EP #34 Importance of creating powerful conversions from your email list.

Intro:  You’re listening to the #fortheloveofemails podcast, powered by Netcore, a weekly show dedicated to helping email marketers, marketing enthusiasts, and professionals of all walks, engage, grow, and retain customers through reliable, smart, and effective email communication and engagement. Discover actionable ways to increase ROI and deliver value through email innovations, personalization, optimization, email deliverability, and email campaigns.No fluff tune in to hear best practices and tactical solutions from the best thought leaders and practitioners master your email communication now.

ONUOHA GLORY (00:00):

Hello, and welcome to another episode of, For the love of email podcast. I’ll be your host GLORY ONUOHA, CSM for Netcore cloud Nigeria. I have a very special guest today on the show, and I’m going to let him introduce himself, and the floor is yours.

FRANKLYNE IKEDIASOR (00:18):

Thank you very much, Glory. My name is Franklin Ikediasor, currently working as the marketing manager at Sterling Bank. So I work on products across lending and investment. So you have Specta, the fastest lending platform in Nigeria. There is Doubble as well, which is like automated investments. I also work on Switch, which is a digital bank for customers; people who are not in Nigeria, but are from the Nigerian heritage, want to be included in the Nigerian financial ecosystem. Thank you very much.

ONUOHA GLORY (00:54):

Thank you so much. That means you have a lot on your plate and lots of accounts that are under your care.

FRANKLYNE IKEDIASOR (01:00):

Absolutely, yes.

ONUOHA GLORY (01:04):

Okay. So today, we are going to be talking about the importance of creating powerful conversions from your email list. And I know that we can all agree that we don’t just send emails for the sake of sending sick, right, we are sending emails, because we want to pass out new information or we are sending because once you promote your brand or promote your product, only because once you get surveys and understand our clients better. So, we have to understand that we need to, you know, create, make sure that our emails are very, very engaging. So today we are going to talk about how we can get perfect conversions from our email list. And the first question is for new Franklin, you know, what is an email list?

FRANKLYNE IKEDIASOR (01:51):

Thank you very much, Glory. So, I mean, an email list is basically like a collection of email contact information, right? From people who consented to be on the email list, right, to be on your list, this is a collection of email contacts who consented to be or agreed to be on your list, to receive updates and promotional emails from you. Right. So, I mean, it can be like a collection of prospects or leads, right? Who has consented or people who have also taken your product, right? And by taking your product as well, they have consented because it’s part of the contract. And it’s very important. I keep hammering on consent, it is very important because as per the law, junk data protection regulation, 2019 makes it very clear that the customer has to consent to be on any emailing list. Right. And even till now, sometimes I get emails and I’m like, Hmm, I don’t know this brand.

FRANKLYNE IKEDIASOR (02:48):

How did this happen? Right. So that also happens, but it’s very critical that the customer has to, or your audience has to consent to be on the list. So based on your various points or wherever, but what’s most important is your customer saying, Oh, okay, yes, I have signed up to be on your newsletter or I’m taking up your product. And in the terms of conditions of your agreements with the customer states that, okay, you are going to send promotional emails and they have the option to say yes or no and just check that box. So essentially there are on the email list, so it could be leads, perspective, also if they have already taken up your products. Right. And because they’re taking up your product, they have become part of your customer database. So that’s essentially what an email list is.

ONUOHA GLORY (03:33):

Okay. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for that, I like the further use of the word consented, you know, it is actually a crime to send out email communications to people who have not, because the questions will come up. Like, how did you get my email address?

FRANKLYNE IKEDIASOR (03:49):

And it’s quite a lot of communication leads, marketing leads either, they are not aware or they just think, yeah, it’s Nigeria we can bend the rules. Right. And I understand that the regulators have started taking action. So you have some of these, for example, at least I’m sure you must have received this, you see the texts from some lender and I’ve always wondered that. How is this even okay? Why are you doing this

ONUOHA GLORY (04:15):

How are you getting my information?

FRANKLYNE IKEDIASOR (04:18):

Yes. and I had one that I was so upset about because so what they do is they authorize the app. They ask the customer to authorize the app, right, to view the contacts. Now, that customer consented but I did not consent. The contact is not for the customer. It is the information I did not send. They just send you all of these, as I understand regulators have started taking action. So people are fined. Probably a lot of people are not aware that the fine is 10 million infractions. So yes, 10 million paying fraction. And, it’s something that brands should take very seriously. It is a crime to do that sort of thing. So it’s important that consent is sometimes I get emails and I’m like, who are you? Like, where did you even get my email address? And sometimes I just take time to break down to the person who sent it, why this is not okay and if u send this to me again I will escalate this to the regulator and sometimes that’s where it ends. And so consent is very critical. Thank you.

