When creating a viral e-mail campaign it is essential to think about different components of this method of digital marketing. Outlined in this blog are the factors I think are most important when creating an e-mail campaign.
Subject Line
The subject line is key as this will normally determine whether a user will open an e-mail or not. It must therefore entice the reader to open it!
Take these examples from my recent inbox (Click the image to enlarge):
From the examples above, I am not always influenced by the sender as out of the New Look e-mails I only opened one. I appear to be more influenced by the incentive offered in the subject line or by personalisation as I feel the e-mail will be more tailored to my requirements.
Layout
The Call To Action (CTA) is very important so it needs to stand out and correlate with the landing page. Ideas of what to include in the CTA are urgency, value and price. Hernandez and Resnick (2013) researched into how the placement of CTA buttons can impact a user’s decision on whether to complete their e-commerce experience. They explore different user scan patterns and identify that users tend to follow the visual hierarchy of the page when deciding a scan path.
So personally I feel I use the Z-pattern, as shown below with an example e-mail from easyJet:
This would be successful to easyJet as using this scan pattern means I view the landing page (Number 2) and so it is more likely I will click on this and at least look at flights.
A less successful e-mail is those that I receive from Monarch…
With Monarch, I would see the links to their blog but this does not take me to where I can complete a purchase. The landing page leads to their blog, which unfortunately I am not so interested in as when I visit the Monarch site, it is to book flights at a good price! I would end up skipping the Top Destinations to visit in April, which is the main part of the e-mail of interest to me!
Someone who scans with an F pattern as described by Nielson (2006) would have worked well here as they would have seen all the key parts, yet this tends to be more for when the e-mails are text heavy.
It is therefore important to match the design of the page to the pattern of the user, which may not be the same for everyone!
Incentives
Offering incentives is a really good way of enticing users and is definitely a way to catch my attention! I am more likely to complete a purchase or browse the website if I am offered an incentive.
I have just received this e-mail from Feel Unique offering money off my next purchase and they know this will work as I have been a customer for a while and so after writing this blog, I will be purchasing from them. Why does this work so well? They have essentially, “gotten to know me”… They what will make me click on the link.
Another incentive is that of Vision Direct, I frequently order contact lenses and eye drops and they know this so have offered me free eye drops with a spend of £50. I don’t normally spend over £50 but due to the free incentive I bought extra lenses! Once again, they know what I purchase.
This emphasises the importance of getting to know your customers so that every e-mail sent to them can interest them and make them want to click the links an hopefully make a purchase!
As part of my University project, I shall be creating an e-mail campaign and will be bearing all this mind as I will be personalising the e-mails and ensuring the subject lines entice the reader to open them! The CTA shall be key in these e-mails so I shall test several layouts to see where the CTA is best placed!
Further reading can be found in an interesting article by Ellis-Chadwick and Doherty (2012) on the role of e-mail marketing.
References
Ellis-Chadwick, F. & Doherty, N. F., 2012. Web advertising: The role of e-mail marketing. Journal of Business Research, 65(6), pp. 843-848.
Hernandez, A. & Resnick, M. L., 2013. Placement of Call to Action Buttons for Higher Website Conversion and Acquisition: An Eye Tracking Study. Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting, 57(1), pp. 1042-1046.
Nielsen, J., 2006. F-Shaped Pattern for Reading Web Content. [Online]
Available at: http://bit.ly/1GxqKPC
[Accessed 10 April 2015].