Behind the Inbox: How We Do Email Marketing
at Evidence Based Education
Ever wonder how successful marketers actually use email marketing day to day? I sat down with my line manager Alex Turnbull Head of Marketing and Communications at Evidence Based Education, to look into the real world strategies that keep emails engaging and effective, especially when your audience consists of busy educators.
From growing a responsive email list to crafting high performing messages. We talked through what actually drives results in email marketing, especially when time and attention are limited.
Tell me about your role and how email marketing fits in your role at Evidence Based Education.
I am the Head of Marketing and Communications, and email marketing is a big part of my role. Since our customers work in schools, it's hard to find time for calls during the workday. Email is the most effective way of getting through to potential customers, existing customers and that plays a big part in our marketing. A large part of my role involves generating leads and nurturing them through email marketing workflows. This helps us efficiently funnel prospective customers towards our products and services.
What are the most effective strategies for attracting new email subscribers without relying on paid ads?
When it comes to growing our email subscriber list at Evidence Based Education. We've found that freemium content is one of the most effective strategies and this seems to be particularly true in the education sector.
By creating valuable educational resources like webinars and eBooks, that we offer for free, we're able to attract a significant number of new leads. For example, our Great Teaching Toolkit Evidence Review report was accessed and downloaded by over 250,000 people. This gave us detailed contact information on a quarter of a million potential customers.
Compared to paid advertising, this type of lead generation through freemium content has been far more successful for us. We simply don't see the same results from investing in paid ads, likely due to the nature of the education market we serve.
The key is developing content that is genuinely useful and relevant to your target audience. By providing value upfront, without requiring a purchase, you can organically grow your email list with qualified leads who have already demonstrated an interest in your brand and offerings.
How can marketers keep their email list engaged and prevent subscribers from losing interest over time?
I think it's probably a combination of two things.
The first is all about proper list segmentation and targeting. When people sign up for our emails, we collect information about their job role, seniority level, and other relevant details. This allows us to avoid sending irrelevant content.
For example, we know that emails about topics like performance management are typically more useful for senior educators rather than classroom teachers. By segmenting our list accordingly, we can ensure we're delivering content that aligns with each subscriber's interests and needs.
Relevance is crucial for keeping people engaged. Even the best email marketing strategy will fall flat if you're bombarding subscribers with content that doesn't resonate with them.
The second important thing to do is you need to review the emails that you're sending to see how people are engaging with that email. You might have perfect segmentation. But if the subject lines aren’t engaging, click-through rates are low, and unsubscribe rates are high. Then there’s likely an issue with the email content itself.
What are the key elements of a high-performing marketing email? Any common mistakes to avoid?
We've found that open rates and click-through rates are two of the most important indicators of email performance.
For open rates, we've learned that specific, relevant subject lines tend to perform much better than generic "clickbait" style subject lines. In the education sector, subject lines that directly reference topics like "assessment" or "curriculum" tend to resonate well with our segmented audience.
The goal is to craft a subject line that immediately signals relevance and value to the recipient. Vague or sensationalised subject lines may get attention, but they're unlikely to translate into meaningful engagement.
When it comes to click-through rates, the key is striking the right balance. If your email content is too sparse with the call to action buried you probably won't see many clicks. But if you overload the message with too much information, you risk overwhelming the reader and obscuring your desired action.
The ideal is providing just enough context and detail to pique the reader's interest, without going overboard. And of course, your call to action should be clear, compelling, and easy to act on.
These are the types of nuances we're constantly refining in our own email marketing efforts. It's an ongoing process of testing, measuring, and iterating to identify the right formula for driving the results we want.
How do you determine the right balance between sending enough emails to stay top of mind but not so many that subscribers feel overwhelmed?
This is a really tricky thing to do because some people are much more responsive to emails. Some people aren't. I think there isn't a single formula that you can follow that says you should email once a day for a week and then once every two days or so. It really comes down to thinking about what a sensible plan looks like for your situation.
You have to put yourself in your subscribers' shoes. We're all customers of other businesses, so we know what it feels like to be on the receiving end of an overwhelming email onslaught. Use that perspective to guide your own email strategy.
Then review your data. If you decide email once a day is a method that you want to use, but then you have high unsubscribed rates on email two or email three. You might then look into that and think, is that because of the frequency or something else? When someone unsubscribes, you can ask why, it could be something as simple as how often you’re emailing.
Typically, we send a product focused email around once a fortnight, and in between, we’ll share something valuable like a tip, resource, or guide. It’s all about mixing it up. We know what our customers enjoy receiving, and we also know what we need to promote. So, by alternating between helpful content and product emails, we keep things engaging without overwhelming people with constant sales
How can poor email design negatively impact engagement, and what are some best practices?
When we’re putting together an email, the first thing we always ask ourselves is: What’s the purpose? Why are we sending it, and what do we want people to do?
For example, if the goal is to get someone to read a blog post, we need to make sure the email supports that one action. It's easy to overload the top of an email with links or distractions but that just pulls attention away from the main goal. And considering most people spend just a few seconds scanning emails. Your key call to action needs to be visible quickly, ideally without scrolling too much on mobile.
If your button is buried halfway down or right at the top with no context, the chances of someone clicking drop significantly. It's about finding the right balance: give just enough info to spark curiosity and encourage a click, without overwhelming them or hiding the action you want them to take.
Design matters too. Emails with lots of images might look great until they don't load. Then all your reader sees are broken boxes, which doesn’t exactly build trust. That’s why keeping things clean, simple, and mobile-friendly is key.
At the end of the day, your email should answer two questions within seconds: What is this about? and What do I do next?
If you enjoyed this interview and want more behind the scenes insights. Check out my previous conversation with the CEO of my workplace on How to Create a Supportive Work Environment, and trust me, it’s not your typical corporate fluff!