The importance of being relevant

Posted on October 30th, 2007 by Colorado Web Solutions - Yahoo Store Developers and Designers

This is an article provided by our partners from Constant Contact. We felt this was a great article and something worth passing on to our clients and visitors.

Sometimes you can hear something 1,000 times, but you still need to hear it again. For example, you know you need to drink a lot of water. You hear it on TV. You read about it. You hear the people around you talking about it. But do you do it? I have to admit, I’m guilty in this area (in fact, I’m going to go get a drink of water right now!).

It’s the same thing with relevancy. If you read our email newsletters or any other email marketing-focused blog or publication, you know that your emails need to be all about your audience—what they want, need, and are interested in. And, really, this is common sense. But even with all that, it so easy to get away from this and to communicate about what you want them to know.

So, I’m here to remind you. The best thing you can do for yourself when planning your emails and creating content is to think about your audience. Put yourself in their shoes. Who are they? What do they want from you? What can you give them in the way of information, discounts, or advice that will make them read, smile, and even better, take action?

The people on our lists are busy. They don’t have time to look at communications that offer them no value. And they aren’t going to spend the time to dig through our emails to find value. It needs to be evident up front—even in the subject line.

Sending irrelevant communication is they best way to lose people all together. When someone signs up for our email list, we only have one or two (if we are lucky) opportunities to show that we’ve got something of value to share. You have to prove that your emails are going to be worth opening—that there is a pay off. For more on being relevant, read Gail Goodman’s article, Why Am I Getting This?

The key ingredient for relevancy is knowledge of your audience. If you don’t know who they are, you can’t possibly stand in their shoes. Sounds like a great topic for next time!