Ten email tips

• Keep it really short. Aim for less than 150 words.

• Focus on the subject and first lines– which are the only things people will see if they are using Outlook. This is often where emails get pruned.

• Incorporate email collection into everything you do – petitions, events, anything you can think of. Building a good email database is difficult – but the payoffs are great.

• Ask people to do you a favour. People read their emails because they are interested in what you’re doing. They will actually do you a favour without incentives.

• Don’t create a ‘newsletter’ that’s just a bunch of stuff. Have a single purpose in each email that you’re trying to drive people to do – such as signing friends up to a petition.

• Use a good email programme to track who opens your emails and what they click. You can then send follow ups to your most enthusiastic supporters.

• Test your emails before sending them – what looks nice on screen can look horrible in somebody’s Gmail or on their Blackberry.

• Pictures aren’t always necessary. But a good photo in the right place potentially serves the same function as in a newspaper, that is to sum up the story in an emotional and human way.

• Relentlessly interrogate whether your email is relevant to your audience. It might be a serious, long email. But if it’s relevant people will read it.

• Never, ever spam people. At best you’ll drive away people who you’ve carefully recruited. At worst you’re creating a nasty reputational (and possibly legal) problem for yourself.


Credit due to Blue State Digital’s guide, numerous emails on the E-Campaigning Forum and MailChimp’s guides. Also inspired by great emails by Avaaz, Amnesty, Obama and advice from my colleagues on the Lib Dem Hearts & Minds sub group of the Technology Board.