Email marketing – finding the right balance.

I subscribe to email updates (e-zines) from several fashion/lifestyle magazines for research for one of our lovely clients. Two of the titles, Vogue and Marie Claire, send me an e-zine every single day, even at the weekend. As you can imagine, this can be a little over whelming. I don’t have a stack of magazines in my office gathering dust and taking up valuable space. Instead I have a stack of emails in my inbox shouting for my attention with cries of “latest looks”, “celebrity style tips” and “new season must-haves”, every time I open the “fashion e-zine” folder!

Another title, Grazia, only sends an e-zine once a week. Every Tuesday without fail, my Grazia e-zine pops into my inbox only to sit there patiently, unopened, until it’s filed away in the relevant folder. Of course, by the time the Grazia e-zine arrives on a Tuesday, I’ve already seen Cheryl Cole’s new hair-do and I know that Beyoncé was a surprise hit at Glastonbury.

Although I find the daily e-zines from Vogue and Marie Claire a bit too persistent, I know that they’re bang up to date and they’re always there when I need some fashion inspiration. I don’t even bother looking at the Grazia e-zines as I’ve already got the information I need from its more regular competitors.

When planning your email marketing, content and frequency are equally important. Think carefully about the content of your e-zines. They should be up to the minute, relevant and drive traffic to your website.

It’s also absolutely vital that you schedule your e-zines appropriately for your audience and your message. Send them out too frequently and you risk alienating your recipients; send them out too infrequently and you’ll lose momentum and be usurped by a competitor.

Whatever schedule you decide on, make sure you stick to it, consistency is key. Think about whether you can resource the management of your email marketing in-house or whether you need to make plans to outsource it to a marketing agency. Of course, here at Mzuri Design we can help you with this if you find it’s too much of a time commitment.

Email marketing is certainly on the increase so consumers need to be selective about which e-zines they subscribe to. Make sure they choose you!