Purge the disengaged—but do this first:

If you have an email list, there’s one thing you should be doing regularly.

Scrub it!

Essentially, manually unsubscribe people who haven't engaged in a while.

But as these subscribers have... gone dark... it's worth an attempt to reengage them first. As they're halfway out the door already, you can even afford to be a little more aggressive with email volume, discounts, and even messaging.

You have nothing to lose and may even win back a few folk.

So how do you do it?

Your ESP should enable you to create an audience segment people drop into automatically based on the criteria you've set.

Then you send them through a sequence of emails designed to remind them why they signed up to your list in the first place and encourage them to come back into the fold.

An important point to remember at this stage is that they're not currently opening your emails, so you *really* have to pay attention to those subject lines (and preview text, or snippet, or pre-header—whatever you call them).

There are a few angles you can try (and test) before landing on the most effective.

Curiosity: Purge the disengaged... but do this first! I've heard that one somewhere...

Benefit: 20% OFF for 24 hours only!

Personalisation: [FIRST NAME GOES HERE]! Are you still struggling with this?

And then hit them with the old 1-2 with the preview text:

MORE curiosity: You never know what might happen...

MORE benefit: Grab one of my courses at a bargain price!

MORE personalisation: Don't worry. I can help...

These should perform well but test them over time against other approaches.

Now the eagle-eyed amongst you would have noticed the 20% discount. I'd offer the maximum discount you're comfortable with without making a loss. One sale tends to lead to another, so if you take a hit on the margin, it could be worth it over future sales that you wouldn't have had if they'd dropped off your list and out of your life.

But how many to send?

This is up to you, but I'd say a minimum of 3 and push you to send around 5.

• A reminder of why they signed up

• A discount

• A few success stories from your customers

• Focus on your most popular product and how it helps

• LAST CHANCE - 24 hours before your discount

And if they don't open any of these emails, you can unsubscribe them without a backward glance.

Of course, as open rates are increasingly unreliable, so you could even base their "engagement" on clicking a link in your email.

The strategy is about the same, but you need to "sell the click" and focus on a great subject line.

You can put the discount code on a landing page and ask your reader to click to get it.

You can tell the reader that you noticed they haven't read an email in a while and:

I'd hate to clog your inbox with stuff you don't find useful. If you still want to receive these emails <<click this link>>, I'll keep you on my list.

If you'd rather not hang around, click Unsubscribe below, or I'll take you off my list in a few days—no hard feelings.

Remember, though, this segment of subscribers hasn't been engaging, so don't expect miracles... it's likely most will drop off your list, never to be seen again, but that's a good thing. It will increase your open rates and sender reputation and may even save you some money with your ESP through a smaller list.

But even if it picks up a few sales or re-energises a few list lurkers, it will have done its job.

A New Customer—but at what cost?

With the economic turmoil brought about by BREXIT, COVID, and the war in Ukraine, belts are being tightened, wallets are being squeezed, and metaphors are being stretched by the day.

And unless your business is selling barrels of crude oil, margins are likely wafer-thin, and profits increasingly hard to come by.

So landing new and loyal customers is crucial to long-term success—and to make that even more likely, many brands turn to paid advertising and attractive welcome discounts to woo customers into their world.

This “cost of acquisition” offset by profits made on repeat purchases over the lifetime of the brand’s relationship with the customer.

But giving new customers better deals than loyal fans can be a bad look. 

So what’s the solution?

Let’s dig in.

Is a discount always welcome?

As an email strategist and a consumer, I come across brands offering “10% Welcome Discounts” and the like almost daily.

It can be a simple and effective way to convince people to make their first purchase or, at a minimum, join your email list. It’s certainly a lot more effective than “Sign up to hear our news and offers.”

For small brands, you can give your subscriber list a boost and put your revenue on an upward trajectory.

The risk is you’re subconsciously training your customer to devalue your product and only buy when there’s a discount available.

They start using burner email accounts or scouring voucher sites in the endless hunt for a bargain.

But sometimes, there’s a better way. 

Giving customers something tangible and something they value more than a quick discount can be much more effective—both at building loyalty with the brand and protecting your profit margin. And by monitoring how customers interact with your “freebie”, you get greater personalisation opportunities in the long run.

From quizzes that help you to Discover Your Skin Type or Find Your Perfect Shade, to downloadable product guides or even free samples, these alternatives to discounts give subscribers a much more compelling reason to join your list—and buy at full price—meaning your precious profits are protected.

And once they’re on your list, it’s the turn of your email automation to get to work.

Securing that all-important first purchase

Talk to any email marketer or copywriter, and they’ll tell you a Welcome sequence is one of the big three automations brands can’t do without—and for good reason. 

Through a series of emails sent over several days—or even weeks—you can introduce your latest fan to your brand, your products, your glowing customer testimonials (and more) and slowly peel away layer after layer of objection until they’re itching to buy.

And if you’re really wedded to a discount, fine, but by placing it at the end of 5, 6, or even 16 emails, you’ll likely convert many of the early buyers at full price, with the discount mopping up some of the more price-conscious consumers.

