E-Mail Is About Awareness

One word best sums up the most effective uses of email in today's environment: awareness.

Regardless of what kind of email it is, its purpose is to make you aware of something, point you in the right direction, or educate you. Think about it. E-mail from your family has details about such things as the next family get-together. E-mail from friends often starts out with a statement like, "Did you hear about..." E-mail from coworkers informs you about meetings and other important projects. Industry email tells you about trends, thoughts, and ideas you should be aware of. And marketing email makes you aware of new products or services you just can't afford to pass up.

So why is it sometimes so hard to create a successful email campaign? Once you acknowledge that email is best suited for making someone aware of personally relevant information or offers, you can create a much more powerful program or campaign. During the email design process, there are four areas where you should verify whether your campaign is focused on delivering awareness:

• Strategy/communication flow design: What type of messaging strategy, frequency, and content mix will help build awareness of your product or offering? How will your email campaign deliver this information in a manner that drives the awareness into active interest?
  
  
• List selection process: Who are the most profitable leads to be made aware of your service or offering? Note I didn't ask, "How many people in your database can you make aware of your offer using email?" The key is to focus on how many of the "right people" are there.
  
  
• Creative briefing: Before any email element is designed, think about how the layout (HTML, text, and handheld versions) will affect the communication and level of awareness you want to extend. Eyetools' heat-mapping research indicates the majority of your viewers will only "see" 35 percent of your email. Remember that to help keep your message's critical design elements in perspective.
  
  
• Delivery planning process: If it hasn't been addressed during the strategy/communication design, determine how many times a message should be sent to people who don't open it the first time.

Your email promises to increase your reader's awareness of critical information you have to share. Making certain it delivers ensures the content is focused and relevant. In client awareness tests, we've seen up to a 75 percent increase in results when continuously asking ourselves if we're delivering something that will increase awareness and generate active interest.

If you're not reviewing your message for this, try it on your next campaign. Test it against your current content, and watch results skyrocket.

Want more email marketing information? ClickZ E-Mail Reference is an archive of all our email columns, organized by topic.