At our recent First Wednesday Stephanie Lindsay, Head of Marketing at Dog Digital, was back to explain how email marketing can produce significant results. Here is a taste of some of the practical advice we took from the afternoon.

Why use email marketing?

In an age of social media and augmented reality email marketing can often be overlooked. Stephanie noted, however, that marketers still rate it as #1 or #2 in terms of Return on Investment. In fact there are lots of reasons to invest some time in well planned email marketing campaigns:

• It’s inexpensive and drives a quick response (redemption of offers, sales and bookings are all at their highest with email marketing);
• The rise of mobile means that users are never away from their inbox, giving you increased access to your audiences;
• Unlike many other marketing channels when someone signs up to your newsletter they are giving you explicit permission to talk to them.

The subscription journey

Stephanie highlighted the importance of thinking about customer experience. Remember to ask three key questions:

• Is it visible? Customers shouldn’t have to search for the sign up button
• What’s the value? Highlight the benefits of signing up to your newsletter
• Is it easy? Make sure that the process isn’t too long or complicated

It’s equally important to consider the process of unsubscribing.  This should also be straightforward but Stephanie recommended providing users with options. For example, before allowing customers to unsubscribe completely Innocent asks if they would rather receive news less frequently and Topshop suggest customers sign up to more specific newsletters.

Email design

It’s crucial to design for mobile. According to the  quarterly email benchmark report from Experian 53% of total email opens occurred on a mobile phone or tablet in Q3 2014.  Think carefully about layout. Single columns are much easier to read on a mobile. Make sure your content is scan friendly; keep sentences short and use attention-grabbing subject lines.

Increased engagement can be achieved with personalised, dynamic content.  Stephanie gave the example of Air New Zealand, who send passengers a booking confirmation featuring a photograph of their actual flight attendant and a weather forecast for their travel destination.

Testing and evaluating

There are extensive metrics available to measure the success of your campaigns. This makes it simple to evaluate what does and doesn’t work. Test sending emails at different times and on different days to see what generates the best responses. Stephanie suggested that Thursdays are a good time to send details about events as this is when people typically plan their weekends.

About First Wednesdays

Exclusively available to our Partners, First Wednesdays are monthly lunch time meetings which provide bite-sized insights into topical issues. Contact us for more information about this event or to find out about Culture Republic Partnerships.