This is a guest blog post written by Bonnie Malone, Director of Response Consulting for the online marketing company, Return Path. In this entry, Bonnie talks about keeping web and email content current.
One of the most unique and exciting elements of email, as a marketing channel, is its' ability to deliver instant gratification to marketers and subscribers alike. In just a few days (or sometimes only hours!), a marketing campaign can evolve from concept to results analysis. Compared with more traditional channels, like direct mail, that takes weeks or even months to prepare, print, and send - email is practically lightspeed. However, for those of us in the throes of email planning and production, it can be easy to lose sight of the fact that time, is in fact, to our advantage.
Not only can we execute a campaign in near-record time, but we can affect message content nearly instantly - and sometimes even after a campaign has been mailed (ah, the beauty of hosted images!). However, it seems that few companies leverage this real-time flexibility, much less fully embrace it.
Recently, I was delighted to see a reference to the Royal Wedding and the Japan Earthquake on Expedia.co.uk's website. (example below) Different from the typical "book now" messaging that is prevalent from travel companies, Expedia.co.uk smartly uses current events to drive interest by being timely and relevant. This type of content could easily be integrated into an email campaign to break up the monotony of the "book now" message and encourage subscriber engagement with the brand - resulting in more revenue long term.
This month, I challenge you to read the news with this new perspective in mind - and be creative in integrating fresh events-related content into your message stream. I look forward to hearing about your testing success in the coming weeks!
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