How to use EDMs in your content marketing

The types of EDM

The two main types of EDM marketing are newsletters and automated email marketing.

Build your EDM campaign

Choosing your EDM content strategy

The first step is deciding what you want to get from your EDM digital marketing campaign. Is it just to promote products that go on sale every few months, or are you keeping your subscriber list up to date on the latest news?

Once you start sending out your regular EDMs, recipients will quickly generate feelings towards it. First impressions count, as your audience is unlikely to click on your second newsletter if they didn’t get much from the first.

Types of EDM marketing strategy

There are two distinct EDM strategies that you can use. While they are separate, they can impact each other, so be mindful of what communications you are sending out.

Plan your EDM content

Without a solid plan even the best EDM campaign will fail. This stage is broken down into two stages:

1. Identify your audience

Strategies come to life when they’re designed with a clear audience in mind. Once you’ve identified who you’re targeting with your content, that then defines the nature of your content.

Identifying your audience isn’t just for those who don’t know who their audience is. It helps organisations wanting to target a new audience better identify it. It also helps an organisation wanting to segment a range of audiences. To begin identifying you audience you need to do some qualitative research. By digging deep into the needs of these audiences and mapping everything out you can identify how best to approach your content.

With a complete understanding of your own value and offering as a brand, coupled with an understanding of your audience/s, you can move to the next stage of mapping out content calendars.

2. Content calendars

Just like you set up content calendars for blogs, product marketing campaigns and social media, you need one for your EDM marketing. Why? Because having good visibility of what you’re producing creates consistency in your content, avoids errors or double-ups and keeps things running smoothly.

So how do you structure your EDM calendar? Do you need more than one?

Just ask yourself what’s going to be in those emails and how often you send them out. If you’re a retail brand, you’ll likely have campaign emails. But you might also have a monthly recap of your blog. This means both types of EDM can probably fit into the same calendar. Depending on how many EDMs you’re sending out and how different they are from one another, you may need to use a colour coding system or separate calendars to keep track.

It doesn’t take long to set up a calendar for your EDM marketing, but once you do, you’ll have much greater transparency across your company.

Choosing an EDM platform

There are many EDM hosting platforms out there. Mailchimp is one of the most popular platforms, but there are platforms that offer different things, depending on your needs as a business/content marketer.

Email services like Gmail or Outlook just can’t offer the same functionality and ease-of-use as custom-built EDM platforms. Design, customisation, automation, segmentation, metrics and testing are all made easier with dedicated EDM marketing platforms.

To help you make the right decision ask yourself:

1. What do I want my EDM to do?

Your demands on your EDM as a channel will dictate what platform you choose. For instance, if you’re a small business looking to just keep your dedicated customers informed, a user-friendly platform like Mailchimp may be good for you. But if you’re a multinational brand with a huge database and you need some serious visibility of customer behaviours, there are other platforms that offer you greater control such as:

• ActiveCampaign
• Klaviyo
• Brevo

2. What’s my budget?

Look at your budget, look at what different platforms offer, and decide on what functionalities you need and can afford.

3. How much time do I want to dedicate to EDM?

It’s great to be able to do A/B testing, segment your recipient lists, and automate emails based on trigger points. But if all you want to do is keep things simple and put a couple of hours into it each week, then that will help you decide between platform providers. If you know what you want to get out of your EDM marketing, you’ll be able to pick a platform more easily.

4. What support do I need?

Things can go wrong with email marketing, so it helps to have a human on the other end of a line to troubleshoot things. Look at online reviews to see how different email platforms stack up, and chat with people in your industry to hear their first-hand experiences.

Testing, testing, testing

This can seem like an intimidating area at first, but most mainstream EDM platforms make it very easy to structure, monitor and report on any testing you do.

The power of A/B testing

A/B testing involves splitting your email database (or segment) and sending out different emails. Using this method involves you testing two concepts or strategies against each other to see which performs best. You’ll be able to compare the data to see which version performed better. The results of the AB test will help you make informed decisions about future campaigns, which will help you make informed decisions on future campaigns.

Tip: The key to effective A/B testing is to ‘isolate the variable’ by not changing things up too much between email A and email B. In your EDM content calendar, create a column in your spreadsheet or doc where you can identify what you are testing. This could be broken down into categories, like ‘Imagery’, ‘Subject heading’, ‘CTA’, or ‘Tone of voice’.

You can then test one element at a time to see what impact it makes. With multiple test results for this category, you have the knowledge to set rules for your EDM. Keep this kind of testing to a minimum as too many A/B tests can dilute the data.

