Hide-and-seek email marketing

In a time where it’s a struggle to get people to read even the first few lines of an email, you’ve got to get creative if your emails are especially long.

Kathy Harms, Executive Director at Teen emPower!, has successfully implemented a sort of hide-and-seek to get her supporters to read through emails to get important information.

Teen emPower! is a non-profit founded by Kathy that’s dedicated to educating teens on their bodies, relationships and sexuality. In a state that has the second-highest teen birth rate in the country, her organization is making an effort to help teens build life skills and avoid bad situations.

Most of the funding for Teen emPower! comes from the organization’s yearly event – a trivia night. They get funds from table bookings, sponsorships, raffles and a silent auction. Since it’s such an important source of funding, it’s important that they generate as much interest and attendance as possible.

Kathy uses a unique approach with email marketing to make that happen. 

“If I have a long email,” Kathy says, “I’ll hide an answer or one of the trivia questions in the email.”

Kathy knows that people aren’t willing to read through extensive emails, so Kathy incentivizes them to do so. Thoroughly reading an email will get them a free answer to one of the trivia questions during the event. They could also get an extra raffle chance or door prize.

This strategy is effective in a couple of ways. First, it does find a way to keep readers engaged. While your situation might be different, any organization could use a similar incentive to improve readership. Second, the email strategy fits with the theme of the event. The event itself is a trivia competition, and the email strategy ties into that theme.

Think outside the box for your email marketing. And if you have a lot of information in emails, you might even consider using a hide-and-seek strategy like Kathy and Teen emPower!