Successful Email Marketing | Content

PART II: CONTENT
The most important goal of your campaign content is to create a message your target audience wants to read about. Your message should be worth saving and or sharing with others. Follow these steps in order to create clear & valuable content.

Determine the Objective: In general there are 3 types of objectives with email marketing-

• Promote: motivate purchases or increase event attendance
• Inform: increase awareness among potential or current customers or for differentiating your brand among competitors
• Relate: build relationships, loyalty, & referrals

Determine the Form: Again, there are 3 types of forms used in email marketing and each has it's own frequency, content focus, and call to action.

• Newsletters: Regular intervals (weekly/monthly), education info provided in bullets or summary, soft CTA (learn/read more).
• Promotions/Invites/Surveys: Frequency follows sales cycle, limited & direct content, hard CTA (call/sign up now)
• Announcements: Event driven, news, holiday, or thank you oriented, soft CTA.

Valuable Content: The key to a successful campaign ultimately lies in how worthwhile the content is to the audience. Be sure the immediate benefit is clearly defined for your reader. Some ideas for valuable content include:

• Knowledge: Sharing your expertise, use facts & testimonials, give guidance & direction
• Advantage: Discounts & coupons, exclusivity or VIP status, contests & giveaways
• Attention: Acknowledge and response to audience
  

Keep it Concise: This goes along with ease on the eye- Presenting too much information at once will overwhelm your reader. To prevent burn out and ensure the reader can easily access the information s/he is interested in, follow these guidelines:

• Host large bodies of content elsewhere- link to website or blog, PDF attachment
• Limit to essential info- use bullets, summaries, or links to more info elsewhere

Structure: Getting people just to open, let alone read your emails can be strongly impacted by the external appearance of your message. Key areas to focus on are:

• From line: Use a name your audience will recognize. For more targeted lists, this could be a personal name. For broad lists use the brand for both the name & email address, i.e. "SouthEastRep@mainstreetbank.com".
• Subject line: Keep it short and simple, limit to 30-40 characters (including spaces) or 5-8 words. Identify the immediate value/benefit of reading the content. Avoid "spammy" grammar such as all caps and multiple punctuation marks.

Permissions: Always be sure to ask people before you send them your campaign. This can be done with a sign-up sheet on location or an opt-in on your website. You can also verbally confirm permission. Be as specific as possible about the content your reader can expect to receive. It's generally helpful to provide a preview or past email. Also provide an unsubscribe option; this will prevent you from unnecessary aggravation should a reader no longer wish to receive your emails, as well as show your respect for privacy.