Guest Post: Your Messaging Routine — and When to Break It

Writers starting to produce a giant opus are told to create a regular routine. It’s the best way, they’re informed, to ensure that they’ll get from introduction to conclusion one step at a time and without giving up halfway through chapter two.

The same advice should be given to email marketers. Messages delivered to inboxes might be able to generate some extra cash, but when you’re looking to build a business, those messages have to be delivered regularly, reliably and predictably. Whether you hit your list once a week or once a month, if you can get the messaging into a routine, you’re less likely to miss a mailing… then another, until you find that you’re not mailing at all any more.

Sometimes though, it can pay to break that routine, adding extra mailings to the regular messages that you send out at fixed times.

While your regular posts will largely be marketing copy designed to drive readers through a link and produce instant conversions, those irregular newsletters should be relationship-builders. Instead of offering discount codes and special offers, they’ll provide free advice, news and information that your list will find valuable. They might not contain a link to a sales page at all.

The idea isn’t to sell a product. It’s to sell the idea that you care about your customers, that you want to help them succeed, improve their lives, and make the most out of their purchase. You want your list to feel that you like them – because that’s the best way to encourage them to like you too.

And when leads like you, they’re more likely to buy from you.

So a video game retailer could shoot out the occasional message containing game hints or news about Easter eggs. A store selling pet accessories could let readers know about an exhibition of animal photography. A bookseller could point readers to author interviews or tell them about signings.
Messages like these will be spontaneous and their results won’t be as easy to measure as the clickthroughs you check on your regular mailings. But when you make them a part of your email marketing strategy, you should find that those clickthroughs start to rise.

About the Author
Dean Shanson is a professional marketing writer and a New York Times bestselling business book ghostwriter. He is also owner of ConstantConversions.com, an email marketing content company, and co-founder of Scribat.com, a content syndication service and writing agency. He can be contacted at dean@constantconversions.com.