Email Marketing Tips - No 4: Rentokil

Welcome to the latest instalment of Pure360’s fabulous free email marketing tips series. This time, I’ll be looking at Rentokil’s B2B “flood response” email. The first thing that struck me about this email was the length. It’s always best to keep things short and sweet - beware of treating email design in the same way as brochure designs or mail shots. Let’s break things down and look at the good, the bad, and what they could do differently in future...

The Good:

1.    Very well-timed email, as businesses across the north of England were bracing themselves for floods at the time it was sent.

2.    Very clear what subject the email is covering.

3.    Some good content with client experiences.

4.    Rentokil is a well-known brand, so people are going to inherently trust this message.

5.    Telephone numbers are plastered all over the place which should encourage a response.

The Bad:

1.    Way too long. When printed it runs to two pages and people will not read that much in an email. Think of emails as fliers, not letters.

2.    Poor overall design. The good content is hidden, and the CTA (call to action) is confused - do I call now or when I am already flooded?

3.    Too many conflicting design styles.

4.    With images blocked - as they will be by default on most email clients - the recipient is presented with the following view... (last image see below)

5.    Unfortunately, the email could be seen by some as profiteering from the misfortune of others.

6.    The industry membership logos would help to build additional trust, but they are hidden and too small.

7.    Sending an email to get people to call to request a card with the same contact details on is counter productive.

1.    Reduce the email size by at least 80%.

2.    Make it simpler e.g. “If you are unlucky enough to sustain damage as a result of the floods, call us.”

3.    The CTA should be “Click here for us to SMS you with our contact details so you have them to hand” as you then capture their mobile number as well.

4.    Design with the preview pane in mind.

5.    Make the client stories a bigger part of the message.

On the whole, B2B email marketers still view email marketing as direct mail without the cost of stamps, often using brochure designs or mail shots converted into HTML - this is not the way to maximise the effectiveness of the channel. For advice on email marketing solutions and how to best optimise your message for the right channel, get one of our experts to give you a call on the number at the top of this page.

Stay tuned to our blog for more free email marketing tips from Pure360, and feel free to post up your own opinions on any of the emails we feature as we always love to hear from you. If you’ve seen an email marketing campaign that you think would be an interesting case study, drop us a line here on the blog - or you can tweet us, @Pure360.