When "Exclusive" Really Matters
How often do you see the word “exclusive” pop up in email marketing? Unfortunately, enough to render the word pretty meaningless. If an “exclusive” offer comes around every month, or worse, every week, your email subscribers will be trained not to pay for anything more than whatever your next offer is. And if they missed your latest “exclusive,” oh well, another one is bound to roll around soon enough. We tackled the tricky subject of the ubiquitous “exclusive” email marketing message here a few months ago. But the overuse of the term doesn’t mean that it doesn’t hold value; on the contrary, if your email marketing best practices include offering truly unique opportunities, and specials that only email subscribers have access to, make sure to emphasize it.
And the best place to do this? The welcome email. A welcome email is easy and powerful, it starts building your relationship with your subscriber and gives you a chance to up-sell or cross-sell. Do you include a welcome email as part of your email marketing best practices toolbox? If not, you should! And what better way than to start with making your subscribers feel as though they are gaining access to something really special? Think exclusive, invitation only, insiders club: make them not only want to see your email. Make them look forward to it.
Consider the following examples:
“Now that you’ve joined, you will have exclusive access to members-only free downloads, invitations to events, and previews.” Free and members-only? A perfect way to reward your subscribers for joining. And receiving invitations to members-only events? This creates a feeling of belonging to an exclusive club, that generates excitement around your entire email marketing campaign.
“As our newest member, you are on our guest list for our next exclusive night-out event. Guests in selected cities will be invited to special events featuring live music, signature cocktails… and more.” Sounds sexy, doesn’t it? And not all cities are represented (are they)? As a subscriber, realizing that your city is one of the selected automatically raises the excitement level of wanting to be a part of whatever these special events are.
Email marketing campaigns containing the word “exclusive” are ubiquitious. Don’t kill the meaning of the word by using it too frequently. Make your subscribers sit up and pay attention when they see such special, once-in-a-blue-moon opportunities come from you. Trust us, by parsing out your “exclusive offers” and “selected invitations,” you’ll gain more subscribers, and keep the ones you have on the edge of their seats. This is an email marketing best practice that you can always keep in mind and follow…once in a while.
About the Author: Sharon
