We spend vast portions of our day, reading them, writing them and responding to them. The vast majority of them look the same, some are text based and others include a picture. The email has many uses, but one common theme connects them all – we want people to respond to them. We have been involved in E-Marketing for a number of years and have experience in creating strategies that provide an effective response from email readers.
Creativity is key. Content, design, and compelling messaging make a reader open your email and respond to it. Creative email strategies and design, require more time and effort to put into place, but it will increase your response rates. These strategies are bespoke solutions for our clients, however we ensure they meet our five happy rules.
1 The first words you read are vital.
This is usually the subject line. Creative messaging is essential to interest the recipient to open the email. This could take the route of an offer, be informative or a subject that pips someone’s curiosity.
2 Emails should give users the power to respond
Links should be added in obvious places so that readers don’t have to look how to respond.
3 The email needs to make the reader feel safe.
When you click through a link, you must be taken to a similar designed or branded environment. This can be done through consistent typography, layout, colour, picture style and messaging.
4 Customise your content to suit the reader.
Personalised content is proven to increase response rates. Use recipient names, past history and interests to help target and really deliver targeted messaging.
5 Meeting goals!
This is the ultimate requirement. If the objective is to create revenue or to create awareness through content and links. The email must meet this objective. With todays bulk email systems, the reader responses to email can be seen, either through open rates, clicking content or replies.
The above five rules applies to all our happy creative email campaigns. It gives an overview to how we work. We start with these five rules and then break them down to specific responses, analyzing and testing strategies so that at each stage of the design, the email meets our criteria to give it the best possible response rate.
So when you receive your next inbox full of emails, just pause and reflect about the ones that you’ve opened. Why this one and not that one? What was it in the title that interested you? Did you click any of the links? or just read the content and bin. It’s these human response and that vital split second of an email popping up in your inbox that is the difference between a successful campaign and one that is quickly forgotten.
James Chantler is Creative Director at Happy Creative, a full service marketing and creative agency based in Blackpool, Lancashire. To learn more or contact us please go to www.happy-creative.co.uk
