Last week, I was asked by a colleague about my thought process when I approach an email.  I’ll admit, I had to think about it for a second - it’s not a question I’ve asked myself often.  Here’s the framework I came up with: 

Who is my audience? 

Who my audience is and what they care about dictate almost every other component of the message - from segmentation to timing to customization to message.  If you don’t know your audience, then step away from the computer, go do some research and then come back and create your message once you’ve got a firm grasp on who you’re marketing to. 

What is the timing of my message? How does it integrate with other marketing messages?

Next to audience characteristics, I view timing as the most critical part of any message.  Timing can make or break the success of a campaign - hit them at a time when your audience is most receptive to receiving your message and you’ll see results. Hit them at a time when it seems out of the blue and feels like a cold call, and your results won’t be nearly as impressive.  Timing can intersect with everything from cultural events like holidays to other marketing messages your audience is receiving from you over print, your website, the phone, in person, social media, etc.  

There are good reasons to do email marketing messages when they aren’t time-specific or integrated with other marketing messages.  For instance, you may be experimenting with a new type of messaging.  That’s OK.  But have realistic expectations about what you’re going to see from non-timely, non-integrated messaging. 

What is my segmentation strategy?

If you can’t segment your message into at least two groups (or have a heck of a customization strategy, see below), you should think twice about sending it to begin with.  You’ve already assessed your audience at this point - take what you know about them and segment your message based on traits that are meaningful.  For example, admissions emails can be segmented into accepts, applicants, and inquiries. Emails to alumni can be segmented by class year.  Email will only get more competitive this year, as more and more places turn to it as a cost-effective means of communication with their audience.  The places that create messages that are

What merge fields do I want to use in the email? Can I utilize merge fields to make segmentation easier?

Merge fields in an email are good for things beyond “Dear FirstName,”.  You can merge anything from singular words and numbers to entire paragraphs into your message. Also, don’t forget that you can have as many merge fields as you want (as long as you’re careful about how you craft the copy of your message).  I’ve done emails with up to 20 merge fields, both creating a very personalized experience for my users and making it easier for myself to create that personalized experience (rather than sending out dozens of separate emails, I would use one email template and a spreadsheet to create a sort of faux-segmentation).  

What do I want my audience to do? What value am I providing my audience in return?

Ultimately, you’re sending an email marketing message because you want your audience to DO something.  What is it? And, as a counterpoint to that, what value are you providing your audience in this email in return? I know I use the Borders example is death but that’s because it’s so perfect - Borders emails me because they want me to buy stuff from them, but in return I always get some sort of coupon with a time-limit.  The result?  I’m more likely to go buy something from them, but I’m getting money off that purchase so they’ve also provided value to me.  

What does my message say, and how is the copy structured?

Specific copy is one of the last things I worry about.  In fact, once you’ve considered message integration, segmentation, customization, call-to-action and value, you’ve come a long way in writing your content.  It almost writes itself at that point.  Since users don’t read emails - they scan - even more important than what your email says is how you structure it: Is it easy for your users to scan? Will they know what the call-to-action is up front? Have you used repetition to reinforce your point?  Make sure you can answer yes to all these questions before moving on.

What does the email look like?

The email template is the very last thing I think about.  Why? Because every other part of the message has a greater impact on your audience than what the graphics look like does, since only the people who proactively open the images on your email will SEE your design.  Look at your open rate - since opens are calculated based on a transparent image being opened, its a good indicator of the percentage of your audience that is seeing your email as you designed it.  Typically for education, that’s going to be 20%-40%.  The lesson here is to make your template nice and clean, but don’t spend hours on it - it’s just not worth the time as long as the rest of the components - timing, value, segmenting, customization, call to action and message - are all there. 

Do you have anything to add to this framework? Leave a comment!

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