People on the receiving end of an Email Marketing campaign seldom know of the extensive manpower and skills involved in getting that one file to their inbox. A slick email campaign entails proper research, creative design and above all, copy that keeps a reader glued to the screen (like you are now, right?).

That said, poorly implemented campaigns do nothing but add to the impression that digital marketing plays a large role in spamming consumers. And we really, really hate that.

Quirk has very recently welcomed our first dedicated Email Marketing guru, Carmia Lureman (who already has a really rad post under her belt).

She’s already told us why email’s far from dead, and what different results brands should expect from email and Social Media campaigns.

Carmia’s brought her extensive skills and knowledge to our Cape Town office, and has kindly taken some time out of her already hectic schedule to offer some tips on what makes an Email Marketing campaign something special. 

And without further ado!

Carmia says it’s difficult to isolate the most important aspect of an Email Marketing campaign, but if the Internet Police forced her to pick one, it would be content.

“Without valuable content your subscribers will stop responding to your campaign.”
Relevance is vital, says Carmia. “Think of the number of Internet users who communicate via email and the wide variety of communications we receive through those inboxes - it's a jungle out there. If you're not providing value through insightful copy, there's no reason anyone will respond, be it via a click or a visit to your site.”

But don’t forget the look and feel, or your content won’t be read – yes, even if it’s that good.

Although she’s seen a variety of campaigns originating from a range of diverse companies, including those run by a single person to the bigger is better mindset of Western corporations; Carmia says readers should always be at the centre of any campaign.

The subcriber should be at the centre of every campaign. Image Credit: freedigitalphotos.net

“If your subscribers aren’t opening, reading, liking or responding - you have a problem.  If your email doesn’t reach the inbox it’s a waste. Everything you do - from managing your sender-reputation, to creating content, to testing how your emails renders in various clients – all revolves around reaching the subscriber and ensuring that opening your email is of value to them. As with all things marketing-related, it revolves around the target audience. If you don’t get them to notice and like you, you’re not going to make money.” 

And then you get the flops...

“There are too many ill-managed email campaigns; that’s why so many people immediately associate Email Marketing with spam. The two most frequent mistakes is a lack of list management and not testing campaigns. Lists and reports need to be checked as often as possible and basic testing needs to happen before every single send. Ideally, after every couple of sends you should also test more than just your subject line.”

But the worst, says Carmia, are those who are just plain sloppy.

“Someone sent out an entire email of HTML code. They’d obviously pasted the code into the WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) section of their editor, instead of into the source view, and sent it out without previewing the newsletter (#Sigh). Other than that I still think the worst is when Email Marketers send out image-heavy emails without ALT text for the images (#Fail). When most of your subscribers are viewing your email with images turned off by default those blank blocks aren’t sealing a deal with anyone.” 

But wait, there’s more!

We really hate to see you go, but we know you’re busy and all. So let’s end this post with three vital tips for your first Email Marketing campaign:

1)    Make sure you have clear objectives – You need to know what it is you want to achieve with your campaign before you actually start it.

2)    Keep your email consistent (voice, tone, design elements) with your company branding so that:

I)    It's recognisable and aligns with your other branding efforts.

II)     Subscribers associate the campaign with your brand. If you're offering them value-laden emails they'll build their own positive brand connotations.

3)    Plan! Subscribers are a fickle bunch and their preferences change on a daily basis. Even though this can make it hard to plan the exact details of a campaign, too many campaigns neglect putting in place strategies for list growth, testing and evolving the campaign. Plan for these things, schedule it into your campaign management and consistently re-evaluate your campaign for improvements.

Also check out:

•    Our Email Marketing services