Newsletters are a great way to keep in touch with your customers, but if you don’t have exciting or interesting content to share, it can be extremely difficult to get them to read your blasts. Sometimes, the trick is to create intense and creative short-term campaigns that are designed to engage and inform your customers. Gaiam, the popular fitness and wellness brand, achieved just that with its 30-day Connect 2 Happiness campaign. In addition to playing off of subject matter that appeals to a wide audience, the challenges keep readers interested on a daily basis. Here’s why it works.
Engaging Topic that Piques Readers’ Interest
In addition to the appeal of the overall “Happiness” theme, each day’s email begins with a single sentence invitation to explore the day’s challenge. The obscured image and the often mysterious or puzzling message encourages readers to learn more about the day’s topic, while the clear call to action of “Click Here” tells readers what to do in order to learn more.
Visually Appealing Landing Pages
Once the email is clicked, the reader is redirected to a visually appealing landing page that changes according to the day’s challenge. This is where the day’s challenge is explained and readers are prompted to face the challenge. It always features eye-catching, high-res photos and an easy-on-the-eyes color scheme — both of which act to keep the reader engaged and reading.
Inherently Shareable Content
The challenge itself is always something unique and worth sharing, and so is the daily quote that accompanies it. So much so, in fact, that the Gaiam Team has made sure to include social share icons, making it even easier for readers to pass the challenge along to friends, co-workers and loved ones. Not only does this spread the Gaiam message, it spreads awareness about Gaiam as a whole.
Encourages Readers to Explore Further
Of course, it doesn’t do much good to have a base of readers who aren’t being converted into customers. To facilitate that final step, the blasts often include an invitation to watch a documentary or video that complements the email’s message. If the blast is about the importance of de-stressing, it’s accompanied by a link to a yoga video. If it’s about reconnecting with the earth, as seen above, it’s accompanied by a link to a documentary about the very subject. By linking to videos already in Gaiam’s collection, the email serves as an invitation for readers to test-drive the Gaiam TV service for free and, if they’re happy, to sign up for the service on a monthly basis.
Still working on an effective email marketing strategy for your brand? Find more inspiration in our email marketing guide.
