Email Marketing – Three Keys Before You Hit Send
Copyright (c) 2010 Enzo F. Cesario
BrandSplat
http://www.Brandsplat.com/

Unfortunately, the first word that pops to mind when many people
mention email marketing is ‘spam.’ The junk mail of the modern
era, spam is frequently held up as an abominable combination of
inconvenience and social evil, with spam blockers and anti-spam
petitions filling the news online and offline. Of course, this
means legitimate email marketing campaigns can get lost as weary
consumers indiscriminately flag all marketing material as spam
just to keep their inboxes clutter free.

How then can a company that has a legitimate, creative idea for
an email advertisement series avoid getting caught in the spam
trap? There are three key steps good copywriters and marketers
can take to set themselves apart and boost their message open
rates.

A Cautionary Tale

Important campaigns usually succeed or fail well before they’re
ever launched – in the planning stages. Consider a recent and
already infamous Intel advertisement. The advertisement had
athletic sprinters lined up to race, a reasonable attempt to link
the company’s processors to speedy performance. It failed
because these athletes all were African American gentlemen who
appeared to be bowing to a tall, smug looking Caucasian
businessman. This was a clear breakdown in the planning process.
No one asked the fairly obvious question ‘What could be wrong
with this image?’ Intel pulled the advertisement and publicly
admitted the mistake, but the image remains as a vivid reminder
that cutting corners in the planning phase can bruise your brand.

1. Lay the Groundwork

The lesson here is that simple research, like enlisting a test
audience, can mean the difference between hit and miss. The same
holds true for email advertising campaigns – research is vital.
Just because you can send out 100,000 generic emails within a few
minutes of setting up a campaign idea does not in any way mean
you should. Strategic planning up front not only can save you
time in the long run, it also can secure your results.

2. Know the Audience

Previous articles have referred to the phenomenon of
audience-influenced brands. This is particularly true now that
the Web has become so extensively accessible. People’s opinions
can catch public attention almost instantly, and word of mouth
can spread across the entire world in a heartbeat. Whether or not
you want the audience to control your brand is irrelevant; it can
and will happen of its own accord, and you should be prepared for
it.

Have you taken the time to really get to know your audience?
There are thousands of Internet communities dedicated to every
conceivable topic, hobby, interest, or fad and your product very
likely falls into one of these. Visit these user forums, find out
what people are saying, what needs are not being met, and what
the general opinion is. Also, don’t just mine for information,
but participate in the discussion. Engage and learn how people
think and what they want to know about things. This isn’t a
chore; this is an opportunity that businesses have rarely had in
the past, a goldmine of information for any marketer to tap.

3. Kick up the Content

In many cases, businesses fail to treat email as a legitimate
medium, although they’re eager to take advantage of it.
Disregarding outright spam, even some well-intentioned
‘campaigns’ amount to little more than a poorly organized
message presented in a jumble of mismatched colors rather than a
serious attempt at focused communication.

The content of the email has to be strong. The first line has to
provide a good hook, the body has to get the core, essential
details out quickly and effectively, and the end has to have a
call to action (be it a purchase or a website visit). Take the
time to craft a message that shows you respect the reader’s
intelligence, and put as much thought into the structure of the
email as you would any other example of your best writing.

Once these three key elements are in place, consider a test
circulation of your campaign before officially kicking it off.
There is very little substitute for getting another pair of eyes
to look over your hard work. They can spot unfortunate mistakes,
call attention to strong points, and help you refine the process
before the message is irrevocably out on the Web.

———————————————————-
Enzo F. Cesario is a Copywriter and co-founder of Brandsplat.
Brandcasting uses informative content and state-of-the-art
internet distribution and optimization to build links and
drive the right kind of traffic to your website. Go to
http://www.Brandsplat.com/ or visit our blog at:
http://www.brandsplatblog.com/