This document outlines the 11 steps for an effective email marketing campaign: 1) brainstorming email ideas and formats, 2) segmenting contact data, 3) designing emails using HTML and tables for consistency, 4) testing email designs across devices and email clients, 5) A/B testing subject lines, 6) scheduling emails to be sent between Tuesday-Thursday at 11:30-16:00, 7) sending the email, 8) waiting for responses, 9) reporting open and click rates, 10) following up on product clicks with sales, and 11) calling interested contacts. Proper segmentation, testing, and scheduling are emphasized to increase engagement.

1. Email Marketing

2. Step 1. Ideas brainstorm
Type?
•Offer
•Product promotion
•Newsletter
•Competition
•News stories
•Web page/site launch
•Customer feedback
Format?
•RT (rich text)
•HTML

3. Step 2. Data/Segmentation
Segmented data allows us to create emails with a bespoke approach. We often split
our data and subsequently our emails into three categories:
•Clients
•Venues
•Agencies
We separate our emails for our brands into different campaigns so that if a contact
unsubscribes from brand A, we can still contact them about brand B!
Query strings allow us to populate each email with the contacts first and last name
as well as the specific Account Manager’s name and email for that contact in the
signature. This enables a more personalised approach.
We can also populate the email with other contact information fields such as their
company, job title and interests.

4. Step 3. Design and Copywriting
Old school design techniques are best for rendering emails in most clients. This
means HTML and tables are the order of the day. Some email clients will read style
sheets, but generally it’s best to avoid using CSS and stick to HTML where possible
for consistency.

5. Step 4. Design Testing
Email platforms render HTML emails differently. What looks good in Gmail might
look so great in Outlook. Testing your email on all major email clients is
therefore paramount to ensuring a consistent layout.
We have to test for both desktop and mobile clients too.
Test, test, test!

6. Step 5. Split testing subject lines
Split testing subject lines enables us to better understand what words
and phrases our audience respond to. Split testing involves creating
2/3 different subject lines for one email that get sent evenly to 20% of
our data list for 30 minutes. The one with the highest open rate is then
sent to the remaining 80%.
“ Brazil World Cup 2014 Competition”
“Welcome To Brazil, James”
“Get Your Hands on a £50 Sport’s Gift
Card”
Winner!
“Welcome To Brazil, James”
30 minutes later

7. Step 6. Scheduling
Email opens
by time of day
Email opens
by day of
week
We tend to send our emails
from 11:30 – 16:00 between
Tuesday and Thursday for
maximum exposure.
These statistics may vary by
industry though, so it’s
always worth testing
alternative scheduling.

8. Step 7. Send!

9. Step 8. Wait for Enquiries………

10. ……………

11. ……………….

12. …….. 9.Reporting

13. Industry Standard
Open & click rates

14. Step 10. Clicks to sales
This metric allows us to see who clicked on
specific links within an email. If an email has a
number of links to our products we separate this
data out and then distribute it to the sales team
to follow up.

15. Step 11. Ring, ring
‘’I see you’re
interested in Mexican
Railway!........’’

16. Further Reading
http://www.emailmonday.com/mobile-email-usage-statistics
https://econsultancy.com/blog/62688-six-case-studies-and-infographics-
on-the-optimal-time-to-send-emails#i.1847n7z2kieelx
https://www.emailonacid.com/blog/details/C4/engagement_email_
marketing_the_path_between_an_open_and_click