Preview
For more information about the Food and Drug Law Institute, visit www.fdli.org.
Brevity is the soul of a recent NYN email marketing success
Research has shown that managerial professionals take less than three seconds to determine whether to read an email, and will lose interest in a message after less than 30 seconds.
So when the Food and Drug Law Institute (FDLI) hired Next Year's News to persuade attorneys and federal regulators to attend their 2010 Annual Conference, crafting very short, compelling email messages was mission-critical with FDLI's target audience.
Making it even more mission-critical was that NYN had less than 60 days to help fill the meeting hall with attendees.
This year, staff changes and a maternity leave left FDLI without the in-house personnel that usually handled promotion of the annual conference, making the situation challenging. With two months before the meeting, a print-and-mail strategy was out of the question. However, initial conversations with FDLI revealed a number of marketing strengths that NYN could leverage in developing an effective email and ad campaign.
FDLI's chief advantage was that their meeting had a firmly established brand that was widely recognized — and highly regarded — by their target audience. The Institute also had a well-managed database, including email addresses for the majority of their contacts. A professional weekly periodical popular with FDLI's target audience was able to provide advertising space on short notice. And the graphic design for the year's meeting was already in place and could be swiftly repurposed for use with new messaging.
NYN set to work immediately to draft a formal situation analysis, budget and strategic messaging plan for the annual meeting marketing. With time of the essence, email would be the heart of the marketing strategy. NYN developed a campaign theme to be used on every message — "The ONE event for all things FDA" — and, in collaboration with FDLI's in-house designer, created a series of time-coordinated emails and ads to get the word out about the upcoming event.
To overcome "email ADD" among FDLI's potential attendees, five messages were drafted, each designed to address ONE clear benefit of attending. Emails featured an immediate call to action following the opening headline and links to online registration repeated throughout the email. The few details that followed in the email emphasized the most compelling features of the meeting in a way that illustrated the primary benefit presented in the headline.
Each message was also designed to appeal to the motivations of those most likely to respond at the time each message was received. An early-bird deadline notification led the group, alerting the cost-conscious that time was of the essence; in turn, the final message featured an appeal targeted to perpetually over-stressed procrastinators. Concurrently, ads featuring the primary appeal ran in the newsweekly read by potential FDLI attendees, which reinforced the regular email messaging.
The result? FDLI met their target attendance — and had attendees who were eager for the event — by the time the meeting started!
