The Drum | Is Email Marketing Dead?

The short answer is yes. The long answer? Also yes, as long as you’re doing it well and know who you’re doing it for. More than half of generation Z and over a third of millennials still enjoy getting brand emails. With that in mind, let’s look at how you can create engaging emails that even gen Z will want to read.

Don’t be boring

Dull, plain text emails that waffle on won’t engage your impatient audience. So, what can you do?

• Use short emails: try testing short-form emails. Get to the point of your email quickly and efficiently

• Hook them in: create hooks for your subject lines and the headers that highlight the crux of the email. This will help with your open and click-through rate

• Get personal: adding in a recipient’s name can be a little technical at first but it’s totally worth it. If you’re able to personalize things such as names, this makes your emails more trustworthy and engaging

• Include a strong call to action (CTA): ‘Read more’ and ‘Discover now’ just won’t cut it. Add a little spice to CTAs, like ‘You won’t want to miss this’

Your copy and message need to be clear, concise and interesting. Try bringing your tone to a more personable level to better engage with your audience.

Flows and broadcasts

Email marketing can be a great tool if you can plan and set it up well. At Favored, we typically split email marketing into two: flows and broadcasts.

Flows are automations where you can segment your audience, create cohorts and triggers, and (after an initial set-up) run them continuously. Broadcasts are monthly newsletters that give you an opportunity to update your audience on anything new.

You can create manual, ad hoc campaigns for an extra burst of comms (around a sale, for instance).

flows

With email marketing and segmentation, you can capture audiences’ personas. Your main cohorts will be active users, inactive users and new users. Email flows for active users might be:

Inactive users will have email flows such as:

• Abandoned cart: with an average conversion rate of 80%, this is one of the most important flows you can set up

• Re-engage: this flow should focus on offering small discounts as a temptation to get customers back on track. If you have an app, try explaining a new feature as an incentive to click

New users will have email flows such as:

• Onboarding: this is your opportunity to show the customer who you are and what you can offer them

• ‘Web catch all’: if anyone submits a form on your website you can catch them here – a great place to convert them to onboard and/or purchase

Now that we have the flows sorted, let’s look at how you can bring engagement with monthly newsletters.

Broadcasts

The trick is to break your newsletter into sizeable chunks. Try highlights, news and testimonials. You could even connect with national marketing days to make sure you’re hitting key dates relevant to your brand.

News and updates sections give you the opportunity to chat with customers about what you’ve been up to. Adding a testimonial or two brings credibility to your brand and/or product, while adding an extra level of desire.

Who’s doing it well?

Some companies have been smashing email marketing. One is Estrid. It had a hard task ahead of it as its main target audience is gen Z and millennials – the prime suspects for a lack of attention span. It has smashed it: its emails are engaging; it has bought movement into its design with the use of gifs; and its tone is personable and fun.

Maybe you were on the fence about email marketing. We’re hoping that now you see the value it could add to your marketing strategy. Email marketing can capture and engage your audience in a different way than social media. If you ever need any advice, the expert team at Favored is always available to help.