Are You Curious? Asking Questions May be the Key to Email Marketing Success

There are hundreds upon hundreds of sales methodologies in the world. From Inbound Selling to Spin Selling. If you were boil them all together into one great big "keys to being a successful sales person" pot, it really comes down to just one thing - truly successful salespeople have to be curious - about everything. In order to be successful, you have to be curious. You have to want to know more information about your customers than the next person: information about their business, how they make money, their goals, their measurements of success, etc. 

As a digital marketer who works within this industry, I may be slightly jaded, but I am truly amazed everyday at how un-curious some businesses are about me as a consumer. They don't ask me questions like "How frequently would I like to receive an email from them?" or "What are my interests?" They don't ask me about my satisfaction as a customer. They don't seem to be curious or pay attention to my email or online behavior: Did I open an email? Do I open every email? Do I ever click on links? Do I click on a link and then stop? Do I place something in a shopping cart and then abandon? Do they ask me why I didn't follow-through on a purchase? Do they ask me why I never open their emails? Do they ask me about my household? Like or dislikes?

I believe that people want to tell their story. Businesses want to tell you how they tick, what matters most to them, why they have been successful, what challenges they have had, their hopes and their dreams for their business. As a sales person, you need to be curious enough to ask these questions.

As a marketer, you have to do the same thing with your email subscribers. Your subscribers want you to know more about them. Subscribers want to tell their stories or even better know that you are building a story about them based on their behaviors instead of selling with . 

There is power in knowledge. With that knowledge comes true personalization.

For example, a certain retailer could write this story about me: Guilda likes getting our emails but definitely not everyday or every week because she only opens a couple emails per month.

It's not hard, and it's not rocket science. You just need to be curious.