How to use email marketing

Why should I use email marketing?

It's important to think of email marketing as just one element of the marketing mix – to use it alongside other channels, not in isolation. It can be a great way to reach people that are interested in your work, and form/strengthen the relationships you have with them. 

Email marketing can be a great way to:​

• Encourage people to act – e.g. sign up to events, share views, or download reports​

• Keep people up to date with news, new publications, advice and information, events

• Drive traffic to your website where they can find out more

Who can I email?

GDPR means that you need to have active consent from someone before you're able to email them. ​Take a look at our guidance on GDPR.

Here's how you can build your mailing lists:

• Encourage people to sign up on social​ media.
• Promote the signup form on your website​.
• Contact people on your database to ask them if they'd like to hear more in the future​.
• Ask other local organisations to promote your work e.g. social media and/or include in their own newsletter via their channels .
• Add it onto your form when you are out engaging people at events. Ask them if they want to stay in touch and sign up to your newsletter.

Top tips

Make your copy simple and engaging

• Your email should always have a purpose and have a clear call to action. It should be obvious to the reader what you want them to do with the information that you're sharing with them.
• Short summaries that link through to articles and other content on your website work well. They also: ​

1. Increase traffic to your site.
2. Let your subscribers easily share your content via social media, helping you reach larger audiences.
3. Make it easier to scan for those who are reading their emails on mobile or tablet devices.

• Making it short and visually engaging is key to keeping people's interest and getting them to take the action you want them to.

Consider the frequency of your emails

• Make you don't email too often. Overwhelming people with emails can lead to them unsubscribing.​
• In our experience, once a week works well, with a mid-week email getting the best response with regards to open rates. Make sure you test this locally to see if it's the same for you. Different audiences may have different responses, so make sure you test against each audience.

Test test test

• As always, we suggest testing to see what works best for you. There are a few factors you can test when it comes to email marketing, including: 
   - the time of day you send the email
   - the day of the week
   - the subject line you use
   - the way content appears

Reuse your content 

• You can use the themes from your emails to theme your social media content. Use the short descriptions from articles for your social media posts.