You’re an IT Director in financial services. Or the Head of e-Delivery in the public sector. From our decision-maker research, we know that you receive around 30 supplier marketing emails every day (without even considering more regular spam emails) – and probably find barely a quarter of these to be relevant.

It’s a sign of email’s growing popularity or even over-use in isolation from other activities (as a more ‘measureable’ and ‘cost-effective’ digital channel) and of some common mistakes being made in how it is used.

We recently reviewed a year’s worth of emails sent out as part of wider relationship, lead generation or thought leadership programmes. The key conclusions are presented – and illustrated with examples – in a paper available to download here.

What’s in the document?
- 10 tips to consider at the tactical level. If you believe that you are communicating with the right people about something that should be important to them, but are failing to see the results you need, then the chances are that these tips will help. Issues in email execution – like when to go for beautifully designed html versus personal-looking text – are absolutely critical.
- And stepping away from the tactical, the document also puts a narrative around the whole email story – its place in wider programmes, what the audience likes and dislikes, considerations around testing, and the need for exceptional content.

For me, the single most important advice the document has is about creating simple steps for the audience.

No-one ever signed an outsourcing contract after reading an email – so rather than trying to lay out the complete case for the deal, the email has to have a clear and realistic action it asks the reader to take. This could be nothing more complex than a compelling case for why they should click through to read a document that positions you as a thought leader on the subject. Or it could make a proposition for them to arrange a first workshop with you (something more personal than a ‘healthcheck’ offer – do you have a recent business case from a deal with a similar client? Have you got research that you could share with them?).

This idea of creating emails with a realistic call to action (one you would feel comfortable writing in a personal email to someone you wanted to meet) applies to both planning and execution of email programmes. At the planning stage, it means mapping out the call to action, audience journey and key messages. And when it comes to execution, it is why emails are potentially the very hardest job facing any copywriter today. Hopefully this document goes some way to solving the challenge.