ONUOHA GLORY (05:14):

Okay. Thank you. Okay. So having said that now I want you to know, like, explain to us how you viewed your emailing list. I think also brands don’t understand that having said this about content, you know, under regulations and all that is kept in place for this. How do you build your email list?

FRANKLYNE IKEDIASOR (05:34):

Yeah. Thank you very much. And I think for me, first of all, you have to look at your various data entry points, right? So like for example, your website, on your website landing pages, do you have an option for people to sign up, to be on your mailing list? That’s something you have to look up, to look at your agreements. When people take up your product or service, sign up for your product or service, do you have that clause that we’re going to send you information on blah, blah, blah? Some countries even make it mandatory, not just blank consent, I have to pick the kind of things you will send to me. So you filed at me with GDPR, you say, okay, say you now see some of these websites in Europe when you sign up, entertainment, beverages, this, this, you actually have to speak specific content that you have to send to me.

FRANKLYNE IKEDIASOR (06:24):

Right? So you have to look at all your data entry points and your landing pages. So what kind of information are you collecting, when we talk about this, and I was telling someone yesterday that the thing with marketing is a lot of business is the things we know, but we use sort of technical terms that people get lost, what does this mean? I don’t know. My friend is a vendor. Right. And she sells stuff mostly on social media and I told her that I asked her, we’re having a conversation, I asked, Do you have an email database? And she said, no. And I’m like, okay. So when you have like discounts and you have promoted, how do you promote it? so she just puts on socials. I said, what is the guarantee that your customers are going to visit your Instagram page at that time?

FRANKLYNE IKEDIASOR (07:07):

And I said, so why don’t you start building your email list? I said, okay. So when someone purchases, right, can you ask them for their email address to send them an invoice and tell them that we will also use this email to do X, Y, Z, and tell them these are some of the benefits, right? So you start building an email list.

ONUOHA GLORY (07:27):

And now they are aware, if I get an email from you, I know why I’m getting an email from you.

FRANKLYNE IKEDIASOR (07:29):

Exactly. And then she was like, she hadn’t thought of this, and the interesting thing that happened was when we had the lockdown, right? So I have a laundromat near my house, I typically just dropped stop for but when we had the lockdown for like two months, we literally didn’t leave the house. So I struggled with laundry then I find a complete pick-up and drop off. So that’s sorted. But after the lockdown, I just stayed with the company that was picking up and dropping off.

FRANKLYNE IKEDIASOR (07:54):

And then later I went to the laundromat as it has a petrol station. So I went there to buy Petrol and the man was like, we haven’t seen you. I’m like well for like two months y’all didn’t do anything and he’s like, oh, they didn’t know how to proceed and I’m like, if you had a customer database, this is why it would have been important. You could have told people that, oh, if you want to come and pick up your laundry, we can come to you. And most of your customers are within the proximity of your business anyway, how we can come up but they didn’t have that. And when people say fancy things like data is the new oil, I’m like, all of that is just data. It’s not something complicated. It’s just as simple as information you have on your customers, or what can you do with it?

FRANKLYNE IKEDIASOR (08:35):

So it’s important. You look, and it’s very tough to pick up for small businesses, right? So you have to look at your bureau data entry points. Event marketing as well, every event that we go to and able to, I go there with a form that people sign and consent for web and mobile app that we built for these people, people consent. Oh, I talked to you about these, these, these, ask a few questions. You consent that, okay, this will, we can communicate to you what can share updates and product information. So you have to look at all of that. And then you also, telemarketing is very important. There are some, especially like businesses that, okay, you were existing before email became what it is now. Right? A lot of retail banks are in that space. A lot of your customers you have is SMS, you don’t have email, right? And you also don’t have, digital-only touchpoints because having digital-only touchpoints, one of the best benefits of having solid touchpoints or having the option of digital touchpoints is that we able to collect clean data, right?

FRANKLYNE IKEDIASOR (09:38):

Yeah. So the customers sign-on. When they’re signing up, you send something to their email, they’re verified. So, you know, whatever you have. But a lot of companies, for example, banks, you’ve had customers who usually have their telephone numbers because they had to provide it in front, you don’t have their email address. They have email addresses, you just don’t have them. So you can, for example, you can use telemarketing and call them up. Is it okay if we get an email address for your account or for your profile or that sort of thing, they also have that hooks you can use? There are brands that do offer you a discount only if you subscribe to the mailing list. So you have a lot of these e-commerce brands abroad. You’d be like, oh, 20% of what you would have to subscribe to the million leads because they know that they’re going to get more.

