Key points on creating promotional emails for employee benefit fairs. What details to include, when to send and how to get the highest employee turnout
Email is one of the best and most effective ways to promote an upcoming employee benefit fair. On the upside, the email message is instantly delivered and directed to the people who need to be informed, but the message can often be lost in the clutter of the work process.
Emails promoting a work benefit fair need to be sent out a number of times to employees to reinforce the message and the important details. The email must avoid becoming too persistent and then getting treated as spam and deleted. It is important that the date and location of the event is already decided before any emails are sent out. The information in the email messages must at least include key details such as event time, date and location. Material encouraging people to come to the fair is not required but, it is often recommended and would typically include a strong call-to-action and a compelling value proposition. Below is a list of all the information that should be included in an employee benefit fair email promotion, as well as when the emails should be sent out, who should receive the emails and advice on how to design the emails. A sample benefit fair promotion email is posted following the points made in the article.
Information to Include in an Employee Benefit Fair Promotional Email
Before any emails are sent out to employees, all logistical information regarding the times, date(s) and location of the event should be already decided. Benefit coordinators who change this information after sending out the first promotional email are seen as unorganized and unprofessional, unless their first email was in a save-the-date form. Changing logistical information after informing employees can lead to confusion about the event and may lead to a reduction in benefit fair attendance.
All details regarding when and where the benefit fair is taking place must be included in the emails and ideally this information should be written within the first sentence. If the location and time of the fair is mentioned in the first sentence of the emails, employees are more likely to remember this key information, because it is the very first thing they read. Also writing these details in the first sentence is great for mobile users who get emails as notifications on their cell phones, because the emails first couple of sentences are typically shown in the notification bar.
When To Send The Email
- Initial email - send the first email at least one month in advance. The email will let the employees know that the event is being planned and should come from a senior manager, that will provide a level of formal approval of the event that will also ensure the maximum exposure to employees
- Second email - send an email one week in advance of the event to create more excitement for the event and give more specific details about date, time, location and what the employees can expect and what they can get out of it
- Third email - send the third email on the morning of the benefit fair so that employees are reminded first thing on the day of the event. Some organizations have found it is better to send this reminder email out a day before the event, but each organizational culture is different
- Final email - send the fourth promotional email during the middle of the event to remind employees who have not yet attended the fair, to go and check it out
Who To Send The Email To
- Executives
- Management
- Employees
- Remote Employees
- Custodians
- Consultants and contractors
- Vendors
- Legal
What important Things To Include In The Emails
- Time and date of event
- Location
- Expected vendors
- Expected giveaways
- Free giveaways
- Other free services EG Flu shots