According to figures from the Direct Marketing Association (DMA), email marketing has now overtaken direct mail in terms of volume. This isn’t surprising when you consider how much cheaper, more measurable and better targeted email can be than direct mail.
If you haven’t sent an email marketing campaign before, then following this 10-step process should help you carry out a campaign and ensure a successful return on your investment.
1. Plan your email campaign
It’s important to plan your email campaign well in advance of your send date. You need to give yourself time to make sure your email campaign is as good as it can be.
Consider the following;
Who is your target audience?
To make your email relevant, you need to identify your target audience and understand their needs. This will allow you to design an email creative that will engage them and encourage them to respond. One email may not be suitable for all.
What are your objectives?
Identify what the main aim of your email campaign is. Do you want to raise awareness of your products and services, generate leads and sales or improve customer retention?
What is your budget?
It’s important to agree a budget and stick to it so you can prevent costs escalating. Work out your campaign budget by considering the return you expect to get from it by undertaking return on investment (ROI) analysis.
How are you going to implement and track your campaign?
You might need to engage a third party to design and build your email for you, or to send and track your campaign. We can now conduct all aspects of your email campaign for you - from email address selection, to building the creative, broadcasting the campaign and tracking response. Contact us for more information.
2. Segment, personalise and be relevant
Use the information you have identified about your customers to send them targeted, relevant messages. Segment your customer list and if possible develop specific offers for each target audience. The better your targeting the more likely your campaign will be a success - 80% of an emails success is down to the targeted list; 20% the creative.
3. Write a great subject line
In order to maximise your email open rate you need to write a good subject line for your email – it’s the first thing your customer will see when they are deciding which emails to read and which to junk! Keep your subject line simple, to the point and tell the reader what to expect inside. Don’t use words like “free” which might trigger spam filters. Personalising the subject line to the recipient and including your company name works well to encourage high open rates.
4. Design a strong campaign
It is very important when designing your email campaign creative that you design a strong wire-frame template and consider these tips;
- Give readers the choice of both HTML and text versions of your email.
- Logo in the upper left corner is always a strong placement.
- Make good use of the top 2 to 4 inches of your email design which is prime reading space.
- Keep your message short – keep scrolling to a minimum.
- Don’t use lots of different fonts and colours.
- Make your call to action prominent and clear so that your audience knows what to do.
- Make both images and text clickable.
- Don’t use one big giant image as this may be mistaken for spam - always include some text.
- Don’t try to make your emails too fancy with Flash as it can be removed by anti-virus programs trying to protect email programs getting infected.
- Include an unsubscribe link in the footer of every email campaign you design.
If you'd rather outsource your email design, we can do this for you. We have a variety of different email packages available to suit businesses and budgets of all sizes. Contact us for more information.
