These days it’s very easy to get caught up in the delivery strategy for your marketing campaigns. Email marketing is just one of many channels that we can use to communicate with our customers. With all the various channels bombarding people with messages trying to convince them to buy, for many it has simply become noise.

A recent study shows that as many as 41% of consumers are actually driven away by promotions which they consider irrelevant. More than ever, you need to focus on delivering messaging that highlights what is in it for your customer.

Amidst this shotgun blast of content is a new and entirely meaningless vocabulary which makes content difficult to decipher. While your product may be cutting-edge, extensible, client-focused, green, and hosted in the cloud - that doesn’t actually describe any value to your customer. Skip the buzzword bingo, and spend the time identifying true customer problems which your product actually solves. Some well written copy about the problems you can solve are worth more than the best written description of how you solve them.

Of course, as important as the content is the context in which you provide it to your customers. Some might even argue context has unseated content from its throne. Regardless of which is most important, there can be no doubt that providing this context is critical for a successful marketing campaign. If you can’t tell your customer what is in it for them, then well written content will only get you so far.

With both content and context in place, take the time to apply some polish. Great copy is often not a result of talent, as much as hard work in understanding your target and polishing your message to be relevant. Take the time to brush up on your copy-writing skills, and use that as a method to force yourself through a few drafts. While the social media world has made the seemingly casual conversation feel like an acceptable marketing technique, there is still nothing that beats a well built and polished message.

Finally, give it a try it before you commit. The written word is subject to so many different interpretations that we miss when writing content ourselves - take the time to talk to a few of your customers about the message before you send it out to a large audience. Remember that your goal is to make an impact on these folks, and all the work in focusing on the message is to accomplish that goal. Spend the time to get your customers feedback, just make sure that they are the right customers.

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About the Author 

David Bennett is a product manager at Lyris. He is responsible for identifying customer needs and providing direction to help meet those needs. His team is responsible for the core platform on which Lyris HQ is built.

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