What is an EDM? Email newsletters, explained

In much of Southeast Asia and Australia, a marketing email is called an EDM. Elsewhere people say newsletter, campaign or email blast. They overlap, but they are not quite the same thing, and the differences say something about how to send them well.

EDM, newsletter, email blast

• EDM stands for electronic direct mail: any marketing email sent to a list. An offer, an announcement, a newsletter.
• Newsletter is the regular one: news on a schedule that people signed up for, often weekly or monthly.
• Email blast means one email to the whole list at once. The word itself describes the problem: it hits everyone, whether it is for them or not.

What a good EDM has in it

• One main thing. A single offer or story people can understand from the subject line.
• A subject that says what is inside, not a riddle.
• Photos that link somewhere. In hotel and travel newsletters, the photo is usually what people click.
• Your own address in the From line, so it looks like you and inboxes trust it.
• A clear way out. An unsubscribe link, plus the one-click button inboxes show next to your name.

Blast or groups?

Some news is for everyone. Most offers are not. Sending each EDM to the group it suits is the biggest improvement most teams can make, and it is simpler than it sounds. Here is how to split a hotel newsletter into groups.

Words you will hear

• Open rate: the share of people who opened. Less reliable since 2021, when Apple Mail began loading images automatically for readers who use its privacy protection, which counts as an open whether anyone read the email or not.
• Click rate: the share who clicked a link. A better sign of interest, apart from security scanners that click everything.
• Bounce: an email that could not be delivered. Hard bounces are addresses that no longer exist; soft bounces are temporary, like a full inbox.
• Segment or group: a slice of your list, like past guests or people in one country.
• Sending domain: the domain in your From line. Ideally yours.

Vivre is newsletter software for hotels, villas and media outlets: describe a group in plain words, see how many people that is, and send from your own domain. See how it works.