Email blast enables you to establish relationships, attract more potential customers, and keep the interest of your existing members. However, effective “blasting” does not only entail a regular massive sending of emails to your recipients in order to stay on top of the mind of the readers. These four tips are what you’ll need for your next email blast.
1. Strategically choose your subject line.
Constructing an attractive subject line may require you to do some research on current buzzwords in your industry. However, here are a few small adjustments that can make a huge difference.
- Use numbers. Readers can easily grasp something that’s quantitative because it gives them a better idea of what to expect. For example, “3 Days Left To Purchase Tickets” or “8 Volunteers Needed for Upcoming Food Drive”.
- Include a call to action. Readers are more likely to open an email without delay if the verbiage conveys urgency. “Offer Expires Tomorrow” is an example of this. However, if your message is in the form of a newsletter, the call to action may be more subtle, such as, “Learn How To…”
- Keep it at 50 characters max. Some email accounts only display the first 15 characters so make sure the first few words in your headline provide value to the message you are trying to communicate. Furthermore, do not capitalize all your characters because it can be an indication of yelling – only caps the first letter of each word.
2. How many is too many?
Once or twice a month is generally the rule of thumb. It pays off to keep a dialogue going so your contacts don’t forget who you are, but harassing them once a week or more will lead to a surge of unsubscribes. Most people who unsubscribe feel the information is not relevant to them so it may work to your advantage to tailor messages targeting specific groups within your contact list.
3. Don’t send loooooooooooooong email content.
How would you feel if you were to scroll down several times to finish reading an email? We are not doing novels or feature stories so make it short, sweet and to the point. You may have a lot of great ideas but you can cut it down to the most important and relevant ideas and save the other ideas for future email campaigns.
4. Don’t be overexcited to hit the SEND button.
Rather, send yourself a copy first: (1) see how the design looks, (2) check for any typographical or grammatical errors, (3) try out the links if they redirect to the correct websites or pages and (4) make sure you message is satisfactory.
Now apply these in your next content and get email blasting work for you!
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This article was written by Kareen Defensor.
Kareen is the team’s communications and research assistant who also works on Akubo’s other projects, including a new, growing resource portal for local nonprofits called NGO:PH.