Email marketing is not dead. In fact, 269 billion emails are sent every day with 90 percent of adults and 74 percent of teenagers using it regularly. However, that number creates a lot of competition for businesses using it to get in front of people.
Creative Vortex recently worked with longtime client Laura’s House to create two impactful email marketing campaigns to increase awareness about the organization and support two of its larger donation drives. The 2020 End of Year email campaign raised $85,000 in a little over two weeks and the 2021 LOVE IS campaign raised $30,000 in 24 hours.
Working closely with the team at Laura’s House we were able to create two campaigns that exceeded expectations in regards to audience reach, impact and money raised. Below are our top four takeaways on how to create email marketing campaigns that produce favorable results.
1. Create An Overall Objective
What do you want the email campaign to do for your organization? Your objective needs to be crystal clear before you start writing or designing the email or your target audience won’t do what you want them to do. Campaign objectives should focus on what you want the people opening the email to do. For example, with Laura’s House year-end appeal and LOVE IS email marketing campaigns we wanted to tell the story of how Laura’s House supports domestic violence victims and teenagers in harmful relationships so that people in our community would donate to the nonprofit. While setting the objective it is also a good time to set a goal to make sure you know what you and your team are working towards. Laura’s House wanted to raise money to benefit their initiatives, but other goals might include wanting to sell products, register attendees for an event, or provide general marketing information.
2. Make it personable and relevant
People are busy and need to know that opening an email is worth the time they put into it. First, catch their eye with a subject line describing the content of the email … and be honest! Nothing puts people off more than using a bait and switch subject line. Once readers open the email get to the point really fast, but make it relevant. Laura’s House year-end email highlighted the fact that they had experienced a 25 percent increase in domestic violence related calls during the pandemic and focused on the impact the pandemic has had on children, families and abusive households and that activity on their 24-Hour Crisis Hotline increased 65 percent. They quickly educated the reader on the increase in demand for services and that their donation would allow this demand to be met. The LOVE IS campaign alerted readers that 93 percent of students that participated in their HEART workshop had increased knowledge about red flags and what makes a healthy relationship, as well as featured a Chapman University study that showed 2 in 3 high school students experience some form of harmful behavior in a relationship.
3. Brand, brand, brand
I cannot emphasize the branding of the newsletter enough. This means using your logo properly along with a consistent use of colors and visual elements clearly aligned with your organization. If you are a well-known entity this is particularly important for the purpose of brand recognition within your circles of influence. If you are a new or unknown brand this is important to create brand recognition and build credibility with your target audience. Be sure your email provides several links to your website and social media platforms, or whatever page (or pages) is going to help you create results to meet your goals. The email for Laura’s House’s two campaigns were clearly labeled with their logo and brand colors, plus provided links to the donation page on their website in several different places. In fact, the LOVE IS email campaign was actually part of the Collaborative Giving Day fundraising campaign in Orange County, but still focused on its own brand while sharing that space.
4. Timing
How long should email campaigns last? Timing for each unique campaign is going to vary based on if the emailing marketing is about an event, a sale or fundraiser. Obviously, the Laura’s House email campaigns I have highlighted were for a fundraiser and were different based on the criteria for each event. The year-end campaign lasted two and half weeks and included four emails that were sent to a target audience. We wanted to be strategic about how often we sent these emails out since it was the end of the year and people already had email fatigue from the holidays. They needed to be consistent and visible but not annoying. The LOVE IS campaign lasted 24 hours and included six strategic emails. As mentioned previously, the LOVE IS campaign was part of a bigger fundraising effort for a shorter amount of time and the space was competitive! We need to be really engaged with potential donors and make sure they knew there was a limited amount of time to donate. Email campaigns for events typically include pre-event and post-event information, as well as registration directions. Email campaigns that are consumer-focused typically rotate around announcing new products, sales and general marketing.
This is definitely not a comprehensive list of things to do to create a result-oriented email campaign, but just some highlights! Interested in learning more and how Creative Vortex can help? Reach out via email or phone today.