A quick guide to creating effective emails
15/02/2012
The world of email is constantly changing both for senders and recipients and we need to be adapting and refining our emails for the best results. For example, an email template that worked well last year might not get the same results this year – and that might not just be down to a different creative message or offer.
What’s more, the way in which people read their emails is constantly evolving. New browsers, desktop clients and mobile devices are coming onto the market as well as upgrades to existing readers. Since Apple launched the iPad, the tablet market has exploded and more and more people are reading their emails this way.
The DMA has recently reported that many people are now opening their emails for the first time on a mobile device. This might not be the only device they view the email on, but it could be the most important. In the B2C marketplace many users will only ever read their email on a mobile device and might never access their email from a desktop PC.
Timing is also all-important. It’s worth remembering that the timing of your emails can greatly affect the device used to read it on as well as the length of time you have to grab the recipient’s attention. An email sent early in the morning might catch people on the way to work on a bus, tram or train and reading their emails on a mobile device. The chances are they have more time to read emails that might normally just get deleted if it were to arrive in their inbox on their desktop.
The effectiveness of emails also varies depending on when they’re sent throughout the day:
• 10pm-9am – an ineffective time to send emails – it’s like sending them into a black hole.
• 9am-10am – the second most popular opening time is at the beginning of the working day when consumers are receptive to offers from a whole range of companies.
• 10am-12noon – consumers are focused on work and not on opening emails.
• 12 noon-2pm – lunchtime, and consumers are going to be out of the office or catching up on news and magazine alerts, not promotional emails.
• 2pm-3pm – straight after lunch, prospects remain focused on work and will usually only respond to email offers relating to financial services.
• 3pm-5pm – there is a significant rise in promotional holiday emails being opened during this time. This is also the period when consumers are most likely to respond to B2B promotions.
• 7pm-10pm – prospects are more likely to respond to consumer promotions in their own time. Offers on clothes and special interests such as gym and sports promotions can do extremely well during this period.
No limit to creativity
In the past, ISP’s have been keen to gives users increased confidence about their inbox security by limiting what marketers can do within the content of an email. Now users are demanding more functionality in their emails, and ISP’s such as Hotmail and Yahoo are expanding what you can do. Hotmail has Active Views, and dynamic content is the next step. Embedded video in email is now also a real possibility - this new functionality can really enhance your email.
Here are the six key principles of good email creative:
1. Test, test and test again
Decide on what you want to achieve from the campaign and use these measurements to create a testing plan to get the best from your campaign. Use split testing to compare different options.
2. Clever design and content
Think about the images you use and keep your calls to action clear even when images aren’t displayed. Validate your html to make sure there are no mistakes.
3. Don’t forget the fold
The fold is the bottom of the screen when the email is first opened. Make sure that the content that appears above the fold on first open contains your key message, image and at least one call to action and link. Then your email will still work hard even if the recipient doesn’t scroll down after opening.
4. Rendering
Preview your email in as many different platforms as possible focusing on those that you expect your prospects to be using. You want to give the recipient the best possible experience whether on desktop or mobile.
5. Personalisation
The aim of personalising a message is to demonstrate you know and understand enough about the recipient and their interests to make sure that your email is relevant to them.
6. Relevance
Segment your data to make the content more relevant to each individual.
Want an effective, targeted, segmented email campaign that works? Speak to David Thacker at Perspektiv on 0115 950 0510.