Does Your Email Program Violate the No. 1 Rule in Content Marketing?

These days, social platforms and AI engines command the bulk of marketers’ attention. Shifting algorithms require constant reactions.

In the background, email works quietly, delivering predictable open and click-through rates. Marketers keep sending and sending.

Meanwhile, audiences keep getting and getting, and many are paying less and less attention. Intuit Mailchimp’s Art of the Opt-In report finds that most of the 6,000 consumers surveyed get more email from brands than they did a year ago. Yet, one-fourth admit they’re tuning out more than ever before.

Not surprisingly, only 23% of the more than 2,000 marketers surveyed consider their lists “very high quality.”

So, let’s pull email back into the center of marketing and address its violation of the No. 1 rule in content marketing: Always think about the audience.

Note: All statistics in this article come from the Intuit Mailchimp research (registration required.

Related:What’s Actually Working in Email Right Now Based on Billions of Sends

Ask for less

While producing a blog article, video, or social post, you picture who will consume it. Doing so means the difference between gaining your target’s interest or getting ignored.

Yet, many marketers forget that rule with their opt-in forms and repeat that mistake throughout the subscriber relationship.

Forty percent of marketers cite friction in the sign-up process as one of their biggest hurdles. That’s not hard to understand when you recognize the push-pull happening between marketers and consumers.

Marketers often create forms by thinking only about what they want to know. Look no further for an example of this than the requests for phone numbers and locations.

Sixty-five percent of marketers ask for a phone number. Only 28% of consumers are willing to give it. (As an aside, I wonder how many of those phone numbers are even valid. I use my old landline to subscribe so I don’t get unwanted phone calls.)

The very act of asking for a phone number says, “We are going to reach out to sell you something.” How well does that dial- or text-a-prospect strategy work? Does your brand really use those phone numbers?

Thirty-seven percent of marketers ask for the subscriber’s location, but only 17% of consumers are willing to give it. That’s understandable only if you must know what laws apply. But, for most marketers, do you really use the location data?

Few brands send anything by mail. If you just want to understand your subscribers’ geographic footprint, location is some of the easiest data to ascertain without asking. Email service providers infer city, region, and country from the IP address where the person opened it. You can also discover it from the browser locale or customers’ past transactions.

Related:How To Fix Your Biggest, Less Obvious Email Marketing Mistakes

Do what potential subscribers prefer

So, what do consumers want in a form? Minimal asks.

The first field is automatic — no one can opt in without an email address. If you must have a second field, what should it be?

Rather than first name (that type of personalization is table stakes), ask what the subscriber wants to receive or how frequently they want to hear from you.

The Intuit Mailchimp research finds that 56% of subscribers stay when the content adds value, and 40% stay when the content arrives at a frequency that doesn’t feel like spam.

Creating and publishing an opt-in form that keeps the audience in mind also signals that your brand is interested in the subscriber, not just their wallet.

Time it right

A minimal ask works well, but it works even better when connected to audience intent.

You know what I’m talking about. As consumers, you’ve seen a pop-up request appear the moment you land on a site. “I just got here,” you think. “Why would I give you my email address?”

Related:21 Great Ideas To Get Your Content Audience To Take Action

Unless you really want the immediate offer or have already done your research on the brand, you click to close it or just leave the site. Either way, you’re irritated.

Only 18% of consumers surveyed by Intuit Mailchimp say they opt in on arrival. How do you, as a marketer, get a higher conversion rate?

The top converters identified in the research — marketers who report conversion rates higher than 20% — time their pop-ups to suit the audience.

Read the audience signals

When should you make the request? Well, that depends. The study finds that half of consumers are most likely to opt in after browsing, and one-third say right before purchase.

So, determine your pop-up timing based on what the visitor is doing, not just how many seconds they've been on the site. Someone lingering on a product page signals purchase intent. That’s the moment to ask them to opt in for a discount code. A visitor reading a blog post signals informational intent. That’s the time to offer a newsletter subscription.

But you don't need to guess what works and what doesn't. Use your first-party data. Which pages or content types most often precede an opt-in? Which CTAs motivate them better than others to provide contact information?

Don't just look at your current subscribers. Look at the unsubscribe data, too. That may tell you more about what doesn't work.

So, instead of investing time in rewriting CTA buttons or changing their colors to see what works better, go for intent and change when the pop-up appears.

Earn trust

While context and timing matter, you already know the opt-in relationship boils down to trust. Ninety-four percent of marketers say trust is important to signups, with half calling it extremely important.

Consumers say they are more likely to hand over their information to an unfamiliar brand when they see:

Another sign of trust may be what you don’t ask. Over half of consumers say they’d never share family information (55%) or health data (55%). So, including fields related to those characteristics — even if optional — would concern many potential subscribers.

Almost half (48%) would not reveal employment details. Even location (39%) and phone number (32%) are no-nos. If you really want to ask those questions, at least make them optional.

Frequency is also a trust factor — and a differentiator. Ninety-one percent of consumers say controlling the frequency/type of message after opting in is important. Almost three-fourths (74%) say they don’t want more than two messages a week from the brand.

Yet, too many marketers aren’t listening to their audiences. One-fifth (21%) send messages several times a week in the first 30 days. Handing over control to your audience — or at least respecting their frequency preferences — gives them a reason to trust your brand.

Make an offer the audience really wants

While trust is the foundation, the offering closes the deal. It also must align with what the audience wants. Your own data will likely be most helpful in understanding that.

But if you’re revamping your email program or starting fresh, consider discounts, giveaways, and value-added bonuses as they’re top motivators for subscribing, according to the survey.

If you can’t get sales to agree on discounts, that’s OK. Think early access. Top converters are more likely to call it one of their most effective incentives than other marketers.

Apply the rule you already know

Email isn’t exempt from the rules of content marketing. And yet, your opt-in form, pop-up timing, and incentives have likely been built based on what the business wants, not what the subscriber prefers.

Now that the gap is identified, revisit the program through your audience’s eyes. Make changes that work better for them. Ultimately, they will work better for your brand, too.

Want more content marketing tips, insights, and examples? Subscribe to workday or weekly emails from CMI.