According to the 60 Second Marketer blog, email marketing is powerful because it delivers your message to a subscriber’s inner sanctum—alongside party invites from friends, and photos from recent family trips. Because of this, they say, “You need to develop a relationship with the consumer as well. Otherwise you are just an intruder in a house [where] you don’t belong.”

They make a very good point. Below are a few tips for making subscribers think of you as a friend whose message belongs in their inbox:

Be personable.
A friend knows how to spell your name correctly; remembers your birthday; takes note of your likes and dislikes; and speaks to you in an informal, conversational voice. There’s no reason why your email can’t exhibit all of these traits as well.

Be consistent.
We all have that friend who alternates between bombarding us with messages and disappearing for weeks or months at a time. It gets old in a hurry. So be the friend who stays in touch consistently, yet never comes on too strong.

Be concise.
“You don’t want to be that friend who takes 20 minutes to tell a 2-minute story” the 60 Second Marketer team notes. We agree. Emails with short snippets of content, and a brief intro consistently come out on top.

Be sensitive.
Friends recognize when “now” isn’t a good time to talk – and it’s important to remember that when thinking about the time you send your email campaigns. Mornings might be an ideal time to catch a stay-at-home mother; Friday evening, conversely, might be a terrible time to reach a B2B customer who keeps a regular office schedule. This might seem obvious but it can be easy to overlook, and is important to consider.

Further to these points, here is a post that talks about the ins and outs of personalisation.

The Point:
Thinking of your subscribers as your friends is an effective way to gauge the appropriateness of your email program’s different initiatives—and not wear out your welcome.

Want some more tips? Here’s some more information about engagement and why it’s so important.

Source: 60 Second Marketer