Almost all the companies I’ve worked with conduct email campaigns in one way or another.  It’s a good idea as it is more cost effective than your traditional print and posting methods and, in many ways, is much more likely to be seen by the right person.  However, almost all the companies I’ve worked with have also had the same challenge: how do I make it more effective?

The way in which campaign success is measured varies from company to company but, in general, you are looking for the number of emails opened, click-through rates and the number of enquiries (and subsequent sales) generated as a result.   Campaigns are usually created by designing an email containing content you think will appeal to the recipient, getting your hands on a target list of contacts and sending the mailshot out to everyone on the list.   The simple idea to make email campaigns more effective?  Don’t press Send to All.

As with all messaging, while you have spent time carefully crafting the content of the email, the best way to tell if resonates with your target audience is to test it.  So instead of sending it to everyone, try 50 contacts first and see what happens.  If you get nothing back, go back to the drawing board.  If they’re opening it but not enquiring, have another look and see if you can change the content to encourage them to click through.  Then try another 50 and see what happens.  When you start to get a result then you know it’s time to press Send to All – you’ll be pleased you took the time to test your message first.