As I wrap up my internship journey with RMG, I can’t help but reflect on the whirlwind of creativity and learning that has defined my experience. Throughout my summer internship, I have specialized in creating and scheduling campaigns for email deployment, helped to manage our CRM and keep it up to date, researched top prospects to provide our sales lead with crucial information, and met incredible people in the marketing world. My role has allowed me to dive deep into the field of multi-channel content publications. From crafting compelling content to analyzing campaign metrics, I’ve had the opportunity to witness firsthand the power of email marketing in driving engagement and growth. Join me as I share the insights, challenges, and future trends I’ve discovered in this dynamic field and how they have tied to my undergraduate marketing studies.
About Me
Before I continue, a quick introduction of myself. My name is Jackson Bihun, I am currently heading into my senior year at the University of Illinois where I study Marketing and Information Systems. It feels like just yesterday I was a freshman trying to find classes–now, I’m less than a year away from graduation! Though it’s stressful to think about life after postgrad, this experience with RMG has eased that stress and has brought me much excitement for my future. I have worked with RMG for two months now and have had an incredible experience with knowledge that has expanded my college education.
Building a Successful Email Campaign
Being young means I’ve accidentally signed myself up for every email marketing campaign from every store, business, and restaurant you can imagine–though I never truly understood the power behind those emails. From my understanding throughout my internship, creating a successful email campaign involves a blend of creativity, strategy, and analysis. Through my time, I’ve had the chance to dive deep into this process, especially through my work with Mailchimp (RMG’s email marketing platform), where I explored multivariate testing to optimize our email performance. These tests let you try out multiple variables in your email and test out how small changes can improve engagement with the audience.
Subject Line
The subject line is the first thing your audience sees, and it can make or break your email’s success. I experimented with various subject lines using Mailchimp’s multivariate testing feature. By tweaking elements like wording, length, and tone, the subjects can then be tested to determine which resulted in higher open rates.
→ Check Out Mailchimp’s Best Practices for Subject Lines.
Call-To-Action
The goal of any email is to drive action. In my time in school I’ve learned about the idea of Call-to-Actions (CTAs), but I’d never had first hand experience with their importance. Clear and compelling CTAs are crucial for driving action. They need to stand out visually, use action-oriented language, and create a sense of urgency. In my time working on emails, I’ve observed that less is more for a CTA. They should be surrounded by some white space with a contrasting color and shorter words. The content I created had clearly-worded, brand-aligned, CTAs that tried to best catch the audience’s attention.
→ Explore This CTA Guide from Email on Acid.
Email Design
During my internship, I focused on creating email templates that highlighted key metrics and messages for our audience. Though these templates were important for clean and visually-appealing emails, I learned that audiences are now increasingly skimming content rather than reading it in full. I found that placing key highlights or metrics at the very top of the email was effective in getting straight to the point. For instance, I created highlights from case studies that showcased impressive results right at the beginning. This approach was enticing for readers to engage with the content.
→ Read Tips from Adobe on Compelling Email Design.
Tracking Email Success
As I mentioned earlier, I have had a problem with signing myself up for random marketing campaigns. I’ve noticed some emails grab my attention while others get lost in my abyss of an email inbox. I now understand why I couldn’t resist spending $100 on those Nike shoes after seeing one of their promotional emails–it’s all about nailing the art of boosting the open rate and click-through rate (CTR). Though I already mentioned my insights into building a successful email campaign, these metrics tie directly into components of emails that can improve each metric.
→ Check out Mailchimp’s Guide for How to Create a Successful Email Campaign.
The higher the open rate is, the more likely the email was successful. This open rate success can come from the subject lines, personalization, optimized send times, and more. From what I worked with, Mailchimp’s multivariate testing was the strongest way to identify the best formula of these aspects in the email. I recognized the strength behind this tool as I built the emails. Even with this powerful tool, forming creative subject lines, content, and strong personalization is important as these are the items that will be tested.
→ Read How to Create High‑Performing Email Campaigns from Mailchimp.
As I progressed through the creative side, I was also tasked with cleaning our email audience and CRM to remove bounces or inactive subscribers. I went through a process of reviewing the contact information to see if it could be fixed, or finding a new contact for our client. This was incredibly important to the open rate as any company wants to ensure the outbound emails are being sent to an active audience to help maintain a high open rate.
→ Explore Salesforce’s Email Best Practices.
When it comes to the click-through rate of an email campaign it is all about the effectiveness of your content and CTAs. When buying my Nike shoes I was influenced by their 20% off promotion and the CTA placed right below the picture of the shoes. Though I think my new shoes are awesome, I likely would have never bought them if I hadn’t seen the eye-catching email that led me to click and then purchase them. As I created content for RMG, I acknowledged the impact of creating compelling content that would persuade our audience to click.
→ Check Out 15 Ways to Improve Your Email Click‑Through Rate from Mailchimp.
Final Thoughts
The email campaigns I created while working for RMG were all similar as the content consisted of case studies of past work. As I created emails, I also was building multi-channel assets for LinkedIn and their website. These assets were also focused on case studies and followed similar touchpoints. As I reflect on the work I have done, I have recognized the importance of having cohesive marketing efforts that create a customer journey that is consistent and gives the same look and feel across all channels. Moving forward in my career, I have gained valuable insights into the world of email marketing:
- Crafting an email involves a blend of creativity, strategy, and analysis.
- The subject line is the first thing your audience sees, and it can make or break your email’s success.
- Clear and compelling CTAs are crucial for driving action.
- Audiences are now increasingly skimming content rather than reading it in full.
- Regularly updating your audience to prevent bounces is incredibly important for email success.
As I wrap up my time with RMG, I am forever grateful for the experience and knowledge I have gained in the marketing world. My experience with email marketing has led to my appreciation of crafting an email. From crafting catchy subject lines to optimizing key metrics, every element plays a crucial role in developing the perfect campaign.
To the RMG team, thank you for your support and guidance, and a special thank you to RMG’s Chief of Staff, Celina Yosri, for the mentorship through this incredible experience. To any fellow marketers, I may be a senior in college, but I can’t underestimate the power of a well-timed, personalized email. And to anyone reading this, next time you find yourself scrolling through your email inbox, just know that there is a dedicated marketer behind the scenes making that magic happen, or in this case a summer intern trying to learn his craft.