What Works in Email Marketing - a Case Study

I recently received a marketing email from Printing For Less (PFL), who I think runs a great organization – go learn about them if you don’t know them.

The email I received from them (shown below) was a great example of a well-written and well-executed email marketing piece.

I wanted to take the time here to outline what I think works well about it so you can learn something for your next email marketing campaign.

First, the following email was received from my inbox at my role with Insperity as a marketing supervisor.  The PFL email was likely intended for an in-house marketer who might partner with vendors to execute direct mail marketing projects.  So for audience targeting, PFL gets a thumbs up.

It’s now football season and PFL knows this so their email designed with two football helmets going head to head and each labeled with direct marketing tactics that sometimes compete against one another, was another win.  Plus, they color coded the messages in the body copy of the email to associate with each “team.”  This makes it very easy to scan and understand what’s going on.

What I love most about this email marketing piece is that its main focus is to educate you as the potential customer about the difference between Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM) campaigns and Targeted Direct Mail campaigns (both of which PFL can help you with).

The email doesn’t focus on the sale, but rather on building rapport and a relationship with me to help me understand what might be best for my marketing needs.  In that way PFL wins “points” of goodwill for being an informative advisor vs. a pushy sales person.

Beyond the email’s wonderfully short, educational descriptions of each marketing tactic and accompanying bullet points you can click through to their website to get far more information on EDDM and/or Targeted Direct Mail via PFL’s EDDM Success Kit or their Direct Mail Master’s Toolkit, both of which are free tutorials on their respective subjects.

Subtly, throughout the email – right at the top, near the final third of the email and again at the bottom – you see small sales calls-to-action to contact PFL to speak with a mailing expert or to get a quote, but these calls-to-action are not the main focal point.  They’re there and available if you’re ready for them, but PFL is not jamming it down your throat.

The fact that this email teaches me something and encourages me to get more in-depth knowledge by following their call-to-action tutorial kits takes me on a journey.  Along that journey I’m learning and building rapport and a relationship with PFL.  Even if I don’t buy today, you can bet if I have a need for a direct mail campaign and I am in the market for a vendor to partner with and help me execute it, PFL will be top of mind.

Posted By:  Nick Venturella

---

Get my best strategies in your inbox

---