FRANKLYNE IKEDIASOR (10:23):

So you have to look at the various data entry points you have on your website, your landing page is easy for people to sign up to your mailing list. And they have to look at when people are signing. Yes, because sometimes I’ve seen it and then it becomes too tedious. Right? And then I just abandon, so let’s really look at when people are signing up for your product doesn’t mean that they automatically consent. Do you have the option? Because the law also says that they have to be able to opt out, do you also have the consent? Do you have where they can check? You don’t have to opt-in or opt-out they look at events, you can do giveaways on social media, or you do this, or you’re going to get 5% off, or you sign up for product data. You sign up for our mailing list, right?

FRANKLYNE IKEDIASOR (11:03):

So you have to look at all the various funnels that are used to generate leads and see how you can plug in data entry, data entry points on all of this. So you just have like a funnel of customers coming through your mailing list. There are some websites that you linger, once you linger more than five minutes. If you want to if you’re just moving your cursor to close. You see a popup telling you don’t go or how about you fill these and join our mailing list? Because I wanted to keep you, so a lot of that. But if you are somebody like, oh, you sell alone on Twitter, that’s fine. Explore, Or, oh, your order is ready. Can I send an invoice to your email? Can I have it, also when we have offers and discounts, everybody likes discounts. Everybody does. So when we have offers and discounts, I can also send them via email. Is this something you’d be open to adding? It’s a scanner. So these are some of the things you can do to build your email.

ONUOHA GLORY (11:55):

Oh, thank you. That was really, really wonderful and very, very explanatory. Okay. So now we’re going to move on to how to manage and maintain your email list. As you said, you go to a website and then there’s an exit pop-up that says, okay, drop your email address so we can send you communications. And I also hear brands that say, I don’t want to see that click here to unsubscribe because why are we clicking on it. But that’s the thing that it has to be visible for your people to see just in case I do not want to receive emails from you anymore. So now how do we go about managing and maintaining your imagery in this way? Somebody does not want to be on your email list anymore. How do you know, how do you differentiate between people that have been there for a long time and people that are, you know, your new, your new customers or your prospects, how do you manage and maintain this email list?

FRANKLYNE IKEDIASOR (12:45):

I really actually liked this question, right? Because I mean, so many brands fail at this. The number one rule for me is do not purchase contacts, a lot of brands do this. And every week on LinkedIn, someone reaches out to me, I have a mailing list of 1 million emails to sell to you. And I’m like, excuse me, I get this all the time. Like all the time, people just keep sending me stuff on LinkedIn. Or I have a contact database of 200,000. Would you be interested in purchasing? And a lot of brands do this and it looks, you may think it is a quick fix beyond the obvious, number one, you’re actually breaking the law and you are opening up your company or your brand to sanctions beyond the obvious.

FRANKLYNE IKEDIASOR (13:40):

What you’re doing is that you’re forcing people to have a conversation, they don’t want to have. What you’re going to get is that people just start reporting you as spam. You’ll know what that means. Your primary reputation is going too deep. And the people that consented to be on your mailing list, are not going to get your emails and going to go to spam, or it doesn’t get delivered on time. That is something. And you’re back to zero. Exactly. So that is something nobody should ever try, do not purchase, figure out how you’re going to organically build your mailing list, but do not purchase. And then I liked that you said subscribe button is something that, first of all, if I see that you’re hiding your unsubscribe button or you’re making it inconspicuous, very inconspicuous, or you’re making it difficult for me to unsubscribe. That’s the end. I’m just going to report you as spam. And there’s a brand. I don’t know if I can mention it, but there is a brand, an international brand. And then, so this brand, apparently they have like 10 different emails. You also expect from this one tomorrow, you see another one -“designs picked for you”, You also subscribed “design you may like” tomorrow, you also unsubscribed “design that may suit you” like I once unsubscribed like eight times and I still can get emails from them.

FRANKLYNE IKEDIASOR (15:00):

And they’re probably thinking some smart Jimmy and in my head, I’m like, this is a bad idea. You are pissing me off. It is not a cult, you’re not holding people like this. If they want to go, let them go. That’s fine. Do you want to go? Let them go. What some brands do is okay, when you click, then they ask you, why are you going? That you can do, that can give you more insights into how to retain your audience, but never ever force people to stay on your mailing list by hiding your unsubscribe button or finding a way to make it difficult for people to unsubscribe. That’s a terrible thing to do. And I also say that from the get-go, when people sign up to your mailing list, how do you make them feel welcome? That’s very important, right? What’s the message. The onboarding email that they get and how informative.

