Email marketing has overcome dozens of challenges and competition over the years and still remains one of the most effective solutions for businesses when there's need to reach the customers directly.
Whether you're a B2B or B2C marketer, being able to reach your customers through email makes it easier to create interest and generate more leads, not to mention revenue.
A well-written plain email can yield better results than a complex, highly decorated email with dozens of bells and whistles.
When managing email marketing, keep in mind that creating fancy emails won't get you leads: if the emails are devoid of well-written content, subscribers will lose interest and unsubscribe from your list.
So how exactly do you write engaging and compelling marketing email?
It’s actually not that complicated: you only need to observe a few copy writing practices and use them when drafting the email.
Next time you sit down to draft a message, consider these 7 tips and ask yourself whether your email meets these requirements.
1. Write Short, Clear and Compelling Subject Lines
Half the job of drafting good email copy is nailing the subject line.
This is important because the subject line is the first thing your subscribers see before they open the email and they wouldn't bother reading the email if the subject line doesn't pique their interest.
Keep the following in mind when crafting subject lines:
A. Actionable language generates the desired effect.
Actionable language doesn't necessarily describe verbs -though they help.
Actionable words tell the recipient what they can do with the information provided.
For instance a subject line that reads “Take Mom To Brunch” is bound to pique interest.
B. Personalize if possible. Highly segmented emails always have better open rates. This would explain why the best email copy is the one you write to ONE person.
Find a way to personalize the subject line and then work on providing relevant content to the recipient.
C. The subject line needs to be clear first, then you can worry about making it catchy.
If after drafting the subject line, you find that you can make it funny, cute, catchy, whimsical or whatever, then by all means, go for it.
But never sacrifice clarity in order to add some entertainment value.
2. Ask Questions And Try to Convey a Sense of Urgency
When you ask questions in the subject line you effectively pique your subscribers' interest and get them to read the email.
One way to do this is to include time-sensitive promotions or some deadline they could miss.
Even when working with a limited number of words you can still convey urgency by making it sound as is everyone is attending the event so the readers feel as if they'll get left out.
3. Appeal to The Subscribers' Self Interest
At the end of the day, the customers only care about services and products in the context of their specific
needs.
As a way to address this, your copy should go beyond explaining the features of what you're selling, and explicitly describe all the benefits of the product or service.
Remember features tell, but benefits sell.
Imagine you're selling an onion on your sales copy, and so you start out describing what an onion is, its special features and so on.
This information will have answered the “what”, instead of “how” and “why” the subscriber should purchase the onion.
If however you explained the benefits thereof, such as how the onion could spice up a recipe, or how it lowers calorie content, the reader will be interested.
4.Use Design Effectively
Most sales emails contain some form of design and that can enhance the message but try to support the message in the email- not detract from it.
Effective design makes it easy and fun for readers to engage with the content.
It may contain neat and visible social media icons, and use clear prompts and simple buttons to guide the reader through the text.
Use design sparingly if you don't have enough experience with it.
Several elements can make the purpose of design backfire on you: for instance all capitalized or bolded text, white typing done over a over light background- which makes it difficult to read text, or a tiny call to action.
Support your message with a captivating photo, good color contrast and clear call to action.
5. Deliver What Your Subject Line promises
It is absolutely crucial for your email message to deliver what the subject line promises.
If your readers don't get what they're promised, click-through rates will tumble and over time you won't have any open rates to speak of.
Make sure the message body doesn't disappoint and you should have significantly high open and click-through rates.
6. Draft a Compelling Message
So now that you have that catchy subject line and you've grabbed the reader's attention, how do craft copy that will keep them engaged, informed and ready to click? Several issues have to be considered here.
A. Establish relevancy. It takes more than a catchy name tag for your email to yield results: you have to
start by establishing relevancy so they have a reason to read the material.
B. Write in the second person. This ensures you orient the copy towards the recipient, as opposed to yourself.
A typical sales copy contains numerous instances where the words “you” and “yours'” are used.
C. Be brief. In cases where you know plenty about the topic, you might be tempted to shove in an entire life
story into the copy, but don't.
Few people read marketing emails word for word; so find a way to summarize whatever information you have to offer and allow the reader to quickly scan the document and still get the most important information.
7. Pump Up Your CTA With Actionable Language
Yes even emails have calls-to-action! Or at least the good ones do; and its up to you to make sure to include a button-effective call to action.
This means using language that is clear and succinct, and that is action-oriented.
Keep in mind though, not all email clients will render you fancy HTML copy, and not all recipients will choose to display them.
You may rely on plain text with a clear, perhaps hyper- linked call to action so your readers do something about the information offered.
Ultimately you want the reader to click on your call to action so it might not matter how many images or bold words you have, if they don't lead to clicks, they're not being used properly.
