There’s Still Time: 5 Tips to Score a Winning Email During the World Cup
The whistle will blow in just a few weeks, and the soccer extravaganza, the biggest show on earth, will kick off. There's still time for your emails to stand out among the competition and for your brand to get noticed, no stress required. Are you ready for instant gratification and increased engagement? One, two, three, go!
We all know by now that the World Cup is happening from November 20th to December 18th in Qatar. While this may be the 22nd edition of this soccer extravaganza, it’s the first ever to be played in the Arab world.
As we approach kickoff, accelerate your email campaigns with these five tips.
#1 – Realize the power of real-time
Standing out among the crowd as marketers increase their email activity around the competition is a daunting task. Add to that the fact that, for the first time ever, The World Cup clashes with Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Retail brands are already planning a flood of emails around the matches. And that is why real-time content is key. It is the most effective way to grab attention with highly relevant content in the moment.
Web-slicing content allows for real-time updates on match scores and progress live on the email your subscribers open. Additionally, for instant gratification and increased engagement, consider asking subscribers to “vote” for their favorite products, players, or teams to receive promotions, offers, and more follow-up campaigns.
#2 – Encourage interaction
Speaking of voting – trying it out in your email campaigns is a great marketing technique! You can easily entice your audience to interact with your email and content as it relates to the World Cup. Quizzes testing your subscribers’ knowledge about FIFA and the World Cup or their favorite team are great to get users hyped up and excited for the tournament.
Additionally, the use of interactive promotional messages – like an offer reveal or the gamification of email content will further increase email interaction and engagement and play into the overall theme of the biggest international sporting event.
#3 – Add email skin to templates
Don’t know where to begin and already have the next two months of campaigns mapped out? That’s okay – you can still promote the World Cup in every email you send throughout the tournament. Rather than dedicating several messages and campaigns to the World Cup, consider adopting a template skin between November 20th and December 18th.
For instance, update your email header and footer with colors, icons, and a style that feels very World Cup-ish. A temporary email template makeover that can be used for all campaigns during the month of the tournament may be all you need to convey your support.
#4 – Think “multi-channel”
Some of the most successful campaigns in World Cup history have leveraged multiple marketing channels together. Consider using your social media channels along with email to provide additional content or promotions shared in email – or vice versa. Invite email subscribers to share offers on social media for additional discounts and entice them to use unique hashtag mentions to extend brand reach.
Additionally, social media and paid search can help drive email sign-up by communicating potential offers, promotions, and exclusive content only shared via email during the tournament.
#5 – Create amazing content
Die-Hard World Cup fans can’t get enough World Cup content – and it doesn’t end when the 90 minutes are up. Consider how you can deliver additional content via email during the tournament. Try sending out a new World Cup-driven newsletter that allows for exciting content that incorporates real-time updates, surveys, quizzes, and more.
Along with weekly sports highlights and daily newsletters, cultivate a large variety of content, such as:
Game highlights and stats
Unique content
Historic/archival content
Viral/UGC (i.e., user-generated content that has the potential to become incredibly viral)
Blog posts
Your email campaigns can differentiate you from your competitors and having something unique, different, viral, relevant, and exciting is what gets your subscribers to open your messages day after day.
One more thing you might want to check out before you “go forth and conquer” are our last-minute World Cup mobile app must-dos. Good luck!
Dana Shirlen leads Optimove’s internal email marketing agency as Director of Email Marketing. Dana has over 15 years managing the email marketing strategies of many recognizable global B2C and B2B brands. As the Director of Email Marketing, Dana is bridging the gap for Optimove’s customers in providing a data-driven marketing plan and timely implementation grounded in best practices, targeted content and visually engaging design. Prior to her role at Optimove, Dana managed the CRM and email marketing strategies for enterprise clients at Tinuiti. Dana holds a BS from Ohio University, with a major in Advertising Management and concentrations in both marketing and creative writing.
