Building Human Connections with Your Email Communication

By Susan Brown Faghani
Manager, Marketing and Sales Communication, L-Soft

We may not automatically think of an email marketing message, an email newsletter or even a discussion group post that we send as an opportunity to connect on a human level. It's easy to put most of our time and effort into content creation – the "what" of our messages – and not give enough consideration to the "who" of the people we're trying to reach. Here are some simple but effective ways to keep the focus on the individuals behind the in-boxes in order to build relationships and a sense of connection.

Establish a Foundation of Trust and Value

• Never spam. Ensure that your subscribers truly want to be on your email list by asking them to actively give their consent, and don't do the work for them.
• State the purpose of your email list and message frequency clearly, and deliver what you promise.
• Ensure that your subscribers reconfirm that they initiated the subscription request to receive your messages (confirmed opt-in/double opt-in).
• Send welcome messages to new subscribers confirming expectations, providing help links and initiating the relationship by laying the foundation for future communications.
• Place one-click unsubscribe links into every message.
• Protect your subscribers' privacy and data.
• Provide exclusive incentives such as white papers, useful promotional items or special offers for subscribers.

Form a Sense of Connection with a Professional yet Conversational Tone

• Look at your subscriber demographics to get a sense of the people on your email list – for example, their roles and organizations – and create a few sample subscribers in your mind based on these demographics when you're developing content.
• Develop your email draft and read it out loud to check for flow and a colloquial feel. Then ask a colleague for feedback and fine tune it accordingly.
• Avoid jargon, acronyms, hyperbole and overly promotional verbiage.
• Keep your messages as short and digestible as possible, add visuals at your discretion and include a clear CTA and an easy way for subscribers to reach you.

Personalize and Engage with Data, List Segmentation and Drip Marketing

• Give people the opportunity to set their subscriber preferences or create their profile pages at the time they first subscribe. This will give you a sense of the types of messages they want to receive.
• Consider segmenting your list based on this initial data. Basing your messages on data is key to keeping each subscriber subscribed, active and engaged.
• Common ways to segment include demographic data, geographic location, personas and level of interaction with previous messages, but one size doesn't fit all so use the parameters that best serve your communication goals.
• Create completely customized messages based on each subscriber's profile and preferences. LISTSERV Maestro supports personalization and conditional logic, enabling easy creation of custom content blocks.
• Request permission for personal tracking from subscribers. If granted, you can send a mailing to a mixed group of recipients and gather personal tracking information from those who have given permission and non-identifiable, unique tracking information from those who haven't.
• Consider drip marketing campaigns, with follow-up messages that are automatically triggered according to a specific subscriber's action, for instance a message click or a visit to your website. This approach helps you deliver the right content at the right time when the subscriber is most receptive to act.

Remember, keeping the people behind the names in your subscriber databases top of mind goes a long way to creating a connection with every message you send. Test what works for your audience, track your results, fine tune your approach and grow your subscriber relationships. Happy emailing!

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