Year-in-Review Digests

Here’s your year-end round-up on…year-end round-ups.

Yeah yeah, we know, it’s February, and by now we’ve all got both feet firmly planted in the endeavors of 2017. But at RGE, we thought we’d take one last look at 2016. Like a lot of folks, we’re ready to put that kidney stone of a year behind us, but alas, the internet never forgets! Even now, we’re still getting a few last-minute 2016 product year-in-review digests! And dammit, if they’re good, we’ll still read them!

Why send one?

Well at the least, they’re a good excuse to drop in on customers for whatever reason you’ve got in mind. At best, year-in-review emails can be effective tools for forging meaningful connections with your subscribers.

We’re gonna show you a few of our favorites and talk about them. First, a few objectives that seem smart to us about sending one of these bad boys to your lists:

1. It’s an opportunity to build your brand.

Year-end emails are a chance to reiterate to your list why what you’re slinging is important. It’s a chance to show your work; your company’s equivalent of an annual performance review. While we never think it’s wise to get all braggy, it’s totally acceptable to celebrate what you’ve accomplished together with your customers. Which leads right into…

2. It’s an opportunity to make your customers heroes.

As ever, put your customer in the center of the product — give them the credit for your successes! Make them proud to have been a part of what you’ve accomplished, and inspire them to take the next journey with you.

3. It’s an opportunity to upsell.

By demonstrating your value, you’re re-engaging customers with your content and possibly getting that new subscription, next edition of the product in their hands, or donation to your charity. Maybe get your customers to form some habits with your product at the time of the year when they’re setting goals.

4. It’s an opportunity to stand out.

While true of every campaign you ever send a customer, everyone’s getting a lot of year-end emails this time of year, so they’re easy to dismiss/forget about if you’re not really demanding attention above all the noise. Take that challenge and spike it down the net (that’s a sports thing, right?)!

There’s pretty much nothing you have to do in one of these, which means there’s just about no limit to what you could do. Have a total blast making this thing and your list might just have a blast with it, too.

Enough of our guff; let’s look at some emails. Shoutout to our buddy Carl Sednaoui at MailCharts.com for helping us track down these glorious works. You’re the man, Carl!