to drive email opens – similar to what Google’s search ads. It is akin to taking the horse to the water. After that, it is what the brand does – with its messaging, offers, innovations, and interactivity.
Put all the ideas together, and we get a completely new look email program. This is what I had meant when I said, “Email 1.0 is dead. Long live Email 2.0!” Done right, email 2.0 can completely revitalise engagement, conversion, and retention on a channel that has served marketers well for the past two decades. Instead of just sending emails and hoping for single digit response rates, marketers need to set an objective of 100% email action rates, and thus eliminate the two biggest profit-killers – marketing AdWaste and funnel frictions. “No Email Unopened” must become the new mantra.
