The Whitelist: Personalize Your Email for Customer-Centric Messaging

As marketers, we spend a lot of time reading about how to improve our marketing, chatting with others in the community and observing how the best execute their strategies. It’s easy to get lost in the sea of marketing information and actually forget that we should always be thinking about our customers. Always, always, always!

The articles in today’s Whitelist address this from different perspectives. A higher open rate, for example, means you are sending better emails. A fast growing list means you are delivering value. Those are customer-centric strategies that can help grow your business.

Are there any great articles we missed? Just let us know in the comments.

3 Tactics You Can Implement Today for Higher Email Open Rates

We love the Crazy Egg blog because the content is always in-depth and actionable. This post is no different. George Matthew dives deep into personalization and segmentation, two of our favorite topics.

“Personalization is much like a matchmaking exercise with the ultimate goal of pinpointing the best product or service from your catalog that best satisfies your customers’ needs,” says Scott Brave of Baynote in his whitepaper, “The Human Need for Personalization: Psychology, Technology and Science.”

However, according to Scott, that doesn’t mean every individual should be sent unique content. There are smart little ways by which you can send personalized emails with the touch of a few keys.

Trust Vs. Bribes And The Consumer Privacy Paradox

How can marketers possibly balance personalization with privacy? Personalization, by its very nature, requires data that consumers are increasingly less willing to give. Unless, of course, they 1) trust the brand or 2) are adequately bribed.

Despite the widespread lack of trust most consumers are still willing to share copious amounts of personal information under the right circumstances. Cash, points and deals were the top reasons given for being willing to do so, according to the survey. Nonetheless a striking 42 percent said “nothing would motivate me to share personal information with companies.”

Email List-Building From the Experts: How to Grow a Massive Email List

Buffer’s new content crafter Kevan Lee continues to crush it. In this post, he looks at a few sites, including Help Scout and Andrew Chen’s blog, to see how they go about collecting email addresses. The post is loaded with good tips and information, but as Kevan says, it all boils down to great content and calls to action.

Becoming a Customer Centric Company

This post isn’t directly related to email marketing but it’s a good reminder that all of our businesses should be entirely focused on a great customer experience. Thanks to KISSMetrics’ Zach Bulygo for the reminder.

The consumer has never had a louder voice. With tools like Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, and Google Reviews, one unpleasant experience with a business can be shared with thousands of people. This is great for both consumers and businesses. Consumers can research companies and previous customer experiences with a business before they purchase, and businesses that create great customer experiences are more likely to succeed. It’s bad news for poorly run companies, as consumers are about twice as likely to share bad customer experiences.

Say Goodbye to Comfortable Content: How to Make Your Marketing Perform

The only way to improve as a marketer, writer and human being is to continually step outside your comfort zone. This post looks at how marketers can make that happen, along with a few action items to maximize your “performance.”

Have you ever considered that your blog post or email is actually a performance? Think about it: Many people will see and read that post or email. Some will love it, and some might hate it. Still others might be bored by it. The results of your performance are measured in clicks, page views and shares. When you think about it like that, marketing starts to seem really intimidating.

It’s time to get comfortable being uncomfortable.

Any great articles that we missed? Just us know in the comments.