When emails land in your inbox, you'll likely have one of three immediate responses: positive, negative, or neutral. I’m not talking about invoices or bill payment reminders—no one finds joy in relinquishing money—but rather marketing-style messages, newsletters, etc.
Chances are, a negative reaction ends in a quick delete. You might save the neutral ones to open at some point (or not). But, the ones you deem as a positive will definitely get an open—usually sooner than later.
What determines your decision to either ignore or engage?
It’s what email marketers call conditioning—the recognition of a brand by its targets and the value those targets ascribe to the brand over time.
What determines your decision to either ignore or engage?
As a healthcare marketer, if you consistently and repeatedly send your physicians irrelevant content, or even deploy relevant content at the wrong time, you condition a negative response in your audience.
On the other hand, if you design deployments that meet the needs of your healthcare professionals by including highly relevant, personalized, and varied content—and you test to ensure you’re sending on the day and time they prefer to receive it—you’re conditioning a positive response.
Segmentation also plays a critical role. For example, generalists appreciate a succinct message while specialists are more likely to dig into lengthier clinical trial results.
It’s important to keep in mind that while a conditioned response doesn’t happen overnight, it’s long-lasting. The email you send today is going to condition a response for the email you send in three weeks, six weeks, or even six months.
While a conditioned response doesn’t happen overnight, it’s long-lasting
I discuss all of this and more in the below video, including a short assignment at the end that reflects just how common—and thus important—conditioning is in today’s digitally-focused marketing world.