FRANKLYNE IKEDIASOR (15:49):

There’s a brand I signed up to and then they did like, they have a whole journey, which makes sense. But then, so there is like an e-commerce brand and then they are sending me 8-10 emails right away in the space of two weeks that will teach them how to do different things on the brand, on the platform. And I was talking to somebody, I said, I thought this wasn’t necessary because it could have been one email and welcome thank you for joining us, blah, blah, blah, click here to find out everything you need to know. And that I click here. And then there’s like a blog or something where all of those topics are there. I can click what this means is that I can save this one email, anytime I want to learn, oh, how do I integrate PayPal? I just come here and click, how do I do this? I just come here and click.

FRANKLYNE IKEDIASOR (16:33):

So that flow has to be there, your customers, they have to feel welcomed. Right. And they have to feel that they’ve come to a place where, oh, like, oh, I’m happy to be here. That sort of thing. So you have to look at that and they have to keep your list clean. Thankfully for tools like Netcore like, I mean, you delete those emails, dummy emails. So you have to keep your list clean, just so periodically. Thankfully we use Netcore, which makes it easy for us to do, but then you also have to look at your dominant contacts and see how you can reactivate them. One thing that I do for example is so I do double opens, right? So if I send an email and then I look at the people who don’t open it and I try to figure out a way to get them to open it.

FRANKLYNE IKEDIASOR (17:21):

And I just try that a couple of times change a couple of things, right? So you have to, re-engage your dominant contacts because if the customer came there, which is also why you shouldn’t buy emails, if the customer came there, there’s a reason why the customer came there. So why are they not interacting with your content? So you have to look at why is it what I’m saying? Is it how I’m saying it? Is it when I’m saying it? is it my content? is it the look and feel? Is my value proposition is not enticing enough? You have to look at everything and figure out why these people don’t care about what I’m saying. So you have to look at all of that and see how you can manage it. Then, as I said, you have to make it as easy as possible.

FRANKLYNE IKEDIASOR (18:02):

People should be able to come and go as the light. I mean, when they’ve gone, you can try to stop them, get them to come back, whatever, but let them go as easy as they came. So those are some of the things you can do to monitor that and it’s some of the things you can do to really maintain your email list and the thing with, so I like email marketing more. It’s very easy to see the performance of your content very easily. You know, you can just look at what is going on and you can quickly change strategy. You can quickly switch, okay. This kind of content is not working. This tone of voice is not working. And if you have audience segmentation, okay these people don’t like being talked about like this.

FRANKLYNE IKEDIASOR (18:46):

And that’s also another thing. One size fits all. A lot of us are guilty of it, to be honest. And I know that it’s a question of resources right? On average one email should at least have four versions based on demographic, at least at the barest minimum. If you don’t have data for psychographics based on demographics, I know that the number of resources you have to have, how many writers you have, but then as much as possible, try and avoid one size fits all because you have to, for example, I’m selling a loan and for a 25-year-old, the email may be to get an iPad or get the new iPhone 13, but for maybe a 40-year-olds, I found that it may not be his priority.

ONUOHA GLORY (19:28):

It doesn’t mean anything to him.

FRANKLYNE IKEDIASOR (19:29):

Yes, he may want to try to buy land or property so that he can set his roots down. Or he’s thinking of financing his student education is the same loan I am selling, but the way I position it to this person via email, do I position it to this person? But if I position it London property to the 23-year-olds, it may be like,

ONUOHA GLORY (19:52):

I can’t even afford it

FRANKLYNE IKEDIASOR (19:52):

Please, please I am not here to buy land, please later we’ll talk about that. So that’s why audience segmentation also helps you see your content is relevant to your audience. And as I always say, if you’re watching your matrix, you will know what your audience likes. Yeah. Emails I sent and I’m like, ah, this is a killer email. And then when I checked the following I’m like aha people don’t like it and are not clicking. And then there are some that by accident, you’re like, oh my goodness, people like this content. And then you just talk about what your audience likes. So yeah. Thank you.

ONUOHA GLORY (20:25):

Thank you, It’s never too late with emails, from what I’ve picked from what you’ve said at any point in time, you can know, okay, this is not giving me what I want. I can switch, you know, is it my, is it my colour? Is it the text is in my subject line that’s repelling people, I can switch, and I think I like to say is you also get creative with your click here to unsubscribe. There’s something that you do with Specta, Doubble and I think Switch. There’s a very creative click here to unsubscribe, you know, by the time I read it and I’m like, okay. Yeah, I think this brand is really about why am I even not subscribing? And then I can decide to stay on my own. But if it’s just a very dim small click here to unsubscribe, I’ll be like, you guys are not super serious, you don’t even want me here.

