by Jeannie Schuett

We have conversations every day of our lives. We talk to our families, our coworkers, our friends…we exchange ideas, opinions, thoughts. But in our marketing efforts, it's easy to forget we are marketing to people. Email can seem one-sided, and yet we want feedback from our customers. We want to know their likes, dislikes and opinions. We want to sell to a customer who genuinely wants or needs what we have to offer.

How do you have a conversation with your customers via email? How do you make it more personal? Your customers have initiated the conversation. They've taken that first step in getting to know your company, and they are giving you a chance to make an impression on them. That impression will depend on how well you listen as well as what you have to offer.

Start a dialogue, not a monologue.

Email is the perfect avenue to get better acquainted with your customers. You have the ability to start a conversation to learn more about them. For example, I have a running email conversation with Amazon.com. I am an avid reader, with a few favorite authors. Amazon.com knows who my favorite authors are from my (rather extensive) purchase records and my listed preferences. So when my favorite author publishes a new book, Amazon.com eagerly sends me an email to tell me.

I have told them my opinions and likes, and they respond by telling me about books I might enjoy. We are having a conversation. My response can be measured in my open and clickthru rates, and what I purchase. I feel good about Amazon.com, and would be much less likely to purchase a book from another online bookstore because of it.

Know your Audience

You know that a human being receives your emails. But what do you know about them? By understanding who you are sending emails to, you can ensure that your message gets across to the right person at the right time in the right way. If you were a magazine that markets to women, what would probably be the most effective time to send an email? According to Neilsen-NetRatings 1/2002 findings, women account for 51% of Internet users at home but only for 40% of Internet users at work. Women are more responsive to Internet communication when at home. Understanding something as simple as this can significantly affect the response rate you get from your customers. You can tailor your message to be more focused to a woman at home, and perhaps send it at a time when she actually has time to read it.

Don't oversell yourself.

No one likes to listen to someone talk incessantly about how wonderful they are. Your customers are no exception. The idea is to get them thinking how wonderful you are, and the best way to do that is by showing them. Give them answers, solve their problems, make their life happier, easier and better and you won't have to tell them how wonderful you are. They'll be happy to tell you themselves, and probably more inclined to tell others.

Be consistent

Let's go back to amazon.com for a minute. Every time I receive their emails, I think to myself how great Amazon.com is. And then one day, while I'm visiting their website, I see something called "Jeannie's Gold Box." It has wonderful deals in there just for me! How special is that? So a little excited, I open up my Gold Box, prepared to spend a little money because I know that Amazon.com knows what I like. What's inside? A 14 Channel 2-Way Radio. Kitchen utensils. A calculator. A Rotary Tool Kit.

Where are the books? Where is even a HINT of my own preferences? I was highly disappointed at the random, unrelated items. Why was this so bothersome to me? I had grown to expect personalized and personal recommendations from my friends at Amazon.com. Not once had I ever expressed interest in a Rotary Tool Kit. Why would they think I might purchase one?

Treat your audience as if they were sitting right in front of you. People want to feel important, and when you, as a company, show that you recognize they have individual needs, they will begin to feel like they have a more personal relationship with you. Had I been sitting down with the president of Amazon.com for a cup of coffee, and just finished telling him the authors I enjoy, would he have been likely to suggest a 14 channel two-radio to me? Not if he was listening.