Building a Successful Email Campaign for a Scientific Audience

By Stuart MilneDec 18 2018Reviewed by Ben Stibbs-Eaton

Image Credit: Sammby/Shutterstock.com

In a previous article, we discussed how effective newsletter marketing can be at reaching a scientific audience. In this piece, we are going to put this under the microscope and see what is involved in building an email.

We have all received poorly designed emails that are quickly deleted or redirected straight to the spam folder. Unfortunately, the online world is saturated by emails offering click-bait. As experienced online users, most of us have learnt to see through these hatchet attempts to earn our time and trust. However, these emails have made it increasingly difficult for honest marketing professionals to gain the illusive click.

How to Earn the Click!

We use the term ‘earn’ because that is exactly what marketing professionals are tasked with. Gaining a click is no different to building a report with a prospective client. What are you going to offer that proves your worth?

A successful email campaign can be broken down into three key aspects:

1. Capture
2. Convince
3. Close

Capture

AZoInsight: Personalized subject lines generate 50% higher open rates¹

‘Capture’ covers the subject line and opening gambit.  This is how you seize the interest of the email recipient.

This is your first opportunity to engage with the individual and earn their trust by providing something valuable and enticing. In this example, we have used a large eye-catching image.

This captures attention and leads the recipient to the opening pitch or hook. In the case of figure 1: 3 steps to improve your engagement.

AZoTopTip

1. Don't use overused stock imagery
2. One big picture often works better than lots of smaller images
3. Use short titles that speak directly to the user's interests

Figure 1: 3 steps to improve your email engagement

Convince

Well done! You have gained the initial interest and earned trust. Now it is time to convince the individual to carry on reading your email.

The opening line must dive straight into what value the individual will gain from whatever it is you are offering them. In this instance, by following these three steps you can improve your email design for better engagement.

This section does not need to be chapter and verse, but remember, you contacted them not the other way around.

AZoTopTip

1. Make your body copy easy to scan
2. White space is very important for readability
3. Include links in the body that duplicate the CTA button

Close

The race is nearly over and the end is in sight. Be careful not to overlook this part of your email campaign. The temptation can often be to spend most of your time on the lovely opening graphic and text. The close is just as important.

There are numerous ways you can close an email. It is important to establish what the intention of the email is in the first place. Do you want people to click to another page? Do you want people to reply?

AZoTopTip

1. Avoid "read More" - focus on the value of the click
2. Don't ask for too much, make it an easy action to follow
3. Be concise and clear on how to follow through on the action

Whatever your intention, it will dictate the style of your close. It is about knowing your audience.

In the above example, we want to gain click-throughs. So, the final closing pitch is short and simple. “Improve My Email Design”.

AZoInsight: Instructional calls-to-action work better and see a higher CTR.

AZoNetwork curate and build customized email campaigns to target a highly engaged scientific audience. Our email team works directly with our clients to build successful email campaigns communicating content at the cutting edge of science.

At AZoNetwork we have been growing and nurturing our subscriber base from the very start, making sure we keep our subscribers engaged. In addition, our audience segmentation makes it easy to target the right audience for your application, without wasting money on subscribers who aren’t interested. If you’d like to find out more about how AZoNetwork can help you reach your target audience using our email service, please click the below link.

About AZoNetwork

AZoNetwork attracts over 85 million visitors per year from around the world. Our mission is to educate and inform a worldwide audience of researchers, engineers and scientists with the latest industry news, information and insights from the science industries.

Although the business has grown significantly to include a range of science, technology, medical and life science platforms, it has always stayed true to its principal aim:

We love telling science, technology and medical stories to people who can make a difference. Everything else follows from that.

Today we tell these stories across all digital platforms to a monthly addressable audience in excess of 5 million unique individuals.

Our customers come from all scientific, technological and medical sectors. Our extensive web footprint and subscriber base allows us to display a measurable return on investment to billion dollar multi-nationals and SME start-ups.

Find out more about our solutions here.

References

1. https://www.oberlo.com/blog/email-marketing-statistics