Teachers TV broadcasts a range of interesting and useful programmes for an audience in the education sector, over the Internet and on TV. Their bulk email marketing campaigns consist of a weekly newsletter, sent on a Monday. The email aims to make their audience of 100,000 school staff aware of the coming week's schedule, driving them to the website to watch programmes and encouraging participation in forum debates.

But with low open and click-through rates the newsletter is not generating the desired brand loyalty for Teachers TV. So how can it be improved?

Current Design

1. The first impression of this newsletter and its content is that it's a little crowded. There's a lot of text and it's heavily scattered with links hoping to draw users to the site. Unfortunately this creates a confusing mix of information which is likely to have just the opposite effect. Users won't know where to look or click first and you may lose their attention.
2. The personalized 'Dear X' is not necessary because there is no personal message to the recipient. As the main aim of Teachers TV's email marketing campaigns is to inform viewers about programming, a better use of this space would be a headline here, giving them an immediate, easily visible clue to the rest of the content.
3. On closer inspection, the 'Watch on TV' links all take the recipient to the same place - the TV Guide. This is confusing and could be frustrating because you can't, in fact, watch anything on that page. What you click should always be what you get - so if the link says 'watch' make sure the landing page is the actual video.
4. Information in a bulk email marketing campaign should be structured in an easily digestible way. Recipients seldom have the time or the patience to read lots of text - they tend to skim the headlines, so a lack of these could mean they are missing vital information. When writing headings, think about what's interesting and important to your audience.
5. Allowing recipients to download a schedule directly from the newsletter without even visiting the site is a key mistake. This is a major bulk email marketing tool that could be used to guide people onto the website. This pdf allows them to bypass the site completely.
6. Telling people they can comment is fine - but they haven't been given a reason to comment. Try to find something that will spark their interest, or even rile them so they feel impelled to make themselves heard.
7. The Heads and Governors feature is a little obscure. It's not clear why it's being featured, what it's about or why someone would want to watch it. The comment is rather general and uninformative too.
8. Finally a key player in improving open rates for this bulk email marketing campaign is the subject line and there is room for improvement here. 'Media Literacy - are you up-to-date?' may not be as clear to all recipients as it might seem. Asking a question is a good idea, but not all of them will be familiar with the term 'Media Literacy'.