Things To Consider When Writing A Teaser Email Campaign

So you have something new, a product, a new promotion, a new brand. Whatever you have is surely exciting and a bit further down the road for release. But why should you wait until release if you could build some momentum way before? Yes, teaser campaigns are a great tool, but wait, you probably have a tight budget, right? Well, it is time to be creative and think outside the box.

Every good marketer has a nice mailing list, so it is time to put to good use. Such teaser campaigns helps you create support and get some feedback prior to release as well. Here are some tips on how to get that done.

Confirm if a teaser campaign is what you need or if it is right for your business

• Do you have a story to tell?
• Will you have enough content to send out?
• Will you be able to manage the amount of content sent?
• Can you determine and manage subscribers?

When a teaser campaign is not well managed it can turn to a bad campaign and hurt your release. Make sure you have a nice story with support content to back you up

Determine what you want to achieve

This will depend a lot of what you releasing but you should have a clear goal ahead to align with the release. If you are releasing a new product you can target this goal to pre-orders. Video games are a great example: They release a lot of teasers before announcing the pre-order purchase availability. This will also help the company identify how many products should be ready for release as well.

Get your audience to take actions through the campaign. Drive them to a purpose.

Get a ‘killer’ subject

You want the readers to be eager when receiving your emails. Make sure you have a killer subject. Some thing unique that will catch the eyes and they will always look forward in their inbox every morning.  Some people use stars: **** SUBJECT HERE **** I am not a great fan since it marks your email as some kind of  SPAM, like those selling something to you, but this example shows you what can be done. Another few examples:

LinkedIn: uses your name as the first word on the subject of their emails. Personalized messages.

Joe Doe, get your free Premium subscription today!

WordPress: uses [ ] to notify you that new posts from your subscriptions are available.

[New Post] Is this a killer subject

Be creative, try to capture something of your new release that could be used. You do not want the reader to believe this is SPAM.

Get your story line straight

The first email should be clear of what your teasing. Make sure the reader knows what is coming: a new product, a new feature, a new accessory, a new website… Use the elements you have on your advantage to expose partially what is coming. You have to decide many things here as well. The way the story is revealed is key and many elements will be playing a big or major role.

First email should set the stage: with that in mind you have to set the tone, the visual, the content. The movie industry is good at doing this but the web also gives you plenty of great examples. Look at this great examples below:

On both of them you have a catchy title and the time frame, which could also be a date, but the clock is more exciting, like showing on the last one as well as a short description of what is coming, and you have the subscribe button on the last one.

Follow up emails: the goal is to keep the readers interested. Give something more, or even play around trying to divert the attention to something else. Making their guesses go under water on what is coming. Readers will try to identify what is coming and the game is on. If you divert partially what is coming you create more interest and makes them wonder what is really coming. Get your release and break into pieces. This will allow you to better manage the campaign.

The reader needs to believe he knows all when they only know parts of it. Think like a puzzle, pieces should be put together to complete the image. That’s what you want.

The last email: should be the EPIC email, you should give the reader that WOW feeling! Reveal what you have in the best way possible. Make sure you get the landing page ready, a Call To Action linked to it and offer something only early adopters will get. and do not forget to keep the interest and momentum you built. You can leverage this relationship built to build a strong brand recognition.

Remember, Design is crucial

I say that because there are many different email tools out there, being Outlook one of the most used ones. Some people like to use that half window view. Consider that when designing your emails. Here are 2 examples of views people like to use:

Planing upfront on the design can help stimulate the reader and make your campaign more successful. Also, keep in mind that some people setup their accounts without image views. yes, i am talking about that famous HTML view. You should consider the following formats:

• HTML
• HTML without images
• Plain text

You can drive your campaign without hassles if you use multi-part MIME format to switch to plain text, or use text more than images for the most important part of the campaign, like the first email to get traction. It is also good to consider having a secondary plan, like a landing page to drive those readers to the nice campaign you crafted if their emails are setup with some of the constraints mentioned above.

There you have it. I hope you find this useful!