How to Win the DMA Award for Email...EASILY (Well not that easily!)

The DMA’s Email Council was disappointed when we heard that the judges for the Best Use of Email category at last year’s DMA Awards were unable to award a Gold Winner. We questioned why and the answer was simple - that despite the long list of entries they just didn’t feel that any of the submissions were worthy of a Gold. What a shame, a missed opportunity to showcase some of the greatest email marketing campaigns in the UK, especially for a channel that boasts an ROI of 38:1

To mitigate this ever happening again we quickly set up the Awards Hub to help marketers understand better what specifically will help a submission win a Gold Award.

It's also worth bearing in mind that the 3 main criteria the awards are judged on - Strategy, Creativity and Results - are which email marketing lends itself extremely well to.

We know the submission deadline is just around the corner, but here’s a few last minute tips from past and current judges that might help you polish that entry before you send it in!

How to win to the Email Category

1. Think carefully about what you are putting forward. The judges are looking for examples of real email marketing innovation that genuinely raise the bar. If you’re simply executing well in line with established best practices, that’s a lot less interesting. Guy Hanson (GH)

2. Ensure you start with your objectives, set the scene well with a clear set of reasons (the why), the challenges you are looking to solve and how you are going to determine the campaign’s success or effectiveness. Komal Helyer (KH)

3. Use the kind of language that real people use. Many entries are submitted by the senders’ agencies, and they read like classic boilerplate agency speak - high on gloss, low on substance. The judges’ eyes are glazing over before they’ve even finished the campaign summary! (GH)

4. Use supporting material where relevant. We want to see examples of creative, segments used and definitions, journey’s built and technology that you have integrated to drive the campaigns success. Be as visual as you can to bring your campaign to life. (KH)

5. If your entry is one where the email channel forms part of a broader campaign, clearly identify the role email played specifically. It’s not the judges’ job to try and carve this out. If email’s role in delivering the performance is not clear, it will count against the submission. (GH)

6. Keep your submission succinct. The judges have upwards of 30 submissions to review, with a maximum of 10 minutes per submission. Judges will quickly lose interest if key facts aren’t shown, or they have to go looking for them! (GH)

7. Use real performance metrics. Judges aren’t interested in benchmarks or indexes - they want to see real uplifts, preferably quantified in financial terms. Remember this data is for judges eyes only, so there’s no reason not to supply the actuals (if they are known!). (GH)

8. We want to see the “so what”, increases in reach or increases in clicks and opens isn’t enough to get us excited. We want to see what impact your campaign has had on your audiences and marketing or business objectives. (KH)

What contributes to a less likely winner

There are a few things we see year-on-year that don’t help the judging process, here are a few:

1. No clear objectives for the campaign

2. No subject line

3. No link to creative

4. Creative supplied as static image - can’t drill into detail

5. Failure to show different versions when dynamic content is used

6. An unstructured, unmarked and confused submission

7. Video submissions that are over 60 seconds and are more like an advertorial than the summary of the submission

In conclusion

It’s not too late to submit your fantastic work, the judges are eager to award a Gold to the most deserving. However, ultimately the judges are looking for you to demonstrate how well you meet the Strategy, Creativity and Results criteria - so ensure your submissions have clarity and articulate well, using the above tips and hints, why your campaign is worthy of a Gold!

We wish you the best of luck, and go enter your awesome work here!

Author

Chris Barnett, 1973Ltd & Member of Email Council

Contributors

• Komal Helyer, Chair of Email Council
• Guy Hanson, Validity & Deputy Chair of Email Council
• Skip Fidura, DMA Awards Committee Member