Rethinking email design

Email marketing is quickly becoming pure communication strategy. Email is the preferred method to reach customers and other stakeholders because it's measurable and cheap.

However it's pure measurability causes it to suffer the same fate that a lot of online media has, namely that so much focus is put on gathering and optimizing the crap out of every little piece that the big picture gets lost. Subject lines, calls to action, links, all are tested again and again to squeeze the last little bit of money out.

All of this is good but it comes with a problem. In order to understand what works best, you have to produce multiple upon multiple versions of the same email. Compound that by the need to send out emails frequently and you get a code and blast mentality. The design of the email suffers and now (in many cases) the most frequent conversation you have with your customer is a disaster and is just another useless email in their inbox.

So what's an emailer to do? Before you code and test, take a step back and understand what works. eROI has a report that's put out quarterly that's a great resource. A friend of mine from a past life, David Baker's blog WhiteNoise is a great resource to stay up-to-date. Marketing Sherpa has a specific section dedicated to email marketing. All of these resources have a direct marketing bent to them but their a great resource to get a foundation.

Once you have the foundation, contrast, compare and evaluate. Look at your subject lines and determine if the fit your brand messaging. Look at your emails next to your online ads, next to your print ads, next to your brochures. Do the emails measure up? Are they appealing and consistent? Do they stand out? Be honest.

When designing emails, go through the same process as you would to design a web page (hopefully you go through this process!). Document what the objective of the email program is and of individual emails. Develop wire frames for the emails so that art directors can focus on the look and feel and graphical design.

Stop the code and blast madness. - Paul Herring

Comments

[Brian Hess]

Along with that "code and blast" mentality goes lack of segmentation & personalization. Because email appears to be fast & cheap, some companies seem to think the same message can be sent to an entire database of contacts, and personalization is just "Dear [$name],". It's like they say in the fundraising business -- an appeal to everyone is an appeal to no one. Email as a touchpoint with constituents is most effective when it is personal, timely, relevant and expected.

[Cam Beck]

Brian - I agree. Nice to see you here, by the way.

[Paul Herring]

You're right on Brian. Even in developing database segments marketers don't think about the tone, language and style that's most effective with this audience. Often times personalization is limited to "Dear [$name]", which is about as personal as those "Hi, My name is..." name tags.

[Mark Brownlow]

Enjoyed the post Paul. Can I add to your list of why the "Code and blast" mentality arises...

1. The perception that email is "quick, easy and cheap" (so why bother investing time, thought and energy.)

2. A lot of people sending email simply aren't aware of the ins and outs of email marketing. Largely because even bad email marketing often brings a positive return, so they don't realize how much more they could make by doing a more sophsticated job.

3. The direct response mentality. Thinking of email as a "send an email, get a sale" vehicle, rather than an opportunity to build lasting relationships with the recipients.