24 NEWS & INSIGHTS

Email marketing has two main purposes: drive people to your website and get them to take an action. This purpose underlies different types of email campaigns, including:

• Educational email for content marketing. When you have videos, white papers, case studies or other pieces that would benefit your target market, educational email encourages your audience to access these resources.
• Promotional email for products, services, events or causes. A transaction is the action you seek here.
• Newsletter email. You are staying in front of your market, providing news, tips and helpful insight that’s often a digest of your content marketing and sometimes has an offer included.
• Lead-nurturing email. After someone has indicated interest in your products and services, you’re sending a series of emails to help them move toward a decision.

Importantly, the design and copy within these pieces should fit within your brand identity. Your look and your voice shouldn’t change just because you’re sending a “low-cost” email. Instead, email marketing is best seen as one component integrated within all of your online and traditional media communications.

Another matter of high importance: in order for your email marketing to achieve its purpose, people on your list have to open your email. If the statistics from your last email marketing campaign show less openings than you’d like to see, the issues could be in any of these areas: subject line, “From” name, delivery issues, or spam filters.

Furthermore, as people are added to your list over time, the preferences of this growing pool may be changing your results. You may wish to test send times or frequency. Additionally, with more people reading email on their mobile devices, the success of your email marketing is dependent on creating mobile-friendly email.

We’re 24 Communications, a branding agency in Montgomery, Alabama. Let us know if you’d like to talk further about how your email campaigns can be integrated into your brand marketing.