Mixing Up Content Types In Your Emails
Pick and mix your content types in your emails
Your emails are valuable, but they can also be boring to audiences if they’re always seeing the same content type in every mail. If you want to truly maximise the success of your campaigns, you need to switch content types every so often to keep audiences interested.
In this article, we will be looking at what we mean by content types and how we can mix them up in emails to get better results.
What Do We Mean By Content Types?
Content types is the term used to describe different formats of information and how it is presented. There are several content types you can use. These are:
- Text
- Images
- Video
- Sound
Each of these content types can be used in various forms, sometimes on their own, and sometimes in combination. For instance, an infographic combines both text and images to create content that is highly informative, attractive, and shareable.
But a podcast can only utilise sound to deliver its core message.
Why Do You Need Different Content Types?
There are many reasons why you might want to use several content types in your email marketing. The first is for adjusting the campaigns to specific audiences. Different audiences prefer to consume content in different mediums and styles.
For instance, recent research into purchasing decisions between men and women have found significant differences. Women make 80% of the purchasing decisions in any given household. They are also more likely to be receptive of adverts with bright colours, unconventional fonts and varying shapes.
Men tend to prefer dark colours, lines and a sleek technical look.
But it isn’t just the look of content that’s important. The type of content is essential to gain maximum penetration of an audience. For instance, busy executives are more likely to want to watch something quick but informative.
However, those who are browsing online later at night might prefer something less noisy and want text with images.
Mixing It Up
Another reason why content types should be varied is to pique the interest of your audience. If audiences see text every week, they are quickly going to get bored. However, if you slip in a video, podcast, or image every so often, it helps to break the monotony and grabs the attention of the audience.
Another important point is that some messages are better conveyed using images than text. Other messages might need more, detailed information, so require text. So it also depends on the message you want to send.
Mixing Content Types For Better Results
Of course one of the best ways to ensure you are maximising the results of your email marketing campaigns is by using a combination of content types. Images can be used to articulate certain points that are difficult to understand.
A good, funny, cartoon sketch might be a great way to add some humour into a challenging topic.
Or you could use images/videos to quickly describe the main points of a message and then use text to go into further detail for those that are more interested using text.
The major point here is that everyone is different and while the majority of people prefer images against text – that isn’t always the best solution.
How You Can Reach Maximum Results
Your email marketing campaigns need to have the best content types to maximise returns. This sometimes means you need to use certain designs or content types to generate interest in your message, which can be based on your core audience.
However, using the same content type continuously can result in poorer results in the long-term. That’s why it’s important to mix up content types in emails to ensure your audience is paying attention.
What content types do you use in your email marketing campaigns? When was the last time you made a switch?
Let us know in the comments below.
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Upcoming Email Marketing Trends for 2014
With more people using smartphones to check email you need to have a mobile email strategy.
While there’s no magic crystal ball to predict exactly what’s in store for email marketing in 2014, we can make some educated guesses based on current trends.
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Keep the Clutter Out of Your Email Content
The difference between a salesperson and a savvy marketer is the way they deliver their message. The ultimate goal is the same across the board – to sell product, or promote the company – but the way each department ends up going about it can be quite different, or at least that’s been the case in my experiences.
Last spring, the retail sales division of the company I worked for approached the marketing department because they wanted to start a biweekly email campaign. That’s an excellent idea, I said. And all was well and good until the two departments sat down to discuss the contents of the email.
“We were envisioning an email that features about 20 different products, with pictures and complete descriptions, every two weeks. And a 700-word or so article. And a coupon. And maybe a video of a dancing cat.”
Several jaws hit the floor. One of our designers actually passed out. Many heads tilted in confusion.
“Well…we just love our product so much and we know our customers do too, so we want to offer them as much as we possibly can!”
Ah, and therein lies the issue. Being passionate about what you do is so important. Loving your company and what they offer is a great thing, and for certain something to be proud of. But if you try to show your customers too much at once, you will scare them.
Think about the last marketing email you opened in your personal inbox and actually spent time examining. Did it feature a multitude of images, three page scrolls worth of text and about 15 different fonts? Or did it feature a clean, dominate image, a small amount of catchy copy and worthwhile links?
There’s no real rule about the limit on the amount of email content. But, think about the things going into your email as actual objects on your desk. A few nice, well placed and helpful items are pleasant, and probably tools you’ll utilize (since they’re on your desk and all). However, the more items you add the more cluttered your desk becomes, and the less you’re able to prioritize and sort out everything that’s there.
If you feel like you have too much to say and not enough room to say it, make a list of everything you want to include. Read through it, and try to prioritize one by one. Is there anything that is timely and needs to be mentioned right away? Is there anything that relates to a current news item? What can I put into a blog post instead of this email (because links are your friend!)?
Don’t worry, you aren’t the only one who loves your company and wants to hear everything you have to say about it. But think of this email marketing relationship you have with your consumers like a real relationship – if you spill everything on your first date, there’s a good chance they won’t stick around for too long.
Photo: Puuikibeach, Flickr Creative Commons
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