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Learning Series: Email Marketing Best Practices

Published October 11, 2017 in Leadership

Email marketing is an art. In fact, you should only worry about being overlooked by your target audience, deleted, or marked as spam if you shoot off emails without a rhyme or reason why.

Truth be told, there are countless best practices that distinguish good – or even great – emails and average emails. And, when you want to ensure your audience opens, reads, and engages with your emails, following these best practices is essential.

1. Focus on Your Subject Lines

Your subject lines are the first thing entrants see, aside from the fact that you’ve sent them an email. Not surprisingly, the subject line has a lot to do with whether your target audience opens or deletes an email. Similarly, and also not surprisingly, 64 percent of people open emails based on subject lines alone.

The best subject lines are honest, to the point, and pithy. They should tell your readers what they can expect to get out of the email while building organizational credibility and prestige.

2. Tone

You need to find your voice not only as an organization, but as an awards program as well. Without a unique voice, your emails are sure to sound generic and you won’t get the response you want or expect from your audience.

It’s important to consider your tone – professional, formal, fun, etc. – and use your tone to communicate this. When your tone ties in with your program and organization at large, it’s simpler to resonate with audience members and build a bigger, more engaged audience for your program.

3. Brevity

Your potential applicants are busy. This is one of the reasons why you should keep both subject lines and emails themselves as brief as you possibly can.

Brevity is becoming increasingly important as more users browse and read emails on mobile devices. Thus, by keeping your emails brief, you can make it easier for your target audience to consume information (meaning they’re more likely to do so).

4. Include Visuals

How many all text emails do you get that you’re excited to read? Chances are the answer is not many, and for good reason! Visuals are more engaging and can be used to enhance and reinforce the information you’re providing via text.

Don’t think of visuals as just photos, either. Visuals include headings, subheadings, bullet points, and captions. Visuals can also be the physical layout of the page and how you organize emails.

5. Segment Your Audience

Segmentation is the most important best practice you should take away from this article. This means you must break up contacts into different groups based on important differentiating factors.

For example, those who just joined your program aren’t going to need the same information as those who have entered every year for the past five years. This critical difference between your audience members illustrates why sending different emails to different groups is crucial for engagement and for your applicants to feel as if you understand their needs.

Better Your Emails to Better Engagement and Your Program at Large

You’re going to use email marketing for your program; don’t you want it to work as well as it should? By understanding and implementing the best practices above, you can be sure it is.

If you’re unsure about email marketing or want more guidance as you plan your own strategy, check out our helpful companion worksheet here and get instant access to the remaining email best practices with our eBook Awards 101: The Missing Manual for Awards Professionals.

Ashley Surinak

Ashley Surinak is the resident OpenWater expert on all things content. From the blog to guides and beyond, you'll find her at every turn in your OpenWater journey.

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