Hire and Rental News - May 2012

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BUSINESS IN FOCUS
72 | HIREANDRENTALNEWS | MAY 2012
3. Tips to ensure your email is read
Most business people face an inbox
overflowing with emails on a daily basis.
They weigh up email messages quickly, scan
rather than read and concentrate on emails
that help them get something done. The
rest are deleted. Therefore if you want your
message to be read it must be carefully
crafted.
1. Create a compelling subject line. If you
want your email to be opened then
your subject line has to be an attention
grabber. Keep this line short, relevant
and informative, and above all else
avoid the use of words/phrases that are
likely to have your message
caught in a spam filter, eg:
‘free’. There are a number of
free spam checks online which
are great for testing your
campaign.
Because subject lines are
important, it’s worthwhile spending
some time developing these and testing
them on friends and colleagues before
sending your email.
2. Identify yourself. One of the first things
people look at is who the email is from.
If it’s from a friend or someone they are
familiar with, they are less likely to file
it with the junk mail. Use a consistent
‘from name’ and email address when
you send your email campaigns so that
your audience knows it’s you. You may
also find greater readership when the
email is from an actual person rather
than just sales@abccompany.com.au
Note: If you’re sending your email to
first time readers, you may want to use
a more recognisable name that includes
your company, eg: ‘Jane from company
ABC’, so your reader won’t dismiss you
as a stranger.
3. Make your email easy to scan. Give your
email distinct sections so people can
build up a relationship with it and skim
read it easily. If you choose to include
images, then only use small images and
use them sparingly. Also, try to avoid
using animated elements like flash as
not everyone can view these.
4. Welcome new readers. If this email
is your first communication with the
recipient, introduce yourself and the
purpose of your communication. If
you’ve spoken in the past remind them
of this.
5. Personalise your message. We all prefer
to receive personalised rather than
generic messages, so it should come
as no surprise that tailored messages
have a greater response rate. Dynamic
fields in HTML emails mean as well as
inserting a personal greeting eg: ‘Hi
Jane’, you can also tailor your offering
according to a customer’s characteristics
and behaviours by interchanging
sentences/paragraphs. If you don’t have
access to dynamic fields, simply create a
few versions of the campaign and tailor
a message to each of your customer
groups.
6. Let your personality shine through. It’s
a great way to build relationships with
your customers and they’ll appreciate
the sincerity.
7. Take into account what the recipient
of your message needs to hear. Do they
already know a lot about the subject - if
so, don’t bore them with a detailed
history. Are they technically qualified to
deal with the information?
8. Don’t try to communicate too much
information. Keep your message short
and sharp with only two or three key
points. If your message is lengthy, break
it down into numbered paragraphs
or bullet points or use links and drive
traffic back to your website.
9. Brush up on your direct marketing skills.
As email marketing is a form of direct
mail, many of the principles still apply.
Why not take a look at our tips on how
to write a direct mail (www.askushow.
com.au/part/1/5/25/76).
10. The rule of ‘value exchange’. Because
you’re taking someone’s precious time,
give them something of value in return
such as an exclusive offer, prize or
valuable information.
11. Don’t just email advertisements. Emails
should be useful and entertaining. If
you’re on the hard sell all the time,
people will soon lose interest. Even if
people have specifically signed up to
‘Email marketing tips’... continued from p70
receive advertisements, make it worth
their while by giving them something
special like a discount or a pre-release
product order.
Remember: Deliver on the promise you
made that persuaded people to give
you their email addresses in the first
place.
12. Use attachments only where
necessary. It’s much better to refer a
recipient to a link in your website than
to attach a document or form.
13. Don’t forget a call to action. What
would you like your reader to do in
response to your email? You need to
make this very clear to the
reader and give them a time
frame. For instance, if your
email contains an exclusive
prize offer, then you may
want to say something like
‘To redeem your prize, please
call 1800 123 123 today!’.
14. Make it easy to forward. Let your
customers do the promoting for you
by making your email easy to forward.
You can even encourage it by offering
incentives for them to do so.
15. Use a spellchecker and if necessary
a grammar check as well. Poorly
constructed text or content with
mistakes is unprofessional and
distracting.
16. The devil is in the detail - exorcise
all demons from your database. A
qualified, clean list will reduce the
time it takes to prepare and send your
campaign and increase your response
rate. Make sure all email addresses
are correctly formatted, there are no
double ups and you have complete
information sets for your dynamic fields,
eg: a first name instead of just an initial.
17. Test your message before you send
it. Send your email to yourself before
mailing it to your customers. Check your
email conveys the right tone for your
message, all your links work including
opt out/unsubscribes, and your email
formatting hasn’t taken a vacation.
18. Measure your success! It’s good practice
to go back and measure how well
your campaign has gone so you can
identify areas for improvement, or if it’s
worth repeating. Many email software
solutions will enable you to track click
throughs and open rates. If you don’t
have access to these tools you can use
other means to gauge success such as
measuring participation from your call
to action - prizes given out, promotional
codes mentioned etc. HR
Create a compelling subject line. If you want
your email to be opened then your subject
line has to be an attention grabber.