Rewarding loyalty—not bribing to buy

Now, I’m not against discounts to secure sales—far from it. As a copywriter, my job is SO much easier selling something at a discount than it is at full price.

But for me, a discount is more compelling when used as a reward and not a bribe.

Indeed, the one thing better than a new customer is an old customer who comes back for more—cost of acquisition is a thing of the past!

They know your product, they love your product, and hey, what’s that? An email offering 10% Off when you buy again? Well…how could they say no?!

And by timing your email just right based on when they’re about to run out, well, that’s almost your license to start printing money.

So you see, a Welcome Discount is nice, but a loyal customer discount is…well…pretty powerful stuff.

Is your website a lead generating machine?

If you’re looking to wow your customers with a great email experience, you need to start at the beginning.

How do your customers end up on your list in the first place?

I’m not going to waste time talking about buying subscribers or email lists—if you’re doing that, I can’t help you. This is goodbye.

Now that we’ve established you’re not some evil spam lord, let’s dig in.

Getting people to part with their email addresses is a big lesson in trust—we all get enough crap landing in our inboxes every day, so you need to earn your place. Your potential subscriber has got to know you’re the real deal.

As a copywriter and copy coach, I’ve written and reviewed hundreds of websites, and I’ve seen my fair share of great and not-so-great examples, and the big secret to getting subscribers to trust you is…

There isn’t ONE BIG SECRET.

Rather, it’s a huge number of little things that, when added up, tip the balance in your favour.

It’s important to pay attention to all these little details, though, as just one misstep is enough to break that trust and send your potential customer running—often into the warm embrace of your competition.

So, let’s take a look at some of those small steps and see what turns your website into a trust-building—and highly converting—machine.

First Impressions Count

You’ve got to make an impact.

If your site loads at a snail's pace, or your page just looks a disgrace, you’ve had it. Your visitors will write you off and bounce.

If the minute they land on your page, a full-screen pop-up scares the bejesus out of them, they’ll be clicking that big X faster than you can tell them about your views on cookies.

No, you’ve got to take your time.

Let them look around a little. Court them. Impress them.

And what’s the very first thing they’ll see?

Your headline

Does it promise a big benefit of using your product or service, or does your brand name dominate the page, taking up all that valuable real estate?

You worked hard to develop that brand—and probably paid someone a handsome sum to help you come up with it, so you’re proud and want to display it front and centre.

But it’s the equivalent of stunning designer clothes with their label scrawled across the front—a little trashy.

Let your brand speak for itself… and let your headline speak to your customer.

Tell them how you can make their lives better.

Grab their attention—don’t ramble on with self-serving, jargon-filled buzzwords.

So let’s assume you’ve made a good first impression and your customer has seen something they like on your page.

It’s now time to seal the deal and get them added to your list.

It’s time for your Pop-Up to get to work.

Pulling the trigger

There are three main pop-up triggers to choose from, and each of them is useful in its own way.

Timed pop-ups are the most common, and as their name suggests, they appear after the user has spent a certain amount of time on your page.

But how long to choose?

Fire off too quickly, and your potential customer hasn’t had a chance to look around and get to know you. Too slow, and they may leave your page before it even appears.

I’d normally suggest more around 90-120s, but this depends on what you’re selling and how complicated your product is.

The best bet is to test a few different times and see where the sweet spot lies.

Scroll-based pop-ups are the next most frequent—they are triggered when someone has scrolled down your page by a certain amount.

Of course, you need someone to actually scroll for it to appear (see headlines above), but at least you know the people who see it are pretty interested in your product.

Again, it’s best to test how much of your page you want folk to read first.

The final option is an exit-intent pop-up, which will fire when your potential customer looks like they’re about to cut and run. The mouse moves towards the X in the browser bar, and up it pops to tempt them to stay.

This is really a last-chance saloon here, so you really need to make a compelling reason to stay for it to be effective.

Once you pop…

So you’ve got your pop-up picked, but what’s the bait? What will it take to get your potential customer to part with their email?

Well, you need to exchange it for something that they will value.

“News and offers” or “Keep up to date” just won’t cut it—I mean, sure, some folk will sign up, but to really move the dial, a little reciprocity is key.

So what will it take?

The usual choice is a discount—10% or the like, but that’s not always the best option as it has a direct impact on your profit margin.

Is there a guide to using your product you can give away? Or maybe a quiz, so customers know the best product to choose.

Whatever you choose, just make sure it’s something that your customer wants that doesn’t cost your business the earth.

Second Chance Saloon

No matter how well-timed your pop-up is, many people will shut it down without reading it—and usually as they weren’t ready to commit just yet.

But once they’ve had a chance to look around, they want in on the sweet deal you were offering.

Is there another way to get in on your pop-up offer?

Most people know they just need to open up a private browser session to get back what they once had, so don’t be a d*ck about it.

Stick a footer signup at the bottom of your page.

