E-mail marketing

Marketing and selling in tough economic conditions:

Prasanna Perera - Marketing and Management Consultant, Chartered Marketeer CIM U.K.

As consumers we are being bombarded with several e-mails everyday. How many of these e-mails do we read? The answer is not many and the balance ends up in the trash can.

The growing popularity of e-mail marketing is due to cost effectiveness, interactivity and speed.

This brief article will provide marketers some tips, to improve the effectiveness of e-mail marketing.

Critical Factors in e-mail marketing

These factors can be summarised using the mnemonic ‘Critical’ Critical is a checklist of questions to ask about your e-mail campaigns. It stands for:

C (Creative) - This assesses the design of the e-mail, including lay out, colour, image and copy.

R (Relevance) - Do the offer and creativity of the e-mail meet the needs of the recipients?

I (Incentive) - What benefits does the recipient gain from clicking on the hyperlink (s) in the e-mail?

T - (Targeting and Timing) - Is a single message sent to all prospects or customers on the list, or are e-mails tailored to the different segments? Timing refers to when the e-mail is received.

I (Integration) - Are the e-mail campaigns part of integrated marketing communications?

C (Copy) - This is part of the creative and refers to the structure, style and explanation of the offer.

A (Attributes of the e-mail) - Assess the message characteristics such as subject line, from address, to address etc.,

L (Landing Page / Micro-site) - This is the page or pages, reached after the recipient clicks on a link in the e-mail.

Permission marketing

Permission marketing is an integral part of e-mail marketing.

Customers want to exert control over communications and this is what permission marketing can provide.

Permission marketing involves seeking the customers permission before engaging them in a relationship and providing something in exchange. Always seek permission from customers before engaging them.

This will ensure a higher response rate.

E-mail creatives

All e-mails are made up of the message header and the message body.

E-mail Headers

* The receiver of the e-mail concentrates on the subject line

* Do not neglect ‘From’, which is an indication of the sender

* The first two or three words of the subject line are most important, as a user scans through the in-box

* The subject line can use a number of techniques, to gain attention. For example, the ‘teaser’, the ‘question’, the ‘direct approach’ and ‘personalised’.

E-mail body content

The body of a e-mail typically contains the following elements:

* Header

* Greeting to recipient

* Lead or introduction

* Main copy

* Close, including

call-to-action

* Signature

- Unsubscribe

- Privacy statement

It is always a sound decision to follow the above mentioned structure, when formulating e-mail.

Greeting Salutation

* One of the first things that will form an impression on the reader -

* It sets the tone of the e-mail as formal or fun

Close

* The main objective of the final part of the copy, should be to achieve action

* Always include a link to execute the action, with the close

Emphasis (E-mails)

Think about how you can achieve emphasis of offers, benefits and calls-to-action for those scanning.

* Capitalization is o.k. in text e-mails, but don’t overuse it

* Bullets : asterisks work best in text e-mails to highlight the features of benefits of the offer

* Hyperlinks : blue underlined hyperlinks attract the eye online

* Chunking : short paragraphs of one or two sentences

Message - Should be: Clear and concise, written in simple/plain language, avoid jargon (no buzzwords), Kept short, immediately of interest - Be creative

In general, the message content should talk about them, not you, stress benefits not features, have personality so that you and the recipient connect and be compelling active voice/action verbs.

How not to do it (Most annoying features of e-mails to recipients)

* Message is ‘hard sell.’ Do not craft e-mail messages to sell anything, but to get recipients to buy

* Too frequent e-mails from the sender, which results in not taking it seriously

* Messages not targeted to interests. This is the danger of using bulk e-mail addresses

* Receiver suspects that the company is sharing their address, hence, this creates anger that permission has not been obtained

* E-mails do not have much value through what is offered, hence, it does not gain the attention of the receiver.

E-mail is a powerful medium for marketing communication.

However, e-mail marketing communication should be integrated with the entire marketing communication effort of the company.

If this is not done, the required communication synergy will not be achieved.

In implementing e-mail marketing, the marketing principles should not be forgotten.

Identify your target audience, develop messages which are relevant to them, respect their privacy and offer them value at all times.

Do not forget that e-mail is only one medium of marketing communication. Always integrate e-mail communication with the rest of the communication activities.