I recently listened to eDM masters from Mumbrella, The New Daily and technology and software organisations that specialise in eDM, talk about what they have seen work in eNews.
Mumbrella is one of Australia’s leading marketing industry news sites. Among a range of services, they distribute a weekly enewsletter and hold many large events each year. The New Daily is similarly a news site with an enewsletter distributed twice daily – morning and evening. These guys are experts at the electronic direct mail (eDM). The eDM is a critical part of their service offering and a way to build audiences and reach. These are their tips.
Content
- Find or create stories that will connect with your audience.
- Choose 4-5 articles to headline your eDM that cover a range of audience interests.
- Balance sales information with engaging content.
- Use video – it’s a winner and generates clicks.
Subject lines
- Use alliteration.
- Make them punchy and concise.
- Convey urgency.
- Tags like breaking, updated, new generate more interest.
Collect user data
- A name and email address is a great start.
- It can be as simple as asking someone on your website for their details.
- Integrate data you already have in events databases, awards, purchasing to create a single customer view.
Segment and personalise
- Segment your database to avoid inundating people with information and risk loosing them.
- Use localisation to ensure content is relevant (think sporting preferences across States).
- Ask people for their preferences.
Test
- Knowing what works can be difficult, make 1 change at a time and measure the results to inform future strategy.