Developing an Email Communications Plan

So you’ve decided that you want to start building a database of customers to communicate to via email. Before recruiting any new customers, it’s a good idea to have a solid plan for your future email communications. There is no use in collecting lots of email addresses from customers and then only contacting them once a year!
Likewise, it can be detrimental send emails without compelling content, with many studies reporting that the main causes of opt outs are lack of relevant content and sending emails too frequently.

Here are some things to consider when developing an email communications plan:

- What do your customers want to hear about? Good email communications balance what the customer wants to hear with what the company wants to tell them.

- How often will you communicate with your customer base? Will yours be a monthly communication, or ad-hoc? How often do your customers want to hear from you – and how often is too often? It’s a good idea to set a minimum and maximum frequency for communications within a given period. It’s also best practise to give your customers a good idea about what they will receive by signing up to your database and how often they will be contacted.

- What resources are available to compile, develop, send and measure your email communications? Ensure that your plan is within your capabilities!

- Can email activity support your other marketing initiatives? If you contact your customers with direct marketing, can you do an email follow up to increase conversion?

- What other opportunities are there for communicating with your customers via email? It’s likely that they will be most interested in hearing from you when they initially sign up – so why not send a welcome email? Are there other times when you can schedule an email to be sent over and above your standard email communications plan? Learn more about scheduling emails is this article: “Trigger-based / scheduled emails”.