Nowadays, it’s no secret that those that can engage their audience will reap the highest rewards.

We hear over and over again that our emails need to be personal, relevant, interesting, value-adding, yada yada…

Is it easy to execute such plan?

Well, not really!! Building a high quality email program can be really hard.

But is it worth the time and effort invested in order to get there?

Absolutely, it is!

When it comes to building a long-term plan for customer engagement you need to get really creative and PUT YOURSELF IN YOUR SUBSCRIBERS’ SHOES.

What’s worse than having no email program, is a poorly executed email program with absolutely no planning or goals.

A strategic email plan that engages subscribers is NOT a simple checklist of items that you run through and click send.

It’s not supposed to be a chore-like task that you execute on auto-pilot.

In order to differentiate yourself from your competitors and build strong relationships via email, you have to create emails that not only resonate with your audience, but also address their needs and wants, why they signed up and  how often they expect to hear from you.

Even after you think you’ve nailed a solid plan, the next objective is to be consistent.

If you’re merely trying to SELL with every email… hate to say it, but your luck’s going to run out soon!

Here are a few thoughts on customer engagement as the #1 CHALLENGE for an email marketer:

  • You focus too much on selling and not building trust and loyalty
  • You don’t focus enough on educating and adding value in your area of expertise
  • Your automation and lead nurturing plan is disconnected from your newsletter plan: emails are overlapping and confusing subscribers
  • You have no real defined GOALS and what you expect from your email campaigns
  • You’re not looking at the analytics and stats and what they may be telling you
  • You don’t know what to send AND you never ask! Send a Survey and ask your subscribers what they want and expect…

As if low engagement wasn’t bad enough, a poorly run email program that fails to interest their audience will hit the biggest wall of all over time and that is – poor email deliverability and acceptance rate with your emails being marked as “spam”… Ouch!!

Did I miss anything? What are your thoughts on Customer Engagement as the #1 challenge for an email marketer?