An effective campaign is one that gets a specific reader to do a specific thing: book the October stay, reserve a berth for Sailing Week, come into the shop before Carnival. Here is a method that works for businesses in Antigua and Barbuda, with three worked examples along the way.
1. Start with a single goal
Decide what one action counts as success. A villa company in Jolly Harbour might want direct bookings for the quiet weeks after Easter. A chandlery in Falmouth Harbour might want pre-orders before the April regattas. One goal keeps the email focused and makes the result easy to measure.
2. Choose the audience that can act on it
Send the villa offer to past guests who stayed in winter and have not yet booked again, not to every contact. Send the chandlery pre-order to boat owners and captains, not to shore-based locals. Mailpro’s segmentation tools let you build these groups from your own fields.
3. Write a subject line that states the benefit
“Your April week in Antigua, 15% less than winter” tells readers what they get. Avoid vague teasers and heavy use of capitals, which can hurt deliverability. Mailpro’s blog has tips on creating the ideal subject line, and a matching preheader adds a second line of context.
4. Design for a phone screen
Most readers, residents and visitors alike, will open on mobile. Use one column, large tap targets and compressed images. A single strong photo of Half Moon Bay or a yacht under sail does more than a gallery of ten. Every Mailpro template is responsive, and the button builder makes the call to action easy to find.
5. Personalise beyond the first name
Use what you know. A St. John’s electronics retailer can mention the branch the customer visits most; a resort can reference the room type a guest booked last time. Personalisation fields insert these details automatically.
6. Send when your reader is awake
Antigua and Barbuda runs on Atlantic Standard Time all year. For a list split between the islands, the US East Coast and the UK, consider sending separate versions at local morning times. Scheduled sending handles this without anyone staying up late.
7. Measure, learn, repeat
Check opens, clicks and bookings in Mailpro’s campaign statistics. If the villa email got clicks but few bookings, the problem is probably the landing page or the price, not the email. Test one change at a time.
Worked example: the pre-Carnival retail push
A clothing store in St. John’s wants more sales in the fortnight before Antigua Carnival, which peaks with J’ouvert on Carnival Monday and the parade of bands on Carnival Tuesday in early August. The plan: a first email three weeks out showing new arrivals, a second one week out with a time-limited discount code, and an SMS reminder the day before the code expires. Only local and resident contacts receive it. The code shows exactly how many sales the campaign drove.
The non-negotiables
- Mail only people who opted in, as the Data Protection Act, 2013 expects; see permission to send email campaigns.
- Include your business name, address and a working contact, in line with the Electronic Transactions Act, 2006.
- Make unsubscribing easy.
Back to the overview: email campaigns in Antigua and Barbuda.