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eCRM Content Strategy - 16 tips to success

Introduction

• Content is king in regular email communications. To maximise open and click through rates and ultimately ROI on your eCRM activity we have outlined our top tips on how to develop a successful email marketing content strategy

1. Make it relevant

• You might not realise but you are well placed to share relevant information with your clients. The things they would most like to read/hear about will be the FAQs that you/your sales team repeatedly hear. Another sure fire sign of relevance is when you are presenting to a new/prospective client and they express interest or surprise in a particular subject. What may not be rocket science to you could be an interesting and engaging content topic for your email

2. Make a content plan

• Develop a content plan which will give you a structure to your eCRM. Keep a record of articles you have covered and that you would like to cover. Look at creating themes for each newsletter and grouping articles accordingly

3. Email subject lines

• Tell the recipient what they’re about to read• Make the subject line short, sweet and to the point

4. Measure

• Monitor email open rates and subsequent click thru rates• Identify the subjects your readers are most interested in and those

which turn them off

5. Remember your KPI’s

• Define your campaign objectives and make sure that every email addresses these. Don’t lose sight of your goal and be clear that whatever added value you are giving to your reader you are ultimately selling your brand

6. Reinforce your brand

• Make sure that your campaign is relevant to your brand and constantly reinforces your offering and positioning. It’s no use engaging thousands of readers who ultimately don’t know who you are or what you do

7. Be thought provoking

• You know what you’re talking about – make sure your readers know that. Whatever content you choose there will be a wealth of similar articles on the internet. Make sure that yours has your own unique view or commentary so that you are adding value to everything else out there

8. Add human interest

• e-Comms can be very dry – one way to alleviate this is to add some human interest. People like to read about their peers/competitors, if you can get a guest contributor to add to your content, and put a face to their article, do

9. Test different creative formats

• Creative on regular e-comms can quickly become stale. Mix it up a bit, alternate images, test KPI buttons in different positions – look at what works best for you

10. Tone of voice

• This is key to successful communications. Any content should be properly copywritten. It needs to be professional and engaging

11. Check out the competition

• Subscribe to your competitors’ email alerts and check out their websites. What are they talking about? How do they communicate with your target audience? What can you do better? What can you do differently? Don’t forget that technically ANY email that arrives in an inbox is competing for your users attention – look at your favourite emails and identify anything you can emulate

12. Third party links

• Link up with third parties which are relevant and interesting to your target audience. Not only can they deliver interesting content or offers which are a bit different to your core business but if you work closely with them they can help you to propagate your message if they too have an eCRM programme you can link in to.

13. Recycle

• Depending on the turnover of your clients/readers you can recycle content. Don’t reinvent the wheel if you know that your users have an average readership cycle of 9-12 months. Review content that was particularly successful and recycle it for your new readers

14. Make it timely

• Timely, relevant up to date information and commentary on things such as law reforms can be particularly interesting and engaging – particularly in a B2B universe. Add your own perspective to changes to become an opinion leader

15. Length

• Keep your email short and snappy – use article intros to draw the reader in – they can click on a link to download/read the full story

16. Frequency

• Consider how often you want/need to communicate with your audience. It needs to be regular enough to maintain momentum but if you overdo it your readers will turn off. Make sure that you have enough to say for the frequency you want to communicate, it’s better to have more content less often than alienate your audience with insubstantial content

Summary

• There are no hard and fast rules regarding email content but we believe the tips outlined will give any e-marketer a strong basis to develop a successful eCRM campaign

• For further information contact Firecracker – info@firecrackeruk.com

• Thank you for reading!

Contact us

Hugh TaylorManaging Director

hugh@firecrackeruk.com

0203 159 5090

www.firecrackeruk.com