Customers may not be wowed over by your generosity, but as I said earlier, it’s one of the many things that go towards building a great relationship with your brand.

If they have to put in the effort to get the deal you were offering, it could be one step too far.

The Power of Email

As a copywriter who specialises in email marketing, it’s not surprising that I think it is the one channel you simply can’t ignore.

Email, even in the days of GDPR, spam and inboxes groaning at the weight of inbound traffic (over 300 billion a day at the last count), is a cheap and incredibly impactful way to build a relationship with your customers.

And that’s despite the increasing privacy concerns and the release of iOS14.

And iOS15.

And 16…and probably each iteration of Apple’s platform—and where Apple lead, Android will surely follow.

(This isn’t an Apple vs Android thing, by the way, Apple tend to be a little more scrappy with privacy and the like!)

And yet, many brands write emails off as yesterday’s news with the latest and greatest social media trends and “social hacks” to get likes and follows.

With everyone losing their mind over TikTok, how many people still use Clubhouse?

With Meta’s stranglehold on paid social media advertising, how many ads have been rejected and accounts shut down because of over-zealous moderation from bots, AI and occasionally, real people?

Yet, through it all, email volume has grown, year on year, and continues to bring in billions of dollars, pounds, yen and euros at the push of a button for brands big and small. All without paying per click.

But only if done right.

So how do you make the most of email marketing?

The short answer is to hire an Email Strategist and Copywriter to do it for you (cough), and the long answer?

Well, I’ll cover over the course of a new blog series that I’ve just launched:

The Auditor: The Step-by-Step Guide to Writing Great Email

(catchy, right?!)

But we should probably take a closer look at email first.

Let’s dig in.

Email—the great survivor

Lazy marketers (who are usually selling Facebook-ad-writing-services) have pronounced the death of email for almost as long as email has been around, and yet, it remains.

So the question really is less “does email still work?” and more “why does email still work?”

In my view, it’s because it allows you to get to know your customer and how they interact with you and your brand over time and enables you to build an army of dedicated brand advocates.

Remember, if your customer is on your email list, it is because they asked to be there and want to hear from you (they did ask to be there, right? DO NOT tell me you bought your email list. NOOOOOOO! It really isn’t worth the damage it can do to your reputation in the eyes of your Email Service Provider, let alone the whole issue of CONSENT, PEOPLE!).

And if they asked to hear from you, the least you can do is to send them an email, right?

And sure, they might unsubscribe, but success isn’t measured by the number of subscribers you have but by the amount of money you make. If they don’t want to buy from you, let them unsubscribe.

No hard feelings—there are plenty of willing subscribers waiting just around the corner to fill their shoes.

If you embrace email, you can get to know your customers better—what they like, what they don’t like, and even engage in a conversation with them.

In fact, you should aim to engage in conversation with them.

Not only does this build tremendous brand loyalty, but it helps your long-term deliverability and helps to keep your emails out of the dreaded spam folder.

And someone who is engaged with your brand is much more likely to buy from your brand.

And that’s what it’s all about, isn’t it?!

A valuable asset for building great relationships

The beauty of email marketing is that your email list is yours. It’s a valuable asset for your business and one that you own—and put to use—whenever and however you choose.

Where Facebook can punish you for saying the wrong thing or throttle your visibility because of the latest algorithm, email gives you wonderful freedom to do and say what you want (within reason, of course).

And how your customer. interacts with your email will tell you a lot

Let’s say they’ve bought something from you—you’ve got access to their name and email address. If it’s a physical product, you’ve got their actual address too.

physic

Based on what they’ve bought, you’ve got an idea of what interests them and judging by how much they’ve spent with you, you can make a good estimate about how much disposable cash they’ve got lying around.

And it doesn’t just stop there

You can see what products they’ve browsed recently, what they added to their shopping basket and even how long they hovered over the “Buy Now” button before clicking it—or not.

You can recommend products that will complement what they’ve bought or even give recommendations on what other people like (Amazon use this social proof incredibly well…learn from them!).

You can make reasonable guesses about how much people will spend with you in future and even predict how long it will be before they come back to buy from you again.

And if they don’t come and buy again, you can take steps to bring them back into the fold.

This is just the customer behaviour you can monitor—it doesn’t even begin to take into account all the rich information you can gain by asking questions!

Quizzes and pop-ups, links and likes all give you valuable data points you can use to write even more personalised and impactful emails that drive amazing brand loyalty—if done right.

It really is fascinating!

Yet, with all this data comes a responsibility not to misuse it.

Cross the line into creepy territory, and you risk an unsubscribe.

Fail to get proper consent or fail to unsubscribe someone when asked, and you risk more—a deactivated email account and even a hefty fine.

Doing email…right

As an email strategist, I’ve read and written hundreds of emails and over the course of The Auditor blog series, I’ll share some things to look out for—and some tips of some things to do—so you can stay master your email strategy and write campaigns that will have your audience begging for more.

But if that sounds like too much like hard work, let’s chat:

I might just be able to help with that.