FRANKLYNE IKEDIASOR (21:18):

Do you know the worst parts, right? And I’ll talk about it later, snippets. So when I see some brands that send an email with the creative, you know, because of their creative, there’s no text, right? So on this top deck, it will pick the first line of text, which is clicked here to unsubscribe. So you send the email as you’re seeing it, you may be, you see some happy, Merry Christmas, Franklyne click here to unsubscribe. The call to action is to unsubscribe.

ONUOHA GLORY (21:49):

And you will have some even goes as far as having a very heavy image that it takes a while to load.

FRANKLYNE IKEDIASOR (21:59):

I get that all the time!

ONUOHA GLORY (21:59):

And then I eventually open the mail and it’s loading unloading and the only thing I can see is to click here to unsubscribe.

FRANKLYNE IKEDIASOR (22:06):

It becomes a call to action. And it’s something I am always supposed to like when I speak with designers, I’m like, no, we know bandwidth speed and size in Nigeria. This creative is too large. So let’s reduce it because by the time it’s loading, who has time to wait for five words for 15 seconds, for your creative to load, as they are loading they will simply care to unsubscribe, your most stuff becomes your call to action. So that’s also very important. Yes. Thank you

ONUOHA GLORY (22:32):

Thank you so much. Okay. Let’s go about conversions now, what’s an email conversion.

FRANKLYNE IKEDIASOR (22:37):

I like this question very much. And I feel like it depends on what your objectives are. There are some people that as you’re setting out to where you’re publishing the campaign or whatever you’re doing, what are your objectives? Right. And sometimes I have conversations with my writers and they send me some really great content. And I’m like, what do you think we’re going to achieve with this content? And sometimes I’m like, this is killer content, but what do you want to achieve? And they say, we want to do this. I’m like, but this content is not going to get it to do this. So it depends on what you want to, what, what you want to achieve. Right? So is it getting people to sign up, for example, is that conversion to you? Is it getting people to just sign up for example, on Specta, if you sign up you’re one leg in, I haven’t converted you right?

FRANKLYNE IKEDIASOR (23:22):

Until I get you to take a loan to apply for a loan, for example, or on Doubble, I get you to invest your money. That’s when I have converted you right. I also do cross-selling, for example, okay, you have invested this. I want you to do more or you are taking these and I want you to do another variant right? So when you’re, it depends when you’re designing your campaign, you’re thinking, what are you trying to do? If I’m sending NPS of these, for example, trying to know what the customer thinks about the product, right? If the customer answers it, I have succeeded, customer has given me feedback. I have succeeded because that campaign wasn’t about getting the customer to buy. But for me ultimately, it’s about, okay, so what if you’re sending a campaign who is the audience? Right? So if the audience is people who are already subscribed to your product now, what are you trying to do?

FRANKLYNE IKEDIASOR (24:11):

I tried to cross-sell, upsell, trying to get them to do more, test another variant? Now, when they do that, you have converted them. Now the audience, they are leads, they’ve signed up to your product, signed up on your mailing list or registered in your platform. But they’ve never done anything. Now, if you’re sending a campaign that gets them to do something, maybe get them to transact, take a loan, get a card, whatever, you have converted, right? That’s a conversion. Or there are some people that they’re anonymous contacts, they just hang around and you’re trying to get them to actually sign up or you have abandoned carts, which is also something a lot of people have. And interestingly, a lot of people think that abandoned carts, the customers are no longer, just interested. I mean, you and I have worked on abandoned cart automation before and sometimes you realize that because with me there are times, oh I sign up something, I’m filling the form and then someone calls me and then next, and I forget, I actually want that service. But then I have forgotten. And then foreign brands don’t joke with abandoned cart automation, they immediately follow up and don’t waste time.

FRANKLYNE IKEDIASOR (25:23):

A lot of Nigerian brands are slipping on abandoned cart automation, foreign brands don’t slip, within 24 hours, Yo, this is for you. Come on the finish, come and do the selection, for your discount, finish it and get 10% or 5%. And a lot of people drop off because they just forgot. Yeah. There are billions of things catching your customer’s attention each day, right? You have to cut through the noise. And sometimes the person says, the show comes up on TV, they drop your phone and start watching Netflix. And that’s it.

ONUOHA GLORY (25:51):

And one thing you forget is that another brand has what you’re offering, what if they get to your customer on time and you’re customer says that they are giving me something cheaper.

