AMA Live Update: Taking Email to the Next Level

Presented by Karlyn Morissette, Dartmouth College

A good overview of email marketing best practices, this presentation provided good fundamentals (which, unfortunately, are overlooked time and time again). Here are the 5 best practices covered:

1. Use an external email service provider (ESP).
Karlyn very accurately pointed out how much time and energy is wasted (and how often sender reputations are put at stake) due to institutions executing their campaigns using on-campus, internal platforms. The summary....make the investment in an ESP. It is worth it.

2. Keep email templates simple and unobstrusive
Keep an eye on length and don't use graphics that are one big graphic. If you would like to learn more about the specific impact of design on email effectiveness, download our white paper, Email Marketing that Works.

3. Segment your audiences and send timely messages
Relevance is key (see my many posts on this). Earn the right to continue the conversation with timely, relevant, and respectful messaging.

4. Keep copy short and include clear calls to action
Copy should be easy to scan and there should be a single call to action. When I look at an email, I should be able to quickly answer, "What does the sender want me to do?" Can you recipients answer that question? Have you thought it through before pushing the send button?

5. Create value for recipients
Send them information they want!

Sounds like a no-brainer, but looking at what is being sent by some colleges - as we do at DemandEngine - and you'll be left scratching your head. What do students want? Information that is going to help THEM at their current stage in the decision cycle.

Email marketing works best when you focus on goals - your audience, not yours

Comments

[Karlyn Morissette]

Thanks for blogging my session! I can't wait to read that paper you guys put together on email :-)

Karlyn