In my last article I wrote about how you can't build relationships through email without the tone of the communications developing over time, recognizing the changing nature of the relationship.
Well, that's all well and good.
What I said may make a lot of sense - but how easy is it to execute on such a strategy?
If you are a one or two person operation, it is relatively simple to create promotional emails and newsletters that really do keep pace with an evolving relationship. If one of you has a natural talent for writing, so much the better.
But what about larger companies? Or what about when the writing of emails and newsletters is outsourced to an external supplier or contractor?
As just one example, I am currently writing promotional emails and newsletters for a company that is located thousands of miles from where I sit. And I don't even have a direct business relationship with that company. I'm working as a sub-contractor to the main supplier.
Right now we are at an early stage in the relationship and I'm just doing my job, as asked, and doing it the best that I can.
But I'm also itching. I'm itching to get more feedback from the readers. I'd like to be listening to what plans the marketing department have for their emails and newsletters. I'd like more influence over the evolution of both the email and newsletter programs. I want to burrow in there, until I can get closer to the end customer.
Being out of the loop keeps me in the dark. At best, I can write well and hope that the measurable results - like clickthroughs - are strong. And don't get me wrong, nobody is deliberately excluding me. Everyone is working hard and being professional. It's just that the distance between myself - the writer - and the end consumer is too great.
Another copywriter might find him or herself in a very similar position, even when directly employed within a large company. Multiple layers of management and internal politics can create a tall barrier between the writer and his or her ultimate audience.
For many copywriters, this is a 'been there, done that' experience. Many is the time when traditional, offline copywriters will find themselves having to write the copy in order to please the account manager, who wants to please the account director, who wants to please the agency president, who wants to please the president of the client company. All the while, nobody is sparing a thought for the final reader of the copy - the customer.
For whatever reason, there is often too much distance between the writer of emails and newsletters and their ultimate audience.
And distance dilutes relationships.
The trouble is, the online environment is very unforgiving of the absence of relationships.
When people open their email inbox, they scan their list of new emails, hoping to find something from someone they know.
Every piece of spam is a disappointment. Emails from family and friends are welcome and may bring a smile, even before being opened.
And one or two companies may be in the enviable position of having their emails recognized and welcomed.
As more and more companies turn to email as an inexpensive means of promotion, the harder it is to be among that very small number of commercial emails that are actually welcomed.
How do you achieve that?
First, the product, service or content that you provide must clearly be of great interest to the customer.
Second, you need to write in a way that connects with the reader at a personal level. You need to build and grow a relationship.
Are we going around in circles here? Not quite.
If the writer needs to get really close to the reader in order to start and evolve the kind of relationships that email demands, then the way in which marketing groups view the writers of emails has to change.
Companies need to reduce the number of people, departments and lawyers between the writer and the end audience.
Companies need to give writers greater authority over developing a style and tone that is true to the company and also connects with the reader.
Traditional marketing structures within companies need to let go a little, show a little trust and allow copywriters closer access to their customers.
The shorter the distance between a good writer and his or her audience, the more genuine the relationships will become and the more welcome your emails will be in the customer's inbox.