FRANKLYNE IKEDIASOR (26:00):

Exactly, exactly. So that’s why there’s no time to waste as they’re dropping off, you’re chasing them to come back. Because next thing they checked 2%. This one, this person’s interest is 1% higher than this one, I am going with this one and you’ve lost them. Right? So if you’re not doing abandoned cart communication as well, by the time they don’t come back and finish it, someone else has got them. And so ultimately it depends on what you’re trying to do.

ONUOHA GLORY (26:28):

So basically you can determine your own conversions

FRANKLYNE IKEDIASOR (26:29):

Yes. Yes. And for me, for example, when I speak with the people I work with, for me, if I did my email reports, that’s not all I have to see the seals, right? Oh, we said we have operated 22%, or click rate of 4%, oh fantastic we clap for each other, but I’m going to look at the sales figures. Okay. These people click, did they go on to apply for this loan? Did they go on to book this loan? Did they go on to create an investment? I look at that and I look at how we’re doing a month on month. So that’s also very important for me. So because we’re not just blasting to speak fancy grammar anyway, we’re trying to sell.

ONUOHA GLORY (27:06):

Yes. Yes. Okay. So what are the steps you take to get a proper conversion from your immediate list?

FRANKLYNE IKEDIASOR (27:12):

Oh my goodness. First of all, your subject line, the subject line is everything.

ONUOHA GLORY (27:22):

It is very important, means if your customer will open your mail or say this is not for me

FRANKLYNE IKEDIASOR (27:25):

Because the subject line is everything. And yeah, sometimes I have finished writing. Like what I think is a killer copy. And I’m just, I can spend 10 minutes thinking of the subject line. I’ll just look on the panel, trying out different things, because if they don’t open it, you cannot sell. You can’t get them to do what you want them to do. So you have to look at the subject lines that are engaging that stir curiosity, like do not miss this or this for you. Can you keep secret things you can use? You’re going to love this. What is it that I’m going to love? Let me open. The subject line is critical. And I also, a lot of brands, a lot of brands, I get a lot of emails and the subject line sometimes they struggle like this and I’m like, well, I’m interested in this because the subject line has given everything away.

FRANKLYNE IKEDIASOR (28:13):

So I’ve already decided if I open the email, cause I’ve read the subject line. And I’m like, and I’m like I am not interested in this and that’s dangerous because you want the person to open it. Right? So it’s the subject line, a bit of mystery, a bit of curiosity, but not too vague that the person is like, okay, what is this about? Is vague enough for the person to say, what is this about? But not too vague for the person to be like, whoa, people have come against the subject lines, everything. Snippets, so important. And a lot of people also don’t take advantage of snippets, snippets because you have the subject line and then you have the snippets, which is like the first line that you see. Right. You see before they open. So that’s also very important. And for me, I use it a lot and I always use it. I will say that it flows from the subject.

FRANKLYNE IKEDIASOR (29:04):

So it says something like, “frankly, you don’t want to miss this” and the simpler it can be, “this would blow your mind” or something has to flow. So this was triggered them to open and snippets will save you from clicking here to unsubscribe, be your call to action in front of customers when they open your email, very, very important. Then you also need to look at the content flow and content design very important. So if you have images, that’s why the email I open is too much is going on. Call us all over the place. It’s not visually appealing to just, just check outright. Just open it and it’s almost like there’s a lot of noise. You’re like, please I am not up for this just check out. Make it very simple. And I always say to the people I work with customers are not, their job is not to read your emails. So make it simple, say what you’re going to say in two, three paragraphs. My standard is on mobile, they should not scroll more than twice to read the email. If they open the email. Yes. And they scroll once. That’s it. By the time you get to open the email, you see the first pic, right? The customer should really scroll once I see the second page and that should be it. By the time they are scrolling two times, three times becomes a problem.

ONUOHA GLORY (30:27):

One thing we would need to understand here, that people don’t have time to read, they would rather just look at your image. I like to also see your image, even explain what you’re talking about even before they get to your text.

FRANKLYNE IKEDIASOR (30:44):

Exactly. Right. And I also always say that for me, I use a principle FAB, Features Advantages Benefits. So what is the future of what you’re selling? What are the advantages over what is in the market? I shouldn’t be saying this on the podcast, should I? What are the benefits to the customer? Once you’re able to lay it out already, you know that the audience likes the features. This is the advantage to you over what you have out in the market and how we benefit you. So once you’re able to bring this icon to this three paragraphs, max, two paragraphs, break it down, make it simple. They get the information immediately. You know, when they say that, I mean on social media, they talk about unnecessary, long stories, they are not going to read it. You just open it, just clues. They’re are going, I read, I meticulously read every email because I’m trying to see how competitors are communicating, how their brands are doing people who don’t work in comms don’t read emails like that. They just open it and try to get the information they want from it and they just close it.

