Inbox bankruptcy refers to a recent phenomenon whereby people finally decide to purge all their unread email messages due to a feeling of being overwhelmed by how far behind they are in acting on these messages. This means eliminating any cause of clutter and stress. It strikes fear into the hearts of email marketers everywhere, but it doesn’t have to. Before you foreclose on your email marketing investment, know there is a way to salvage your email marketing followers.
Most people feeling the pressure to declare inbox bankruptcy have overextended themselves by not organizing emails into folders, have subscribed to too many feeds or simply are overwhelmed at the office or at home. If you’re on the chopping block, fear not. There is still time to make amends and avoid the unsubscribe guillotine.
Evaluate your current email marketing strategy. Have you held up your end of the promise to your subscribers? Ask yourself these questions:
Is the content worth reading?
Is it informative, fresh and pleasurable?
Is it consistent, but not overly frequent?
Have you made your email content something to look forward to?
Is there the benefit of exclusivity?
What are you doing to make your subscribers feel appreciated?
And the million dollar question: are people reading and acting – either though exploration of your website or direct purchases? If not, it’s time to rethink your email marketing strategy. Let this sudden wave of inbox bankruptcy be a wake-up call and not a message of doom. By making sure your email messages are meaningful, your offers are consistently better for your subscribers and your delivery is acceptable, you can avoid the dreaded unsubscribe.
To this point, I’ve been speaking to those businesses who currently operate an email marketing program. For those who are on the fence about developing an email marketing strategy, now is the time to invest. Email marketing is pretty new compared to other media and this inbox bankruptcy phenomenon should be treated like the dot com bust of ten years ago. E-commerce didn’t stop after those dot coms fell. Instead, e-commerce got smarter and more user-focused.
The same can be done with your own email marketing strategy. Use the failures of others to position your email campaigns for success. Find new and better ways to entice subscribers and keep them coming back for more. Combine attention and retention strategies. Recommit to the reason you thought about email marketing in the first place – using email as a way of inexpensively connecting with an audience on a more personal level.
Now that’s some advice you can take to the bank.