As human beings, we tend to trust people who are open and honest about themselves. This is important in building strong and secure connections with others. In the same manner, as an email marketer, being transparent with subscribers in your email campaigns is essential for building trust and credibility. Subscribers should know what you are offering and why you’re communicating with them. To build trust, email marketers must approach subscribers in a human-to-human manner.
In this blog post, we will explore twelve ways you can ensure transparency with your subscribers and not keep them in the dark about your intentions and communications with them.
Honesty in Subject Lines
Avoid clickbait subject lines and be honest about the content of your emails. Your subject line should accurately reflect the main topic or offer within the email. Be direct and get straight to the point.
Identify Yourself
Clearly identify yourself as the sender of the email. Use your company name or recognizable sender name to ensure recipients know who the email is from. Properly authenticate your emails so that recipients will know that your email is genuine and not sent by a scammer.
Provide Contact Information
Include accurate contact information in your emails, such as a physical address and a valid email address or phone number. This helps establish trust and credibility, and allows a means for your recipients to contact you for more information if they have queries or suggestions.
Be Clear About Intentions
Clearly communicate the purpose of your emails and what subscribers can expect to receive from you. Whether it’s promotional offers, newsletters, or transactional updates, set clear expectations upfront. And if you do switch things up and try something different, it is just as important to make this change known.
Respect Subscriber Preferences
Honor subscriber preferences regarding email frequency, content preferences, and communication channels. Provide easy-to-use unsubscribe options and respect unsubscribe requests promptly.
Disclose Data Usage
Be transparent about how you collect, store, and use subscriber data. With data theft being a big problem in the online spaces, netizens are worried that their data could be misused and their privacy stolen without their knowledge. This is where you need to quell their fears and clearly outline your data privacy policy and provide options for subscribers to manage their data preferences, so that they are in control of what they want to share.
Explain Value Proposition
Clearly communicate the value proposition of your emails. Explain why subscribers should open and engage with your emails and how they will benefit from doing so. Offer them something attractive and of value, something they need that would benefit them in the long run, and offer them something so good that they don’t have any regrets.
Share Behind-the-Scenes Insights
Offer behind-the-scenes insights into your business, products, or services. This could include sneak peeks, product development stories, or company updates that help subscribers feel more connected to your brand.
Acknowledge Mistakes
If you make a mistake in your email campaigns, such as sending the wrong information or experiencing technical issues, acknowledge it openly and apologize to subscribers. Transparency in addressing mistakes makes you more human, and increases trust.
Encourage Feedback
Invite subscribers to provide feedback and suggestions. Let them know that their opinions are valued and encourage them to reach out with any questions or concerns. This two-way communication allows you as a marketer to grow and improve and provide a better service to your subscribers and recipients.
Educate About Email Practices
Educate subscribers about email best practices, such as how to recognize phishing attempts, how to stay safe online, and how to manage their email preferences effectively.
Be Responsive
Be responsive to subscriber inquiries and feedback. Promptly address any questions or concerns raised by subscribers to demonstrate your commitment to transparency and customer service.
Conclusion
In short, the way to build and maintain trust with your subscribers and recipients is to be completely open with them about your intentions and what you want to communicate. Show them that you care about their needs, respect them and their privacy, give them a means to have two-way communication with you so that they can ask questions or share feedback. The most important transparency trick of all is to be down-to-earth and human with them.
