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Email marketing services like Constant Contact offer a number of useful features – tracking, contact management, list segmentation, and design templates, just to name a few. These are all great features. But that’s all they are – features. They don’t help you with marketing strategy or messaging. And their design templates can only take you so far toward ensuring that your company’s visual brand is reflected in your email messages.

First let’s talk strategy.

You’re a small business. Most likely you have better things to do than think about the marketing buzz word, “strategy”. Yes, you want to do email marketing. Maybe you’ve even tried it. But when you sit down in front of the computer you’re faced with quandaries like “what?”, “who?”, “how-often?”, “when?”, “what should it look like?” and “what happens if?” (Yikes! Right now you’re probably thinking “I’d rather be at the dentist.” ) This is where professional marketing brains can help. Solving these marketing quandaries is what we do. A marketing professional can take your email marketing to a whole new level of effectiveness.

On to messaging.

You’re a restaurateur, or an interior designer. Or maybe a professional hit man. (Good. You’re paying attention.) Yes, you’re articulate and a good writer, but you’re not a copywriter. Marketing copy is a special breed of language. Good marketing writing knows what’s in the mind of the reader. It anticipates needs and questions. It always asks for action and it has a voice that reflects your company’s personality. My favorite analogy is “Yeah, I can cook. But when I want a superb meal, I go to a restaurant.” A professionally written email message will polish your reputation, increase open rates, and get more people to your web site. Not to mention give you more time focus on running your business.

Aesthetics is just a fancy word for “really nice email!”

I’m a designer by training. And I’m a self-proclaimed design snob. I’m also a geek, therefore I divide email aesthetics into two categories: The first, and most obvious is visual design. Email marketing services have templates and “Wizards” you can use to build your email. In my experience these tools focus solely on making design easy, but fall down on making design good. Yes, you can get it done, but there are many time-sucking obstacles like fighting with your service’s poorly designed user interface, and making design decisions that – please excuse me for being blunt – are too often, well, they stink – and don’t look as good as they really could. Like good copywriting, good design provides polish that will make your email blasts more effective.

The second aspect of email aesthetics is one you don’t see. It’s the code. The guts of a fancy HTML email are complex – more complex than a standard web page because of the wild diversity of email client software. Even the best email marketing services’ “Design Wizards” do a C+ job of making emails look good. But a web design professional with email coding experience will make your email beautifully detailed, completely customized with your company’s visual brand, and it will look as intended in all email software versions.

Gee, this all sounds expensive.

Yes, hiring a professional is more expensive than the $15 a month you’re spending on an email marketing service. Most of the expense will be in the upfront cost of setting up your email marketing strategy and developing your custom HTML. But once you’re up and running there’s a lot you’ll be able to do yourself.

Step away from the computer.

You know that email blasts are a powerful marketing tool. You can do it yourself and get results. Or you can go back to running your business, hire us, and watch your emails resonate.

The other day John and I had lunch at the Cheesecake Factory in Chestnut Hill. If you’ve ever eaten at one of these cookie-cutter chain restaurants you’ve probably noticed that they run ads in their menus. It’s actually a good business practice because the revenue gained from ad sales is used to offset the costs of these full-color, ring-bound, laminated, 30-page extravaganzas. Most of the menu ads are mundane and uninspired, but that day, one ad caught my creative director eye.

The ad was for Coke and my immediate, out-loud reaction was “This is a wonderful example of contextual messaging!” Disinterested, my non-marketer, psychotherapist partner looked up from his own menu and suggested that I “Put in the blog.” I got the hint, shut up, and ordered my meal.

What the heck is “contextual messaging?”

There are many aspects to good creative. The most obvious being well-crafted strategy, copy, design, and high-quality production. One way good creative can become great creative is by employing what I call contextual messaging. Basically, it’s a technique that understands, and takes advantage of, the viewer’s surroundings at the moment they experience the message. When used skillfully, the technique combines marketing goals, media selection, and creative to produce a message that not only sells the product, but also entertains by recognizing aspects of the viewer’s surroundings. This ad for Coke is a perfect example of contextual messaging.

Coke ad in the Cheesecake Factory menu.

First off, the ad is completely Coke – It truly supports the brand with its clean, white and red design. The main image is a fire extinguisher with the Coke logo on it. The only copy is a headline – “Hot Cajun Jambalaya. Cool Coke.” (I’ll ignore the fact that the headline is in all lower case letters and followed by an “ah-duh” parenthetical statement. Hey, nobody’s perfect.) This ad refuses to be just another pretty lump of words and pictures. It actually becomes a partner in my dining experience, and in the process, inspired a smile.

Now for the icing on the cheesecake. It’s clear to me that the creative and media teams actually worked together to place the ad opposite Cajun Jambalaya listed in the menu – Freekin’ brilliant. Ok, maybe overstated, but I get excited about this stuff. You have to understand that in this age of glamorous broadcast and online media, innovative and thoughtful print creative is going the way of the dinosaur.
My hat is off to the team at Coke for creating such a great print ad. (And thank you for giving me a really good blog topic!) Oh yeah – Guess what I ordered? Yup. Cajun Jambalaya and a [Diet] Coke. Yum.

When I was about 15 my best friend’s mother asked me what I was going to do with my life – as if I would have any clue at that age. I told her that I wanted to be a writer, to which she replied “And how are you going to make a living Cheryl?” Well Mrs. Bingham, it turns out that I’ve made a pretty good living as a writer, thank you very much – albeit with some other skills adding to my marketability. The point is I’m first and foremost a writer. It’s what I do. And I do it for people who are not writers, who don’t like to write, who don’t have time to write and who need help writing. The second point is, if you’re not a dedicated writer like I am, and you need marketing communications written, you should probably engage a writer to get the job done for you.

Writing takes time.

Is there anything worse than trying to write when you don’t have time to write? Well, maybe but according to a lot of my clients, it’s a pretty stressful situation. So if your other responsibilities keep you doing the quick step, step aside and let a qualified writer write it for you. It will be better and faster – and you can get the other stuff done.

Everyone’s good at something; maybe it’s just not writing.

Over the years, I’ve worked with a lot of engineers, financial people, manufacturers and others who could wax eloquent about their chosen field – but only to an audience of people just like them. They found it nearly impossible to write about their field in terms that others could understand. So while you and your colleagues may have astounding capabilities as electrical engineers or be brilliant at estate planning, that does not mean you’re good writers. Enough said.

Why take the risk that it won’t be right?

I cannot count the number of times a client has come to me with self-written copy for an ad, a piece of collateral or a web site. I generally tell them that I can use the copy as direction but that I will need to apply my skills to their information in order for their communication to be effective. Some are offended; some are skeptical; most are grateful. Why? Because it takes the heat off.

After all, most marketing communications are done because of the need to sell something – quite often under adverse circumstances. So why would anyone take a chance on screwing up a chance to generate sales/leads? It really doesn’t make sense.

As a writer, I’m still amazed that other people aren’t as fond of the practice as I am. But I suppose CPAs might wonder why I’m not all that fond of numbers, too. So I try to strike a deal with my clients – I won’t practice marine research or sell floor coverings or develop any software if they’ll just let me do the writing. It works out well for all of us.