The procedure is known. When someone subscribes to your newsletter, then you confirm that. This often happens with a transactional message without too many bells and whistles. And equally often they appear with an ordinary flat text.
Then you receive the confirmation that you will receive the newsletter ‘xyz’ from now on. You can repair possible mistakes yourself not by confirming, but by unsubscribing. Until there the strict minimum we have to live with. At the dotcomgiftshop they have dealt with it differently. Once someone has subscribed to a newsletter, you can immediately activate him. In five steps they created a powerful e-marketing instrument.
1 It starts with the first line of the email message. You know by now that this line is shown in web based email clients. So at a glance the subscriber gets sent the ‘feel-good-message’. Glad you’re on board! And why not start shopping immediately? Conversion from the first minute, who wouldn’t sign for that? Further on, the header has all the classic elements an email message should contain. Also pay attention to the logo. The letters are illustrated in four different colours. Colour that will be repeated in the titles later on. That is how you cultivate a visual recognition image immediately.
2 Here you see the actual welcome. Welcome in the club, it literally says. Diverse marketing studies have shown that a club feeling – everything that entails a membership – encourages people to more conversion. So why not put up our webshop and the related email traffic under the motto of a club? An welcome message accompanied with a present is never wrong. But mind the small letters. As long as you are subscribed to this newsletter, you are not charged with shipping costs above a certain order value!
3 Now we have the attention – who has subscribed just recently is familiar with it -, we immediately put a new member to work. We do so by a certain sequence. First we try to get him to shop. Otherwise it’s more than worth it to let him participate via his own social media, an extra channel is always a win. Besides in the current evolution of new media, both evolve more towards each other. And finally, they launch the request to become friends in the address book. Just to be one step ahead of the smarty pants filters of the ISPs.
4 But still we prefer the reader to go shopping eventually. So we repeat the little advantage and use this transactional email to show the number of products at once. Something that mostly happens with the next message. Why wait, when it can be done as from the first time?
5 Who despite the many choices didn’t proceed to conversion, is defenitely searching for something else. There are two possibilities. Or the next contact is looking for other info, so we introduce the service channels in an inviting way. Eventually this is also a way of conversion. They have at least engaged in a conversation. Or the contact didn’t really subscribe (intentionally), but the unsubscribe link is there. No beating around the bush, only correct agreements from the first sentence of the email message to the last. That lead you back to the first sentence!
