Like many of you, the bane of my work day is the email inbox. The sheer volume of never ending emails is enough to overwhelm. On top of that there are the bolded, all caps subject lines yelling to be opened and read immediately.
The challenge is that email is one of the easiest investments in communicating to and growing your customer base. So why should you bother investing time in sending out emails if they are just going to go ignored? The bigger question is: Why are your emails being ignored and how do you get people to engage?
Yes, your weekly newsletter might be getting deleted from some inboxes during the afternoon slump. But did those emails address your customers’ needs? Probably not.
When investing in an email program there are a couple essential rules to follow. The first is clean and segment your database Take an evening, delegate to an assistant, hire a marketing professional. Whatever it takes, be sure to clean up your list. What you send out, no matter how engaging, won’t matter if the right people don’t see it.
Once you have the missing names or incorrect emails filtered out you should segment your list. There are several ways to segment a list. For most manufacturers segmentation by industry is the best option. You’ll also want to note if the contact is a customer, prospect or vendor. Now you can invest in building your relationship with the people on your list.
The Case Study
The best place to start is the case study. A case study should tell a story to the reader about your company that intrigues and showcases your product and process. When curating case study content, look at the information from your audiences’ viewpoint. A case study shouldn’t have a company centric focus. It should showcase something you did for a customer that may not be readily apparent to others.
This could be based on an innovative new product, or be a story about quality or customer service. If you choose to engage in a consistent email campaign be sure to mix it up a bit. If every case study is about a product, it will feel like you’re selling at your audience.
Case studies should addresses a challenge your customer faced and the solution you worked with them to find. Create a compelling story to showcase a different side of your company outside of products. The best stories are the ones that make the reader think “Wow, if they can do that for another customer then surely they can solve my challenge”.
Note: You don’t necessarily need to mention the name of the customer to get your message across, although it’s best if you’re able to.
When you create a compelling case study that customers can relate to, they will want to know more about your company. When you talk about something that you are passionate about, people listen. Make case studies work for you and showcase that passion.