How to Use Branded Email Marketing

Your company's branding is not its logo, but its fundatmental values and images in the minds of consumers.

Branded email marketing is one of the most overlooked ways of reinforcing a company's branding in interesting and original ways. As a cornerstone of most organization's marketing communications programs, email marketing presents branding opportunities and challenges that must be addresses as part of an overall brand strategy. Well-crafted emails are vital in creating positive consumer impressions of a brand, raising awareness among potential customers, and testing out new branding concepts in a relatively short-lived and flexible marketing medium.

Things You'll Need

• Email service provider, such as Constant Contact or AWebber
• Copies of company/organizational logos, saved in Web-appropriate size and format
• Web design software (optional)

Instructions

1. Develop a working statement of your brand. Think about and articulate what your brand stands for, how you would like customers to interact with your brand and what your core values as an organization are. In addition, write out a comprehensive list of what you consider essential to your visual branding, that is, how you visually present your brand to the world. List colors, images and, most importantly, a statement of your visual style, such as casual, classic or modern.

2. Develop an email template that is consistent with your visual branding. Keep the layout simple and easy to modify for particular types of email messages, such as special offers, email newsletters or order confirmations. Use Web design software, or pay the fee to have your email service provider build a template to your specifications. If your budget is small, you can modify an existing template offered by your email service provider for limited customization.

3. Develop an email marketing plan outlining the types of emails you will send, to which segments of your mailing list and on what time line. Ensure that a modification to your branded template exists for each type of email you will send. If landing pages (special pages for specific offers or topics promoted in your emails) will be a part of your email campaigns, ensure that they are visually in harmony with your email design.

4. Write copy for all of your marketing emails that reflects the values, style and tone of your brand. You may be tempted to alter the tone of emails to suit specific email types, and to some extent you can, but remember to remain consistent with your brand's image at all times. For instance, if you have a formal, traditional brand image, keep the tone of emails conversational, but avoid excessive humor and don't use slang or popular culture references that would conflict with your brand's image.

5. Focus many of your branding efforts on what are called event-triggered emails, that is, emails that are sent in response to certain events, such as placing an order. Make sure that these emails not only have visual branding, but also reflect your brand with the appropriate tone. These event-triggered emails may be the first point of contact a customer has with your email marketing messages, so ensure that they reflect your brand accurately, with the right values, attitudes toward the customer and approaches to engaging with customers. Make a good first impression with these emails to help ensure customer loyalty.

Tips & Warnings

• Many beginning business people naively assume that "branding" refers to putting your organization's logo on T-shirts and other merchandise, or using the same colors or images on all marketing collateral, and that, by analogy, branded email marketing means sending out emails with a logo on them. The term branding actually refers to developing what your brand means, and adhering to and expressing that meaning as a way to connect with customers. Bear in mind the accurate definition of branding before beginning any "branded" email marketing campaign.

References

• All About Branding: Finding the Big Idea That Defines You