There are so many ways to reach out to your customers that it may come as a surprise that emails are still one of the most effective. In fact, B2B email marketing comes in third. The two techniques ahead of it are word of mouth recommendations from colleagues and thought leader insights. On the B2C side, 80% of retail employees credit email marketing for most of their customer retention.
Clearly email works, but that doesn’t mean it’s perfect. After all, you probably swipe a lot of marketing emails away or send them to spam and so do other people. It’s not enough to just send out emails, they have to be attention seeking and written well enough to keep people reading to the end. Here are some tips to get you started with writing effective email copies —
1. Know Your CTA and State It Strongly
Every email should have a single, clearly stated call to action. In fact, this is so important that it should really be the first thing you work out. Start by answering the question, “What do I want people to do when they finish reading this email?” The answer to that question might be:
● Subscribing to a newsletter.
● Visiting a landing page.
● Reading a blog post.
● Requesting a sales demo or price quote.
● Registering for an event.
“When you present the reader with your CTA it should be stated directly using action words,” suggests Amanda Sparks, a senior marketing strategist at EssaySupply. Then, you should make every effort to make it easy for them to answer your call to action.
2. Write Very Web Friendly Copy
There are a couple of important things to keep in mind with you write an email copy. Your reader is likely to be a bit impatient, and there’s a good chance they’ve opened your email on mobile. The last thing they want to do is try and navigate through large blocks of text. Don’t just write copy that’s web friendly. Double down and make it mobile compatible too. This means -
● Using titles and subtitles
● Spacing things out.
● Using short paragraphs.
● Breaking points down into lists and bullet points.
● Optimising images.
Imagine trying to read your email via mobile with one hand while carrying a coffee mug in the other. If it’s a struggle, it may be time to edit and reformat.
3. Pay Close Attention to Proofreading and Editing
One way to help ensure people read through your email and answer your call to action is to ensure that it is properly written. Proofreading and editing are important, as bad spelling and grammar leaves a bad impression, and can obscure your message.
To increase and maintain healthy levels of traffic and engagement, your content on all fronts must meet the highest of standards. Fortunately, there are a number of online resources that can help. For editing and proofreading specifically consider, Grammarly, WhiteSmoke, SupremeDissertations, EmailExcellence, and FlashEssay.
If you want assistance specifically for writing, take a look at GetGoodGrade, Dragon Dictation, Ginger For Android, and RatedByStudents. Depending on the resource you choose, these are tools and services that help you with writing task.
If you need translation services for your email content as well, check out IsAccurate. They’ve curated lists of the best translation and localisation services around.
4. Leave Some Content for Your Website
This tip is especially true for emails promoting products or special offers, and email newsletters. Ultimately, the goal behind both of these is driving traffic to your website. If you stuff too much information into your email, that’s not going to happen. Either you’ll scare readers away with the sheer volume of information, or they simply won’t have a compelling reason to click through and learn more. Use email to create interest and provide a good lead in. Then, hold back just enough information to compel them to click over.
5. Talk Directly to The Recipient
The most effective power word is ‘you’. This is why most marketing content, emails included, is written in the second person. This allows you to address remarks directly to the reader. By doing this, you can address their concerns and their needs. You can explain the benefits of your products to them, and show them how answering your CTA benefits them.
6. Personalise as Much as You Can
With personalisation, you can take the advice in point four even further. Use customer segments and other information to target your emails to the customer personas for whom they are most relevant. According to Chelsea, a content editing specialist at RewardedEssays, “Data provides you with so much great information that can be used for personalisation. It’s no longer impressive to simply know the recipients’ name. Today, you can segment emails by purchasing history, demographic information, time of last purchase, preferences, and other data. Not only does this help emails to get to the right people, it gives you more ways than ever to personalise those emails.”
7. Write a Catchy Subject Line
The subject line may be the most important thing. If that doesn’t grab the reader’s interest, they won’t open your email and everything else is just a waste of time. Here are a few tips:
● Personalise your subject line as much as possible.
● Make sure there is no conflict between the messaging in your subject line and the messaging in your email.
● Use action words to give readers a clue of what the email will help them to do.
● It’s okay to use humour or to be ‘clever’ just prioritise being clear first.
Further, subject lines should be treated like headlines. Many of the same rules apply. Keep them short. Use emotional buzzwords. A/B test using subject lines with numbers in them as those tend to perform better.
8. Quickly Convince Readers That the Email Pertains to Them
Relevance is key. “To get readers to open your email, read it, and answer your CTA, you have to quickly show them why your message is relevant to them,” notes Ethan Dunwill from HotEssayService. This starts with proper targeting. Then you must open with something strong. Within the first few sentences you should tell the reader why they are receiving this email and how the email can help. For example:
“Bad News: Your car’s warranty expires this month! Good News: We can extend your coverage for free!”
All too often, email is seen as a quick and casual way to communicate with others. As a result, it doesn’t get the care and attention it deserves. This can weaken this extraordinarily powerful marketing tool. By applying the above tips, you can improve the effectiveness of your email marketing efforts.
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