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

Chapter 7. Finding and Creating Relevant Content

Content can be a multitude of things. It encompasses articles, offers, invitations, letters, and more. When we think about content in the context of email marketing, a common question is, “How much content is the right amount?” It’s sort of like defining the best day to send email. There is no right answer. Depending on your business, an effective email might include a letter and three articles. Or maybe it’s one longer article. One certainty is that marketers have a lack of time and resources when it comes to creating great, relevant content.

As we’ve already discussed, the ability to deliver a relevant message to the right person at the right time is highly dependent on data and segmentation. If you remember the 40, 40, 20 rule of database marketing, you know that 40 percent of your success is dependent on your database, 40 percent on your content, and 20 percent on the creative aspects of your marketing. Content plays a huge role in your overall success.

Also take into consideration the fact that you are likely competing with over 100 other emails in your audience’s inbox. How many of these emails will actually be read? Ten? Fifteen? You must be one of those 15. And the only way to accomplish this is by delivering relevant content. Building a bigger list of opt-ins won’t get you anywhere if you don’t break into the top tier of your audience’s inbox. A challenge, of course, is that relevance is subjective. It’s subjective, and ...