It’s Good to Talk
Ok, so we are all talking to our customers, prospects etc. in some form or another, whether that may be on the web, blogs, phone, email.
Talking to them is one thing but are we telling them what they want to hear, are we listening as well? I think that is where we can learn.
Dialogue
• noun 1 conversation between two or more people as a feature of a book, play, or film.
2 discussion directed towards exploration of a subject or resolution of a problem.
• verb chiefly N. Amer. take part in dialogue.
— ORIGIN Greek dialogos, from dialegesthai ‘converse with’.
So what is it we are talking about when we say dialogue marketing? We’re describing a company’s efforts to engage consumers in ongoing conversations that create lasting relationships. You can use these different interactions as data collection points. The data then allows you to further customise your marketing messages and personalise the experience for recipients in exchange for sharing opinions, buying patterns and product preferences.
As audiences have become more sophisticated and inbox activity has increased, email has had to evolve, offering more than just a sales pitch. Dull, mass-produced, non-relevant emails are no longer adequate. Communications need to add value, offer something that the recipient wants, and ultimately open up dialogue.
Engaging your audience will enable you to understand their needs and discover how they want to be communicated to. How do they perceive your business? What are you doing right or wrong? If you can answer these questions, it will enable you to make valuable changes to your customer offering.
Death of the announcement, birth of the dialogue
In the form of email, dialogue is about sending message to your recipients that are relevant and engage them. Then based on previous interactions, change your communication.
The Crowded Inbox
Most of us receive a high level of unsolicited and permission-based email in our inbox today. That means as email marketers there is a lot of competition and it is hard to get noticed. This is why there are a number of important factors to make sure you are ahead of the competition.
I believe in this climate, as well as the inbox, you are competing with a lot of other noise. Through the growing phenomenon of social networking, such as Twitter, a lot of individuals spend more time in the social networking arena than in the inbox. They also have inboxes within these networks as well making it more difficult to always get your brand noticed and interacted with. Generally with more information channels available, recipients are less likely to listen to what you have to say.
This means that your emails need to be attention grabbing & relevant to stand out from the crowd. Utilise other marketing channels to enhance your email marketing, this in turn should increase your ROI. Segment your lists and then make sure you use your brand name in the subject line for quick recognition. Offer value to the recipient for signing up, giving them access to offers they would not normally get. Design for the preview pane and images off. These are all important in making sure your brand is noticed.
To read more, please download Pure360's whitepaper 'Death of the Announcement, Birth of the Dialogue'.
Back to top