Guidelines for writing electronic direct mail
Writing for electronic direct mail (EDM) is difficult for two reasons. Firstly, your copy is jostling for an audience in a crowded marketplace. More specifically, within a crowded inbox. Let's face it, your reader will almost certainly rather be reading some juicy office-based gossip than your lovingly crafted content. Secondly, you have so little time and space to get your message across.
With this in mind, here are a few tactics that worked when I was editing several EDM campaigns at library management specialists Talis. With a little discipline and a lot of focus, we found that the click-through rates went up when we put the following into practice...
Cut to the chase
All marketing collateral should be succinct and relevant, but nowhere is this more important than in EDM. This is because emails are inherently deletable. If someone has chosen to download or print your case study or white paper, it's fair to assume that they will read most (if not all) of it. Email-based comms are the exact opposite. Imagine your reader scanning your correspondence with the mouse hovering over the delete icon; do not make it easy for them to make that decision.
Understand the medium
EDM is not a collection of news items; don't just truncate an existing piece of content (for example, the first lines of a press release).
EDM is not like a blog. Don't try to say too much. Don't try to be too clever.
EDM is not the place to deliver your entire message, or to convey your most complex proposition. Instead tease, intrigue, be controversial, or pose questions. If you've got lots to say, add a link from within the email to more in-depth content online.
Be ruthless. Send a short email rather than a long one that's full of filler. Good writing is about sifting through content that you may consider to be important, but isn't necessarily the most important thing to your readers.
Make your messages easy to scan
We've already established that your email will be competing with much more interesting content in your reader's inbox. So make each paragraph really easy to scan. The reader needs to be able to:
- scan the headlines
- see if the content is for them
- follow a link to find out more (if they want to)
- move on quickly
- all within a single paragraph, and ideally in no more than two sentences.
Develop a consistent tone
Your email may be chatty, formal, familiar, 'techie' or even humorous. But make sure the tone is consistent throughout. Do not be lighthearted in one section, and then serious in the next. It's likely that the content may come from a number of sources - and there's nothing wrong with this. Just make sure that it reads like it's been written by one person.
Similarly, ensure the vocabulary, punctuation and formatting are consistent, to avoid creating the impression that the newsletter has been 'hacked' together. If the email is directing readers to a website, does it reflect the same branding/look-and-feel? Does it use the same tone and language as related marketing collateral?
Non-linguistic considerations
Each EDM tool or workflow will have its own 'gotchas', and each campaign will have its own set of objectives. But make sure you've at least covered the following:
- What is the main purpose of your email? Is its function to drive content to your website, or does it have its own separate objectives and agenda?
- Are you monitoring the click-throughs and response rates? The great thing about EDM is that its effectiveness can be measured. Learn what works, and what doesn't.
- Can your readers subscribe/unsubscribe from your email?
- Can your readers view an example email before they subscribe?
- Have you taken the necessary steps to ensure your email makes sense when read in a text only browser?