Have a wonderful day.
Whether you're a B2B or B2C marketer, being able to reach your customers through email makes it easier to create interest and generate more leads, not to mention revenue.
A well-written plain email can yield better results than a complex, highly decorated email with dozens of bells and whistles.
When managing email marketing, keep in mind that creating fancy emails won't get you leads: if the emails are devoid of well-written content, subscribers will lose interest and unsubscribe from your list.
So how exactly do you write engaging and compelling marketing email?
It’s actually not that complicated: you only need to observe a few copy writing practices and use them when drafting the email.
Next time you sit down to draft a message, consider these 7 tips and ask yourself whether your email meets these requirements.
1. Write Short, Clear and Compelling Subject Lines
Half the job of drafting good email copy is nailing the subject line.
This is important because the subject line is the first thing your subscribers see before they open the email and they wouldn't bother reading the email if the subject line doesn't pique their interest.
Keep the following in mind when crafting subject lines:
A. Actionable language generates the desired effect.
Actionable language doesn't necessarily describe verbs -though they help.
Actionable words tell the recipient what they can do with the information provided.
For instance a subject line that reads “Take Mom To Brunch” is bound to pique interest.
B. Personalize if possible. Highly segmented emails always have better open rates. This would explain why the best email copy is the one you write to ONE person.
Find a way to personalize the subject line and then work on providing relevant content to the recipient.
C. The subject line needs to be clear first, then you can worry about making it catchy.
If after drafting the subject line, you find that you can make it funny, cute, catchy, whimsical or whatever, then by all means, go for it.
But never sacrifice clarity in order to add some entertainment value.
2. Ask Questions And Try to Convey a Sense of Urgency
When you ask questions in the subject line you effectively pique your subscribers' interest and get them to read the email.
One way to do this is to include time-sensitive promotions or some deadline they could miss.
Even when working with a limited number of words you can still convey urgency by making it sound as is everyone is attending the event so the readers feel as if they'll get left out.
3. Appeal to The Subscribers' Self Interest
At the end of the day, the customers only care about services and products in the context of their specific
needs.
As a way to address this, your copy should go beyond explaining the features of what you're selling, and explicitly describe all the benefits of the product or service.
Remember features tell, but benefits sell.
Imagine you're selling an onion on your sales copy, and so you start out describing what an onion is, its special features and so on.
This information will have answered the “what”, instead of “how” and “why” the subscriber should purchase the onion.
If however you explained the benefits thereof, such as how the onion could spice up a recipe, or how it lowers calorie content, the reader will be interested.
4.Use Design Effectively
Most sales emails contain some form of design and that can enhance the message but try to support the message in the email- not detract from it.
Effective design makes it easy and fun for readers to engage with the content.
It may contain neat and visible social media icons, and use clear prompts and simple buttons to guide the reader through the text.
Use design sparingly if you don't have enough experience with it.
Several elements can make the purpose of design backfire on you: for instance all capitalized or bolded text, white typing done over a over light background- which makes it difficult to read text, or a tiny call to action.
Support your message with a captivating photo, good color contrast and clear call to action.
5. Deliver What Your Subject Line promises
It is absolutely crucial for your email message to deliver what the subject line promises.
If your readers don't get what they're promised, click-through rates will tumble and over time you won't have any open rates to speak of.
Make sure the message body doesn't disappoint and you should have significantly high open and click-through rates.
6. Draft a Compelling Message
So now that you have that catchy subject line and you've grabbed the reader's attention, how do craft copy that will keep them engaged, informed and ready to click? Several issues have to be considered here.
A. Establish relevancy. It takes more than a catchy name tag for your email to yield results: you have to
start by establishing relevancy so they have a reason to read the material.
B. Write in the second person. This ensures you orient the copy towards the recipient, as opposed to yourself.
A typical sales copy contains numerous instances where the words “you” and “yours'” are used.
C. Be brief. In cases where you know plenty about the topic, you might be tempted to shove in an entire life
story into the copy, but don't.
Few people read marketing emails word for word; so find a way to summarize whatever information you have to offer and allow the reader to quickly scan the document and still get the most important information.
7. Pump Up Your CTA With Actionable Language
Yes even emails have calls-to-action! Or at least the good ones do; and its up to you to make sure to include a button-effective call to action.
This means using language that is clear and succinct, and that is action-oriented.
Keep in mind though, not all email clients will render you fancy HTML copy, and not all recipients will choose to display them.
You may rely on plain text with a clear, perhaps hyper- linked call to action so your readers do something about the information offered.
Ultimately you want the reader to click on your call to action so it might not matter how many images or bold words you have, if they don't lead to clicks, they're not being used properly.
Have a wonderful day.