Emails that win: A step-by-step guide to crafting engaging emails
Over the last two decades email campaigns have become a useful ally in generating support for different social causes. Whether you're championing environmental conservation, advocating for human rights, or mobilising communities for disaster relief, a well-executed email campaign can amplify your message and inspire meaningful change.
What you might also have noticed however is that as people receive more and more emails to their inbox it becomes harder and harder for your message to be seen. And with current levels of emails being sent, it’s become incredibly tricky to get engagement. This is why it’s paramount to write content that can inspire and land the message you need. In this guide, we'll talk through the essential steps to create the perfect email campaign for social causes:
1. Define your goal and audience:
Before crafting your email campaign, it's crucial to define your overarching goal and target audience. Are you seeking to raise funds, mobilise volunteers, or advocate for policy change? Identify your specific objective and tailor your messaging accordingly. Additionally, understand your audience demographics, interests, and motivations to ensure your emails resonate with them effectively. It can be helpful to draft out a persona for who your target audience is and the kind of message that would resonate best with them.
2. Craft compelling content:
Ultimately the success of your email campaign hinges on content that captivates readers and inspires action. The email you send needs to be good, for people to continue opening it and sharing it. Usually because you’re championing a cause or a movement, your message will already be quite compelling, so it’s just a matter of communicating that. Write concise, persuasive copy that clearly articulates your cause, highlights its significance, and communicates the impact of supporting you. Urgency is often a key driver for people to take action, if your cause is important express the need for your audience to get behind you. Incorporate storytelling elements, statistics, and testimonials to evoke emotion and compel recipients to engage with your campaign.
3. Think about your visuals:
Visual elements play a crucial role in capturing attention and conveying your message effectively. It’s worth spending the time to incorporate eye-catching graphics, photographs, and branded visuals that reinforce your campaign's narrative and draw recipients into your email. Ensure your design is mobile-responsive and visually appealing across different devices and screen sizes.
From a technical point of view you may also want to consider the size of your emails. Often heavily HTML-ed emails will get caught by people’s spam filters. Load speeds also affect click through rates and conversions, sometimes a little bit leaner goes a long way.
4. Segment your email list:
Segmenting your email list based on recipients' interests, engagement levels, and demographics allows you to personalise your messaging and maximise relevance. Divide your audience into distinct segments and tailor your email content, subject lines, and calls-to-action to cater to each group's preferences and needs. Personalisation fosters a sense of connection and increases the likelihood of recipient engagement.
5. Craft compelling subject lines:
The subject line serves as the gateway to your email campaign, influencing recipients' decision to open or ignore your message. Create concise, attention-grabbing subject lines that pique curiosity, convey urgency, or offer a compelling benefit to recipients. Experiment with A/B testing to identify the most effective subject lines for your audience and optimise open rates.
6. Include clear calls-to-action (CTAs):
Every email in your campaign should feature a clear and actionable CTA that guides recipients towards the desired outcome, whether it's making a donation, signing a petition, or attending an event. Use persuasive language and visually prominent buttons or links to encourage recipients to take immediate action. Reinforce the urgency and impact of their participation to drive conversions.
7. Measure, Analyse and Optimise:
After launching your email campaign, track key performance metrics such as open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates to gauge its effectiveness. Use email analytics tools to gain insights into recipient engagement, identify areas for improvement, and refine your approach for future campaigns. Continuously iterate and optimise your email strategy based on data-driven insights to maximise impact.
Movement takes this a step further
Creating the perfect email campaign for social causes requires careful planning, compelling storytelling, and strategic execution. By defining clear goals, crafting engaging content, and leveraging personalisation techniques, you can inspire action, mobilise support, and drive meaningful change through your email campaigns. Movement takes this a step further, allowing you to automate your members’ journeys, create tailored coms for different audience segments and analyse the response from members in our analytics sections.
If you’d like to understand more about how Movement supercharges email campaigns for you get in touch with us by hitting the button below:
