Digital:

Email Marketing Part 2 – Deciding on Content Type

Nicole Porter
  • Client Services Manager
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The last blog in our Email Marketing series covered how to define your offer and message. Next up, we will look into the specifics of Email Marketing content types and explore some ideas for engaging content you can use within your own Email Marketing campaign.

With the recent change in EU Data Privacy Law – I’m talking about the dreaded GDPR! – Email Marketing was unfortunately one the hardest hit marketing platforms. Due to the highly ambiguous guidelines surrounding re-opt-ins, referred to as ‘re-permission’ (asking those who, in many cases, have already opted in to your marketing once, to confirm that they wish to continue to receive it, ensuring their consent is GDPR compliant), many marketing lists reduced dramatically. However, this was actually no bad thing. The silver lining for businesses is that they have been left with beautifully clean marketing databases, filled with consumers who have actively requested their content (not just once, but twice in many cases!) and who are much more likely to engage with the communications they receive. It is therefore now more important than ever to get your content right – to meet the needs of an active email marketing database, to take advantage of the fresh conversion opportunity, and to look at rebuilding your list.

Depending on what you identified as your main offer – is your priority to sell, serve, speak, save, sizzle or share? – there are many types of email marketing content that can help communicate this to your audience. The type of email marketing you choose will also help determine which email client you use to build your emails and send it to your recipients.

Let’s explore some examples…

Dedicated Email

Stand-alone emails that contain information about one offer or activity, for example a seminar, a new whitepaper, a sales offer or a new product launch.

Key Advantages:

  • Focused call-to-action
  • Easy to build; content can be put together very quickly/simply
  • Fast turnaround for results (a couple of days from sending)

Email Newsletter

Regular communication schedule, covering a range of topics: company events, direct sell, product information.

Key Advantages:

  • Remain at the forefront of customer’s/prospect’s mind
  • Regularity reinforces brand awareness

TIP: Create goals for your newsletters (should they increase loyalty, encourage sales, generate leads through sharing). Ensure layout and call-to-actions relate to these goals.

Email Digest

Similar to a newsletter, but provides summaries of existing information, within a time frame. A typical format is a list of popular topics (e.g. top ten…)

Key Advantage:

  • Assembled easily by repurposing existing content

TIP: Ensure that testing is built into your planning.

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Lead Nurturing

Relationship-building emails, sent to potential clients – even when they are not currently looking to buy a product or service – for the purpose of building brand awareness and familiarity. The brand provides infrequent but highly personalised emails to keep the prospect up-to‐date and educated about the product/service.

Key Advantages:

  • Use of personalisation creates stronger relationship
  • Brand is at the forefront of the customer’s mind when they are ready to convert
  • Customers are more likely to choose the brand if already familiar

Sponsored Emails

Paying or arranging for your message to be included in another business’ email activity.

Key Advantages:

  • Message can be controlled (audience, form and content)
  • A wider, relevant audience can be targeted
  • Costs can be precisely calculated, and CTRs and ROI can be estimated accurately

Transactional Emails

Messages triggered by a prospect or customer carrying out a specific interaction on your site or after an event, e.g. once they have made a purchase or attended a local launch party.

Key Advantage:

  • They are delivered at a point when the consumer is already interacting with your business and may be open to additional sales messages
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There is no hard and fast rule of which content type to select, and it will depend on your business’ marketing strategy and offer at any particular time. For certain industries, it may well be the case that you use a combination of all email content types to inform, educate and generate engagement, as your audience work their way through the consumer life cycle – from their first awareness of your brand, to advocating for your product or service in the future.

Once you have decided on the type of email you want to send to your marketing database, you can start to consider the exciting bit (and our favourite part) – design and copy! Keep your eyes peeled for Part 3 of our Email Marketing series which looks into best practice tips for how to approach email layout, copywriting basics and call-to-action placement to encourage the greatest open rate and user interaction with your offer.

In the meantime, why not sign-up to the gm. newsletter for seasonal inspiration from the studio delivered straight to your inbox!

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