User testing for real results

Another easy but powerful way to test your EDMs is to do some old-fashioned user testing (UT). This might just mean sitting down with some friends, colleagues or family members to note their experience of your EDM.

Generate a range of questions based on who they are and they’re knowledge of your brand/product. Different audience types will come to your EDM with different expectations, so expect different responses to your questions.

Effective UT testing comes from having a wide range of testing subjects. Diversity leads to richer data as a marketer, giving you the knowledge to make better decisions for your EDMs.

Our 11 tips for EDM success

With the fundamentals behind us we can look a little deeper into what makes a successful EDM campaign. By using these tips as a guide you can help make your campaign stand out and convert.

1. Make your first impression your best impression

You have limited space and time to grab the attention of your reader so make it count. A dynamic subject line is the deal breaker between ‘Open’ and ‘Trash’. The subject line should entice the reader.

Your subject line should reflect the tone of voice you want to project for this channel. It might be more casual than other channels. Be cautious of that fine line between engaging subject lines and clickbait. If you stray too far into clickbait, you’ll alienate your audience.

2. Timing is everything

Not everyone is going to be in the same time zone or on the same schedule. Consider when your demographic is most likely to have the time to read your email. Sending something important on a Friday afternoon when everyone has escaped the office probably isn’t going to be as effective as sending it on a Tuesday lunchtime or on the morning commute. Experiment with when you send messages, analyse the results, and change your strategy based on the results. There’s no magic answer, it all depends on who’s opening your emails.

3. Keep it simple

We all have a bias against EDMs. We’re always closer towards sending an email to our spam folder than reading it. Keep your language sharp and to the point to make it worth reading.

4. The fewer images the better

Ask yourself: will images enhance the EDM or do they just look pretty? Too many images can make an email look spammy and can impact readability on phone screens. An employee’s email settings might have a default setting that turns off images, making your EDM look disjointed. A lack of text in your EDM can also impact its accessibility, while bad image settings can make them appear odd on a mobile.

5. Target the right audience

Make sure your message is always personal and appeals directly to your audience. Segment your database to create EDMs that connect. The great thing about EDM marketing is that you can meticulously tailor your emails to parts of the database and send out as unique messages as you want. Don’t just carpet bomb everyone with the same words. Remember to always monitor performance and learn from the stats.

6. Stick to your expectations

In terms of scheduling, you may get to the point where your database gets used to receiving their weekly EDM on a Wednesday morning. This is a golden opportunity, so stay consistent. Gaining this kind of relationship is just what you are wanting. Maintain that regular trust and write copy that connects in every instalment. If you get it right, your readership will get into the habit of reading your weekly message.

7. Keep your audience up to date

Why not try a 3-week ‘series’ to encourage people to get into the habit of checking back each week? Drop a teaser of what is to come over the coming weeks. A promotion you would like to run, or a multifold product. The ultimate cliff-hanger being that it won’t be revealed until the next instalment. All of a sudden, you’re not a corporation, you’re a friend sharing a secret. You’ve built a relationship already and made your emails a habit of every week.

8. Put a face to the name

People really connect with an EDM when they feel like it isn’t just coming from a bot.  It doesn’t just have to be from the CEO or the Marketing Manager. Open up to the possibility of giving everyone a voice, which will help the reader feel like they’re being spoken to by a company that cares enough to speak to them.

9. Avoid the spam filter

Avoid spammy words like ‘free’, ‘discount’ and ‘win’ in your subject line and you’ll avoid being filtered straight into Junk folders. Reward your readers with good copy and something they can take away with them. Use punchy, clear and mobilising call-to-actions and bingo! They’re on your website, flocking to your store or calling for more information.

10. Create a scannable EDM

While you can create an EDM which has a lot of content on it, if you want to take people to your website, it’s best to make the EDM scannable. To do this, you can:

• use shorter sentences (approximately 12–20 words)
• use bullet points
• use plain language (don’t be overly verbose)
• break up paragraphs (four or five sentences maximum)
• use descriptive language for all links (e.g., avoid ‘click here’ or ‘find out more’, as it requires them to go back and read the previous copy).

11. Finish strong

Use a call to action (CTA) to help make that EDM convert. Encourage the reader to ‘explore’, ‘discover’ or ‘learn’. Make sure you’re link tells the reader what the action is so they know where they’ll end up.

Get your EDM strategy started

As content creation and strategy experts, Avion is here to help you. From helping you develop the strategy through to its execution, we can make you stand out from the competition. Speak to us to start your journey.

Image credit: Illustration by pch.vector on Freepik.