Getting into your audience’s inbox is a power move. Your brand messaging sitting next to personal emails from friends and family, holiday bookings and party invitations? This is huge. Do it well, and you’ll boost brand engagement leading to increased sales and customer loyalty. Do it badly, and readers will unsubscribe in real life, too. To help get you started, these are the first things our team of experienced marketing professionals will discuss with you.
What are we really doing here?
What makes a good email marketing campaign varies by industry, company and department. We love to sit down with our clients over a really good coffee and delve into the intentions behind the newsletter. Whether you’ve got big news to share, want to boost sales, build a community, or are more interested in achieving clicks to your website, we’ll recommend an approach to suit. Your goal will also influence the frequency of emails, the ratio of text-to-image and even the time to send them.
One of the things we love most about creating newsletters is that the results are measurable and instantaneous (should you be curious enough to watch them being opened in real-time – no judgement!). This means that we can monitor how effective your newsletters are, and continually work towards your goals by analysing open rates, click-through rates and a/b testing – you don’t need to understand any of those terms, by the way.
Know thy reader
In the same way that you might speak to your grandmother ever so slightly differently than a long-time friend after your second drink, effective communication begins with your audience. For words to be powerful, your copywriter (hi!) needs to know who to aim them at. The more information you have about your customers, and who you’d like to be your customers, the better.
Along with helping to establish a strong tone of voice [see our article on why you need a style guide], your audience might be primarily based overseas, or first-time shoppers, or midnight email scrollers, or quick to disengage if something doesn’t feel relevant to them. The best newsletter marketing strategies include regularly assessing the campaign’s readership and targeting newsletters to the segments within your audience.
A successful newsletter has the reader at hello.
This better be good
When someone opens your email, they’ve passed you the mic. Your words need to reward the reader for their time, and for taking up valuable space in their inbox by way of well-written, thoughtfully considered copy. There are many components that go into writing a winning newsletter, beginning with addressing the reader directly, a strong opening headline, and hitting the ideal length - the equivalent of knowing when to leave the party. Spelling and grammatical errors harm your brand (and break our hearts), but perhaps the most important feature is the art of the subject line. A successful newsletter has the reader at hello.
Make it mobile
Hubspot estimates that 46% of all emails are opened on phones. This statistic gives yet another reason why email marketing is important – smartphone users engage in ever-increasing screen time, checking our phones an average of 58 times a day. Your email could be the first thing a customer reads when they wake up, or engage their full attention during a quiet moment over coffee. Because of this, it’s more important than ever to optimise your newsletter for mobile. Remember to preview the layout on a mobile device, ensure the reader won’t get frustrated waiting for large images to load. And keep it snappy. You’re competing with memes and tweets after all.
Tools of the trade
Our editors have extensive experience with various platforms and tools for creating your email newsletters. We have expertise in creating bespoke templates that will stand out among the clutter, measuring statistics, boosting subscriptions through your website and marketing, and tips that make readers genuinely look forward to receiving your emails. If you’re based in Europe, know that we’re up to speed on the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and will always tell you (gently) if a fantastic idea you’ve had might be in breach.
EdenFrost manages successful email marketing for a variety of high-profile organisations. We take care of everything from concept and design to copywriting and delivery – and we’d love to help with yours. Let’s start with an email?
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