Brand is one of the most important things for a marketer to consider, and as engagement strategies continue to evolve, it’s very important to seize every opportunity available to reinforce your brand to customers and prospects.
Email remains one of the best channels for developing a brand that is memorable and stands out in the minds of consumers. With that in mind, it’s critical to look at every email, whether it’s transactional or promotional, as an opportunity to tell your brand story and emotionally connect with your customers through repeated engagements.
Although getting the CTA (call to action) right is important and the ultimate end goal for readers, there are some additional elements to consider as you shape your email marketing campaign.
1. Personality
What is your brand’s personality? How can this personality be reflected in the tone of your email?
It’s important that messaging is aligned across all of a company’s communication channels. For instance, your verification emails need to adopt the same tone as your weekly or monthly newsletters.
The more layers of communication the better, but it will only be effective if the brand messaging is streamlined across each one. If your company seems to speak to customers with different personalities and tones of voice, depending on the channel, they are far less likely to remember your brand favorably.
2. Benefits For The Customer
Rather than feeling guilty for badgering your clients, use every email as a chance to reinforce the benefits of being your customer. For example, a simple receipt could remind customers of the value they’re getting from you.
In reality, everything you do as a company benefits the customer — that’s why you’re emailing them in the first place. So make sure your email clearly demonstrates those benefits, and remind them why they became customers.
3. Design
Templates can be great for helping to drive efficiency and consistency for your brand; despite this, templates are something many marketers put at the bottom of their agendas when managing email campaigns.
It’s always worth taking a step back and thinking, “Does this template really reflect the vision of our brand?” Here are some specific questions to ask yourself when considering brand design:
Is your email visually appealing?
Is it easy to digest?
Does it look clean?
The most important thing is that you reinforce your brand quickly, so the minute the recipient opens the email, he or she is aware of the company’s brand identity and message. The logo is the first thing your subscriber should notice, so make sure it’s well-positioned and eye-catching.
When it comes to fonts, email typography can be quite limited, so keep fonts as similar as possible to your corporate fonts. To use a very specific example, if your standard headline font is sans serif, use something like Arial or Tahoma. If your body copy font is a serif font, use Times New Roman or Georgia.
There are a limited number of cross-platform web fonts, so make sure your chosen font works across multiple clients over email.
Lastly, use imagery and colors that visually reinforce your brand. This is a simple and effective way to draw in your readers and remind them of your brand’s image every time they receive an email from you.
4. Think About All Devices
When it comes to email, one size doesn’t necessarily fit all. Amid the growing number of digital platforms that come in every shape and size, you can’t always predict which device your recipients will be opening their emails on.
However, despite the need for subtle differences in how your email displays from one device to another, the brand identity must stay consistent. It’s important to make sure the design of your email evokes the same connection to your brand on mobile as it does on a desktop or tablet.
Since a large proportion of your customers are probably viewing emails on mobile phones, it’s really not enough to check that the email appears on mobile devices; it needs to be driving the same value.
So before you hit the send button on your next newsletter, stop to think about the messages you’re trying to communicate. Think about the content and delivery to ensure you’re creating a meaningful connection that draws new customers to the brand and strengthens existing relationships so that those consumers become long-term, trusted brand advocates.
Remember, it isn’t just about sending emails — it’s about engaging people.
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