5 Tips For Effectively Communicating With Teens Via Email Marketing

While teens may spend most of their time online on social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok, many are still using email to communicate professionally. Whether it be to discuss homework with their peers, ask their teachers and counselors a question, or get in touch with teen program advisors, 90% of teens and college students are active email users. So the question is, are your email marketing initiatives resonating with teens? More importantly, are your emails effective at garnering interest in your teen enrichment program from your target audience? If not, check out the 5 tips to better communicate with teens through email marketing below.

1. Segment Your Email Marketing Contact List

The first tip begins before we even get into the actual email. Email marketing is only successful when your email list is optimized to send the right message to the right person at the right time. The general rule of email marketing (and all marketing) applies here: the more relevant your message is to your target audience, the more likely they are to take action. That means rather than sending out an email to all teenagers on TeenLife, segment your list to match up your program with their interests, activities, and hobbies. It'll do wonders for your open and click-through rate. 

For example, say you have a STEM summer program and a theater arts summer program. Do you think arts students would find information about STEM programs relevant to their career path? Of course not! Be sure to segment your lists so that you can reach your best-fit audience with the most relevant and interesting information that they’ll actually want to know.

2. Use an Attention-Grabbing Subject Line 

The next part to developing an effective email marketing campaign is to create an eye-catching and worthy-of-opening subject line. No matter how good your email is, it won't matter if no one actually opens it. Open rates are often influenced by three factors: personalization, expectations based on previous knowledge, and an exciting subject line. The first one can be easily accomplished by sending the email from a personal account rather than a company account (such as info@company.com). The second is entirely dependent on your previous engagements with the reader, so let's focus on the last one: the subject line.

Believe it or not, you should spend a large chunk of your writing time just on the subject line — it's that important. Keeping it short (a rule of thumb is 50-60 characters) is crucial. This is because approximately 49% of emails are opened on a mobile device. Therefore, the smaller screen size causes long subject lines to get cut off.

Additionally, the subject should be as relevant as possible, letting teens know exactly what to expect. That means you can’t promise free tuition in your subject line and then the body of the email states that there’s a tuition fee for all programs.

3. Keep Your Email Marketing Messaging Short

Attention spans on (and off) the internet are famously short — and that's even more true for teenagers. Studies show that people focus on internet content for several seconds. That’s right, seconds. This means you have to get to the point and draw attention to your call to action as quickly as possible in your email marketing efforts. 

Rather than use a few paragraphs to introduce your programs, use just a couple of sentences or bullet points to highlight the most important parts of your email. Long-winded emails will bore the reader and will make them click out of the email. Therefore, remember to only use the highest impact sentences to get your message across and drive the reader to complete the call to action.

4. Make Your Email Visually Appealing and Functional 

An important part of keeping your audience interested is, naturally, by making the email interesting. Relevant pictures of past programs, preferably with relatable people (i.e. teenage participants) in a good mood, along with a neat design can make all the difference in your audience following through and boosting your click-through rate. 

But keep in mind to not overdo your email marketing with too many images. It’s best to have an attractive email header image at the top of the email with the body of the email to follow. Then, place the call to action, typically a button, at the bottom of the email. Be sure that the call to action is bold, easy to read, and functional. The last thing you want to do is forget to include the link the button will take the readers to!

5. Make Your Email Shareable

It’s no secret that teenagers use social media to communicate with their peers. So take advantage of it! Adding 'Share' buttons for the major social networks allows your audience to let their friends know about the program you're promoting, opening up an entirely new audience of potential registrants. This is also a great resource for teachers and counselors to share your message with their peers and students whom they believe would benefit from your program. 

Final Thoughts

Email marketing is the key to promoting your teen enrichment programs to your target audience. TeenLife can bring you high-quality leads. You can then leverage these leads to market your programs to those most likely to become applicants. Reach out to us today to get started.