Email Marketing by the Numbers: How to Use the World’s Greatest Marketing Tool to Take Any Organization to the Next Level

New Member Communication Streams

By David BakerVice President, Email Marketing and Analytical Solutions, Agency.comby Scott Burkey

Congratulations! You’ve just acquired a new email subscriber! Now what do you do? How do you capitalize on the attention of these newly interested individuals and get them engaged with your brand and products? The answer for marketers is usually along the lines of, “We just start emailing them,” or, “We hit them with marketing offers,” or (raise your hand if this sounds familiar), “We blast them.” Is there a rhyme, reason, or rationale to your new member messaging strategy? If not, there should be.

Here’s why: New subscribers have just told you they are interested in hearing from you, but that interest can wane rapidly. In an October 2005 study, Informz showed that open and click rates of new subscribers drop noticeably after 30 days, and even more so after 60 days.

The bottom line: You have to get new subscribers into the fold quickly. How do you do that? For an increasing number of marketers, the answer is a new member communication stream. I have been discussing this issue with one of my senior strategists, Richard Rushing. We wondered why more marketers aren’t putting more emphasis on this initial introduction. Richard summed up our thinking: Basically, a new member communication stream is a series of emails highlighting various aspects of a brand, program, or email list subscription, with the goal of sharing knowledge and building affinity (not ...