FRANKLYNE IKEDIASOR (31:54):

So if you are doing plenty, they just leave it for you. And if your look and feel also has to be possibly consistent, right? Let’s sort of develop a signature style in your tone, in your look and feel your email layout develop a signature style. And then I’ve talked about snippets. Snippets are everything. Double opens is one of my secrets, right? So when I send an email, I went for a couple of days. I sent the same email back to people who didn’t open it before I changed certain things. I changed the subject line. I changed time, which is why send times optimization is such a useful tool. And a lot of marketing platforms like yours have it, so you can see, okay, when is the best time for this person to read the email? You change certain things. If you said, oh, can you keep a secret before you try another subject line and see if it gets them to act? And then you just move on. Their call to action has to be visible. I’ve seen brands, I’ve received emails and I’m literally looking for the call to action. Okay. What am I supposed to do?

ONUOHA GLORY (32:56):

It is mixed up with the text so you can’t see it

FRANKLYNE IKEDIASOR (32:59):

Like, you can, if you can let it be blinking. There are different things. You can do a call to action, have fun with it by letting it be visible. And I’ve seen some, maybe it’s a mistake, forgot to embed the link on the back or you’re tapping. It’s not moving. And I know that’s the worst place you want to be as a marketing manager and they’re tapping and it is not moving. So your call to action ultimately, why what do you want the customer to do? Click here, use a button. I like using the button, click the button below to begin. You put the button, stand out, put the button in your brand colours so that they can see it. Because at the end of the day, if you miss mix-up making use of your call to action, you’ve wasted your money, your charge for emails, wasting your money. So yeah, that’s that.

ONUOHA GLORY (33:44):

Thank you so much. I like the fact that you mentioned a lot of brands, they put the call to action, but then they forget to add the link. That’s why it’s important to actually do a test, test it to yourself. Let’s get to your mobile phone, get your desktop, scroll, If I am the customer, would I love this email? I just sent out, put yourself in the shoes of the customer, click on everything that is supposed to be clickable and make sure that everything is intact before you go ahead to do a blast to your customers.

FRANKLYNE IKEDIASOR (34:12):

Yeah. It’s very important, sorry. I’m very happy you mentioned this also. I see some emails I get from brands and I know that they only test that maybe with Desktop, they didn’t test the mobile. I test mobile, desktop and tablets before I publish. So I have a tablet. I have a mobile. I have a desktop laptop, right? So I just test with every, with all of these versions, because you see some emails on desktop, it looks good, is well-aligned. Mobile. You see that it’s broken somewhere. And I’m like, these people did not test on mobile. And mobile is ideally I do see, I don’t have a community to my desktop to 80% of the audience is going to read that email on mobile. In Lagos, for example, is when people are probably going home from a walk or public transportation. That’s when they go to read your email. So you have to test across all these platforms.

ONUOHA GLORY (35:08):

Yeah. Thank you so much. Okay. So again, now to conclude to ask why you think all this is important. Why do you think people should adhere to this instruction? Why should they take these things to heart? You know, when trying to drive conversions.

FRANKLYNE IKEDIASOR (35:23):

Yeah. Thank you. So email marketing is very, very useful and I’ve seen some people who say, oh, Nigerians, don’t read emails. I’m like, I don’t agree. Email marketing. For example, I generate a lot of numbers. You know, with email marketing, all of this is very important because email marketing is big, it’s even getting bigger, it’s one of the most reliable because there’s a lot you can do. You can play around with, with emails are much more than you can play around with SMS for example, number two, email marketing is cheaper than SMS, right? Yes. Number three, the other platforms you are trying, your customers may not be on. If you put something on a billboard, for example, in Lagos, someone like me. I mean, I primarily work from my house, so I may not even see it. So email marketing is very useful.

FRANKLYNE IKEDIASOR (36:15):

It puts you right in front of the customer, like some very private to the customer, you have access to the customer so it is very important, but then that each opportunity does not waste it. Right. And to be fair, a lot of emails are sent because we have a marketing calendar, so this one is supposed to go out on the 18th, let it go out. And you have a lot of that. When I’m drawing up the calendar with my colleagues, this email, what is it going to achieve? Why are we sending it? Is there, what is going to achieve? Is there, let’s not just be routine. Let’s just say, I know that there are some, okay. For example, maybe in banking, there’s a regulatory email that is mandated by regulators, or you have to send it aside from that. Any other email you’re sending, don’t just send email because we don’t have a calendar. We agreed with the head of marketing that we’ll have to send four this month.

