{"id":530,"date":"2020-05-08T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-05-08T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.york.ac.uk\/marketing\/?p=530"},"modified":"2020-05-11T11:37:20","modified_gmt":"2020-05-11T10:37:20","slug":"how-to-write-a-winning-marketing-email-part-two-creating-the-content","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.york.ac.uk\/communications\/2020\/05\/08\/how-to-write-a-winning-marketing-email-part-two-creating-the-content\/","title":{"rendered":"How to write a winning marketing email &#8211; part two: creating the content"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Following on from our last post, <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.york.ac.uk\/marketing\/?p=528\">How to write a winning marketing email &#8211; the nuts and bolts<\/a> &#8211; here are some of the most important things you should think about when creating content for marketing emails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Timing<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Make sure your email content is timely and relevant to your audience at a particular time. For example if you&#8217;re sending an email about revising for A Levels &#8211; make sure you send it when you know students will be revising for their A Levels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Consider when your audience are most likely to open emails, ie for school\/college students, that might be lunchtime or straight after school. <br>For a staff email, during working hours would probably work best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Audience<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Always think about your audience when writing content:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Who\u2019s reading the email?<\/li><li>What do they want\/need to know?<\/li><li>Who do they want to hear from? (the University, department, a specific academic)<\/li><li>What kind of content will work best for them? (video, images, blogs, shorthand articles)<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The most successful marketing emails are relevant to the audience who are receiving them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If your audience and content are very broad, you may want to segment your audience to ensure a more tailored experience. If people are receiving information that isn\u2019t relevant and interesting to them, they\u2019re more likely to switch off, delete the email and not open your next one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Personalise<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Personalisation makes a marketing email feel less like a mass-mailout and more like a one-to-one communication.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The simple addition of <em>Dear Helen<\/em> can make an email recipient feel like you\u2019re talking just to them, rather to everyone. This is emphasised when the rest of the email is also personalised, for instance department-specific information or advice for international students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Depending on the system you use, personalisation can be added automatically (dynamic content) or manually by sending separate emails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Clear call-to-action<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What do you want the email recipient to <strong>do<\/strong> as a result of your email? <br><br>Do you want them to book for an event, download a document, sign up for a webinar or read more content online? Whatever it is, make sure it\u2019s clear, obvious and in the first content block within your email &#8211; not hidden at the bottom. Recipients are unlikely to read the entire email so make sure your most important content is at the top.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-media-text alignwide is-stacked-on-mobile\"><figure class=\"wp-block-media-text__media\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lh6.googleusercontent.com\/Z0cD3tIjkMFUmdWON09drJjAV6gxYo99BrE4OSA9rhbHx0EJye7oLliGVVwTU7KHy6wD_uEVQ-PoQejWDKBvP61lmbL5TvmDK-XvJ5LoQgvh_efe0Ok4OYFq0IbCfd4PfsQCsEYS\" alt=\"\" \/><\/figure><div class=\"wp-block-media-text__content\">\n<p style=\"color:blue\"><u>Rather than a text link<\/u><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Make sure your button is a clear action, for example:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Book your Open Day place<\/li><li>Read our student blogs<\/li><li>Sign up for our arrivals webinar<\/li><li>Find out more about Freshers\u2019 Week<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Images\/videos<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Include images and\/or videos in your email to support your written content and make it more visually interesting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Images<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Make sure your <a href=\"https:\/\/wiki.york.ac.uk\/display\/DM\/Resizing+and+saving+your+images+for+the+web\">images are resized and optimised for web<\/a>.<\/li><li><strong>Don\u2019t use too many images<\/strong> in your email. Each image increases the email size and if the email size is too big this may cause the email to be delivered incorrectly.&nbsp;<\/li><li><strong>Don\u2019t put important information solely in an image<\/strong> &#8211; some people have images turned off in their emails or use screen readers, which means they\u2019ll miss this information. Always provide text alternatives to images.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Videos<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Most email marketing platforms allow you to embed a YouTube video directly into the email using a URL. This automatically pulls the thumbnail you set in YouTube and overlays a play button.&nbsp;<\/li><li>Make sure your video has subtitles.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Accessibility<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Always make sure you <strong>create a plain-text version of your email<\/strong> &#8211; most email marketing software will create this for you, you\u2019ll just need to refresh the content when prompted.<\/li><li>Make sure your <strong>link text is explanatory<\/strong>, ie &#8216;It\u2019s time to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.york.ac.uk\/study\/undergraduate\/visits\/open-days\/\">book your Open Day place<\/a>&#8216;. Never use \u2018<a href=\"http:\/\/stephanieleary.com\/2015\/05\/why-click-here-is-a-terrible-link-and-what-to-write-instead\/\">click here<\/a>\u2019 or &#8216;follow this link&#8217; &#8211; these are  inaccessible for people using screen readers.<\/li><li>What <strong>colour combinations<\/strong> are you using? Is there enough contrast for someone who\u2019s visually impaired to read the text?<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you have questions about the marketing emails you&#8217;re sending, get in touch at <a href=\"mailto:marketing-support@york.ac.uk\">marketing-support@york.ac.uk<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Following on from our last post, How to write a winning marketing email &#8211; the nuts and bolts &#8211; here are some of the most important things you should think about when creating content for marketing emails.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":532,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[49,23,10],"class_list":["post-530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-email-marketing","tag-student-comms","tag-student-recruitment"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.york.ac.uk\/communications\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2020\/03\/Email-header-002.png?fit=1758%2C1110&ssl=1","uoy_author":{"name":"Helen Richardson","bio":"","image":{"src":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=200&d=mm&r=g","width":200,"height":200,"alt":""}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.york.ac.uk\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.york.ac.uk\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.york.ac.uk\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.york.ac.uk\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.york.ac.uk\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=530"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.york.ac.uk\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.york.ac.uk\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.york.ac.uk\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.york.ac.uk\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.york.ac.uk\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}