E-mail marketing has become the norm around the world and consumers are now bombarded daily with the discount offers, “free” merchandise or information and even pleas for donations. Most, if not all, of these e-mails are subject to the dreaded delete button. So how can your e-mail marketing to prospective students possibly be effective if people are dumping so many messages in the trash?
The website emailreplies.com developed a list of their top 32 rules for e-mail etiquette and though I’m not going to list all 32, here are just a few that, though they may seem obvious, are important and often overlooked:
- Be concise and to the point
- Use proper spelling, grammar and punctuation
- Make it personal
- Do NOT write in capitals
- Use a meaningful subject
The Subject Line
One of the most important parts of an e-mail is the subject line – after all, this is what ultimately brings your recipient to actually open the e-mail. However, the subject line must be carefully crafted to avoid spam filters or being marked as spam by the recipient.
There are a lot of words and phrases that can trigger spam filters. Here, I’ve picked out a few that I think are more likely to be used in a college marketing e-mail, taken from a few different websites*.
- Act Now! – Affordable – Opportunity
- Time limited – Apply Now – Click here
- Visit our web site – Free, free gift, free info – Limited time offer
- You’ve been selected – Info you requested – Help
- Percent off – Reminder – Extra exclamation points
Usually if something seems too good to be true, it often is. A good example of subject lines can come from a simple newspaper headline. A journalist will take a key point from the story and shorten it to a few words, intriguing the reader to engage in the article. It works the same way with e-mail – grab the attention of the reader, then engage them in your e-mail message.
Who is the e-mail from?
Almost or just as important as a subject is the line that tells the student who it came from. Students want to know what they’re opening, so identifying yourself is an important step in order to decrease the risk of being marked as spam.
As a college or university, your e-mails should show that they are coming from an individual person at the college, or the college name itself.
Though it may seem like a lot, just a little extra effort spent on crafting e-mails for your campaign can work wonders for your open and click through rates.
* Trigger words taken from www.mequoda.com and www.internetbasedmoms.com
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posted by Erica on January 18th, 2010
Posted in Admission | No Comments » |