FRANKLYNE IKEDIASOR (37:09):

Yes. You guys will agree that four emails a month so let’s send it. No, because when he starts sending useless content, people will not stop opening, reading your emails, to be honest. So it’s very important because email marketing works and it’s very cheap, it is easily one of the cheapest forms of digital marketing, right? It’s very cheap. So it works. So, but you have to get it right, If not, you’re just wasting money. And especially for small businesses that you don’t have a huge marketing budget, you have to hold email marketing, like hold it closely, especially also, if you have like digital onboarding, so you’re collecting clean data, you have to hold it. Well, like the example I gave when we started right in the laundromat had like an emailing list. They had bills don’t have been affected by the lockdown. Do they just send an email to everybody and say, you know what?

FRANKLYNE IKEDIASOR (37:59):

If you want your laundry picked up, we can have a dispatch come and pick up your laundry and bring it back, it would have been very, very easy for them. Right? They wouldn’t have lost customers. That thing you said about your customers testing another one and you’ve lost them. So I moved on to another laundry service who comes to my house, picks up, brings it back. I’ve never bothered, I’m not going to that laundromat again. So that’s why you have to do this, email marketing really works, but you have to get it right and getting it right is, there are certain things you need to do to ensure that your audience, you’re speaking to your audience, right? So you’re speaking to the right people. You will say the right things to them. And then how are you saying it? What is your frequency as well? Email frequency is not that big issue. There is a brand that has sent me 16 emails. These are not transactional emails. They’ve sent me 16 emails between the first to the 25th, ask me, why, why are you sending me 16 emails? Why, what is the reason?

FRANKLYNE IKEDIASOR (39:08):

And there’s such a thing that’s overkill with our communication. You don’t need that much, that many emails. I did a survey on Twitter. And the average I got was three, not more than three emails, once you cross three emails in a month, it will become harassment and my last transaction, so can it be like, for example, a bank by now debit and credit allow all of those things, which are sending promotional emails. Don’t spam your customers. What will happen is they will stop reading it, you are always in their inbox, right? So there are certain things you need to get. If you get it right, you actually get a lot of conversions, right? Not just conversion, also customer loyalty, right? Based on how you talk to them, your customers are going to be like, I’ve had, some of these email marketing personas, right? I’ve had people tell me, oh, sometimes it’s like an old friend or that talks to me like I’m a lover. There is a persona for Specta. Right? And they say, well, I mean, it talks to me like a lover. And I look forward to reading from you.

FRANKLYNE IKEDIASOR (40:12):

So you have that swell because we cannot use it to grow some sort of loyalty with the brand. People just tend to feel like, ah, this is cute. I like this and stuff like that, but it works. So it’s very important that you just try and get it right at the end of the day, nobody’s an expert. Right. But the most important thing is your watching, is this working? No change. Is this working? Yes. We keep doing this. So just polluting what you’re doing. And with time you see what works and you just constantly keep doing it. But at the same time, keep watching to see if it’s the audience likes it, to improve really. Yeah. Thank you.

ONUOHA GLORY (40:57):

Thank you so much, Franklyne. This was such an insightful and wonderful session. I enjoyed every bit of it. I mean, even I was really jotting things down. Cause I took a few points from you. It was so lovely having you today. I don’t have any final comments to around up.

FRANKLYNE IKEDIASOR (41:12):

Well, what I will say is please apply for specta if you need urgent funds. Baby, Christmas is coming. You want to do that in December in Lagos or you want to hedge against January. You can get up to 5 million in five minutes on myspecta.com. Quick and easy, no paperwork, no collateral. So just like that. Yes. That’s my final point. I really did enjoy this conversation, Glory.

ONUOHA GLORY (41:42):

I really did that too. I would love to have you again. I would really love to have you again on one of our podcast sessions.

FRANKLYNE IKEDIASOR (41:49):

I’d love to come.

ONUOHA GLORY (41:52):

Thank you. Thank you again to draw this to a close here. Thank you so much for coming and enjoy the rest of your day.

FRANKLYNE IKEDIASOR (42:00):

It’s my pleasure. Thank you very much. Bye

ONUOHA GLORY (42:02):

Thank you. Bye.

Outro: You’ve been listening to for the love of emails, podcast powered by Netcore, hit subscribe in your favourite podcast player to make sure you never miss an episode to learn more about effective email communications and engagement through AI-powered email solutions, visit Netcore.com the only global email engagement leader, delivering marketing ROI and value to 20 plus global unicorns and 5,000 plus brands for over two decades.