Email Campaign Writer (AU)

When to use

Triggers:

• "Write a newsletter" / "Draft our monthly email"
• "Email campaign for [product launch / event / sale]"
• "Promotional email" / "Event invite"
• "Re-engagement email" / "Win-back campaign"
• Any AU SME emailing a list larger than ~200 contacts

Don't fire for:

• Cold outreach to new prospects (use au-cold-outreach-spam-compliant — different consent rules)
• Transactional emails (receipts, password resets, booking confirmations — different templates)
• Per-customer sales emails (use sales-specific skills)

Legal context (Spam Act 2003)

Even for existing-list emails, three rules apply to every send:

1. Consent — express (they opted in) or inferred (existing business relationship). For newsletter lists, confirm where they opted in.
2. Identification — every email shows the sender legal name + physical address + contact
3. Unsubscribe — functional for 30+ days, honoured within 5 business days, no hoops

Penalties: up to $2.2M AUD/day for serious breaches. Most AU SME campaigns clear these easily; check anyway.

See au-cold-outreach-spam-compliant for the full consent framework.

The 5 campaign types

1. Newsletter (monthly or fortnightly)

Purpose: stay top-of-mind, educate, build relationship. Not sell.

Structure:

• Subject: specific, not "Monthly newsletter — April 2026"
• Pre-header: ~50 chars expanding the subject
• One anchor story or lead item (your own, not aggregated)
• 2–4 shorter items (industry news, tool, tip, customer moment)
• One soft CTA at most
• Sign-off in the owner's voice

Length: 400–800 words. More than 1200 loses attention.

Cadence: monthly is the floor; fortnightly if you have real content; don't exceed weekly.

2. Product / service update

Purpose: announce something new.

Structure:

• Subject: concrete — "New: [thing] is live for [audience]"
• The what (1–2 sentences)
• The why (1 paragraph — what problem this solves)
• The how (bullet list of specifics)
• What changes for the reader (1 paragraph)
• CTA — the specific action they can take now

Length: 200–400 words. Announcements should be crisp.

3. Sales campaign

Purpose: drive a specific purchase / booking / signup.

Structure:

• Subject: specific offer — "EOFY 20% off — until June 30"
• The offer, upfront (first 2 sentences)
• Proof — 1 testimonial / case / number
• What's included + what's excluded
• The deadline (specific date)
• Single CTA

Length: 150–300 words. Longer dilutes the offer.

Cadence rules: 1 announcement + 1 reminder + 1 last-chance is usually enough. More than 3 touches on the same offer feels pushy.

4. Event invite

Purpose: fill seats.

Structure:

• Subject: event name + value + date
• What it is (1 sentence)
• Who it's for (1 sentence — specific — "AU SME accountants thinking about packaging")
• What they'll get (bullet list of 3–5 concrete takeaways)
• When + where (include time zone + whether recording available)
• Who's running / presenting (credibility in 1 sentence)
• Single CTA — registration link

Length: 200–400 words.

Cadence: 2 weeks out + 1 week out + 1 day out + day-of reminder.

5. Re-engagement / win-back

Purpose: revive lapsed subscribers or customers before removing them.

Structure:

• Subject: honest — "Still want these emails?" or "Before we let you go"
• Acknowledge the gap
• Offer: stay / reduce frequency / leave
• Make unsubscribing as easy as staying
• If you're going to remove non-responders, say so

Length: 100–200 words. Short and honest.

Cadence: once is enough. If no response, remove them — don't treat one-sided silence as consent to continue.

Why re-engage matters: list hygiene affects deliverability. Gmail / Outlook / Apple Mail watch your sender reputation based on engagement rates. A list of 10,000 where only 1,000 open is worse than a list of 1,000 where 800 open.

Subject-line discipline

The 3 rules that kill most SME subject lines:

1. Specific, not generic. "Monthly update" loses to "3 tax-prep mistakes we saw this week"
2. Under 50 characters. Gets truncated on mobile above that; Apple Mail shows ~40 on the lock screen
3. Tells the truth about what's inside. Clickbait subjects cost you trust

Examples:

| Weak | Strong | |---|---| | "Our April Newsletter" | "3 AU EOFY mistakes we saw this week" | | "New Service Launch" | "New: BAS prep as a fixed monthly package" | | "Special Offer Inside" | "20% off until June 30 — new clients only" | | "Upcoming Event" | "Free workshop May 14: trades pricing reset" |

Pre-header

The text after the subject that shows in the inbox preview. Two common mistakes:

• Leaving it as the default ("View this email in your browser") — wastes the preview
• Repeating the subject — wastes the preview again

Good pre-headers:

• Specific, extend the subject: "The one about super and BAS timing"
• Add context the subject can't fit: "Plus: June 14 workshop, free"
• State a number: "5-minute read, 3 specific tips"

One CTA per email

If you give readers three options, most choose none. Pick the single most important action per email:

• Read this → article link
• Book this → calendar link
• Buy this → checkout link
• Reply to me → your email

Multiple links to the same CTA are fine. Multiple different CTAs dilute.

Plain-text vs HTML tradeoff

• Plain-text — higher deliverability, more personal, faster to write. Works great for operator-voiced newsletters.
• HTML template — branded, supports images/buttons/layout, higher visual professionalism. Works for product updates, sales campaigns, event invites.

Rule of thumb:

• Personal / newsletter / re-engagement → plain-text or minimal HTML
• Sales / product / event → HTML with brand styling
• Very technical audiences often prefer plain-text

List hygiene + sender reputation

Your list is an asset. Protect it:

• Never buy a list. Consent doesn't transfer; deliverability tanks; legal exposure real.
• Remove bounces — hard bounces go immediately; soft bounces after 3 consecutive
• Remove long-inactive — >6 months no open, send a re-engagement; remove if no response
• SPF, DKIM, DMARC set up correctly on your domain (your email platform guides this; many SMEs skip it)
• Segment — a targeted 500-person send outperforms a blast to 5000

Poor hygiene = you're flagged as "low engagement sender" by Gmail/Outlook; your future emails go to spam even from people who'd want them.

Output format

Per campaign request:

1. Subject line + 2 alternatives to A/B test
2. Pre-header
3. Email body — plain-text version + HTML version if the brand uses one
4. Single CTA — specific action + where it goes
5. Segment suggestion — who specifically to send to (not "everyone")
6. Best send time — AU time zone, based on campaign type
7. Follow-up cadence — 1, 2, or 3 touches; when each

What this skill does NOT do

• Send the campaign. Your ESP does (Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign, Brevo, HubSpot, Klaviyo, Beehiiv, etc.).
• Build your list. Lead gen is separate — landing pages, forms, lead magnets.
• Design images / banners. Creative production is separate.
• Configure SPF/DKIM/DMARC. Your ESP + DNS provider handle this; get advice if unfamiliar.
• Handle international (GDPR/CAN-SPAM) recipients on an AU list. If you have international subscribers, your compliance surface expands; get advice.

Tier access

Base. Universal SME need. Pro-tier adds voice matching from past sends + send-time A/B testing.

Related skills

• au-cold-outreach-spam-compliant — adjacent discipline for new-contact outreach
• review-response-au-reputation — email is one channel; reviews are another; both feed reputation
• customer-retention-churn-signals — re-engagement campaigns connect to retention work
• email-template-library — reusable components for the email types above

References

• ACMA — Spam Act 2003
• Litmus — Email benchmarks by industry
• Gmail sender guidelines
• Really Good Emails — subject + design inspiration