Traditional Email Is Dead. Long Live The Insight Email

For those marketers who believe email has gone the way of the Dodo, we have two words for you: you’re right. Traditional email has become so cluttered and spammy that it’s been swapped for a newer, flasher and more personal communication method: the insight email.

Yes, you read that right. Email is still one of the most preferred methods of targeting current and prospective targets. That said, unlike traditional email which can be dry and downright form-letterish at times, insight emails are leveraging some of the most innovative trends, tools and tactics available to marketers, chief among them analytics (one of the hottest buzzwords in marketing today). 

Think it’s time you made the transformation to insight email? 

All it takes is four simple steps: 

Step 1. Be Pervasive – Allow for reading of the insight email where the target is. If they’re at the computer, the email can be highly designed. If they’re on a tablet or smartphone, the email must be optimized for mobile. The message must be consumable. So, use text along with images, have single column layouts, use readable and large enough fonts for smaller screens, and say it in as few words as possible. 

Step 2: Be Participatory – Allow for customers to easily interact with you via contact links, ‘call me’ buttons for mobile that immediately fire up their phone app, hyperlinks to questionnaires and social media content that’s ultra shareable and more. In fact, put social content into emails and make “liking” and “sharing” doable via the email for better cross-channel opt-in efficiency. And, track what bits of content get the most follow-through on your emails – you can use this information to craft even better insight emails moving forward. 

Step 3: Be Personalized – Insight emails make clever use of information that’s relevant to the sender. How? By leveraging database information the marketer has gathered via social media, landing pages and direct contact to cultivate messages that are closely related to known interests, wants and needs. You can adjust messages and timing of delivery to locations, interests, gender, events, time of day (when are emails being read most) and so much more. 

Step 4: Be Pointed – If you know your worth to the recipient, be upfront about it. Let’s say they have expressed a problem you are uniquely qualified to solve. Well, don’t dance around it – tell it like it is. You should be in control of your messaging and firmly (albeit imperceptibly) steering the insight email communications in a direction that establishes you as the authority on resolving an issue or fulfilling a need. 

So, if you still love the convenience and cost-effectiveness of email but have found its results loathsome of late, follow the above steps to refresh and rejuvenate the modality by focusing on the customer’s point of view.