Written by: Carl Da-Costa-Greaves
Image courtesy of Volkswagen GTI Project
E-mail marketing is a subtle art and anyone utilising this marketing tool should be aware of every bit of detail that may influence the customer. Think in terms of pea-shooter rather than an elephant gun.
You should be considering things like the subject line and who’s the stated “sender” (“from” panel at the top of the e-mail). Also, at what time is the mail going to be sent in order to get the best response.
Consider producing dedicated web pages or microsites and use your e-mail campaigns to guide your readers to the sites. Take a look at the creative use of the Volkswagen golf microsite, the GTI project, to entice and engage customers, creating a talking point around the user experience. http://www.gtiproject.com/
These are a few other variables that can help get your email response rates up but the biggest thing that’s going to determine whether you are ‘read or dead’ will be your content. How relevant it is to the user is key. For example, promoting efficiency cost savings through, let’s say, proper equipment maintenance, to a Human Resource manager, isn’t going to work. But the same campaign focused at Production Managers, who are targeted with the overall plant effectiveness, and can gain from what you are offering, will get a much better read response.
Each campaign rules will be different from company to company and as interaction and rich media becomes easier to integrate and more popular they are also becoming increasingly expected as part of the user experience. The key is to match the email that arrives in the user in box, at the right time of day, offering the right product that will satisfy a demand, at the right price. ‘Is that all?’ I hear you say. So how’s it going to work?
Well creativity and interaction can help not only capture your intended target market but can also spread virally through social networks and the GTI Project is a great example of this. Interesting and quirky campaigns brighten up anyone’s day and result in being passed around to friends or colleagues or spread via the blogosphere, increasing your exposure.
Tags: e mail marketing, gti project
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I recently had a client that brought in a 35.2% response rate from an PURL email campaign using Purlem. It was very simple and effective. I can forward you some details on the campaign if your interested.