5 steps to an engaging email campaign

Written by Elliot Krieger, Digital Marketing Manager

Ding, open, read, click…convert

With GDPR officially in place and set to alter the way marketers prepare email campaigns with access only to consumers who have opted in, it’s understandable to see why some may be put off the element of email marketing in an attempt to avoid breaching the rules.

However, email is still one of the best ways to communicate towards other businesses by building awareness, driving engagement and generating conversion. As long as you follow GDPR guidelines, email is still very much worth investing time and effort in.

We’ve seen email campaigns generate really strong results for clients, whether they are creating buzz around an event or exhibition, inviting recipients to a drinks party or corporate dinner, or sharing a content-based newsletter.

If you’re planning an email campaign, you may want to consider my top 5 tips to help get the best results and try to maximise your ROI.

1) Be a headline grabber

The initial point of contact that grabs your recipients’ attention is the subject line. With an inbox flooded with emails vying to get noticed, it is important to stand out. A subject line has to contain a powerful message that will drive the recipient to open due to a need to have more detail.

A helpful tip is to try and involve the audience by either directing it at them or their sector. It is important to keep the subject line relatable whilst also being concise enough to create an impact.

The key thing with your subject lines, as with all aspects of your email marketing strategy, is to test your audience, and once you’ve tested them, test again!

2) Get to know your audience

The level of engagement of your recipients from your email campaign is always going to depend on the quality of your distribution list. Of course, email databases take time to build up, but effective management of your distribution list will go a long way to achieving strong results in terms of open and click-through rates. Keep it up to date, remove any hard bounces, and ensure you investigate your soft bounces – this will help you determine any common trends in your audience.

3) Is your layout logical?

The layout of your email template is key to ensuring you have a suitable place for your content to fit. It may be great that you have some really strong content, but it has to be placed in a way that the recipient can engage with. Most email templates are set up in blocks, and whilst it may depend on the purpose of the email, it is important to get your key information, acting as your deliverable, in the right area.

Place your logo and branding in a header at the top of template so that the recipient can immediately relate the content back to you. Ensure any vital content that you want the reader to click through from is placed near the top block of the layout. You don’t want to force the recipient to scroll too far down to get to the main focus of your email. Leave the ‘filler info’ such as contact details, external links and privacy policy to your footer.

4) An image says a 1000 words

One thing that will always act as a deterrent for someone engaging with your email is when it is too text heavy. Having a huge amount of copy can discourage the individual from taking in the key messages you are trying to convey.

Try using imagery or icons to help demonstrate features. This can be especially effective as an alternative to using bullet points. Ideally, you want your email to be easily scannable so that the recipient can gauge which information is relevant/interesting for them to engage with.

5) Where next?

Emails are always produced with a key purpose in mind – you want your recipient to react.

If your email’s key focus is to drive engagement back to your website, then you need to have an appropriate call-to-action (CTA) to help encourage them to take that action. Look at the ways emails encourage you to click through and adopt those methods. Is it an offer? Is it promotion of expertise? Or is it just the ability to get more detail?

Whatever CTA you choose, it’s important to make it as clear as possible to the audience. A top tip is to give the CTA its own space to stand out by using a button. If they want to click, then there is no way they can miss where they need to.

Overall, the key takeaway should be to ensure you test all aspects of your email campaign. Use a sample audience to help gauge what works well and where you have areas that need improvement. The more you analyse your emails, the better you prepare yourself for your next campaign!

Want to learn more? From newsletters to events, we manage email campaigns for all types of projects. Contact me on [email protected] to discuss how we could help you with your next campaign.