Are you unhappy with the results of your last email marketing campaign? Was the product perfect, the price spot on, and your audience the ideal target for such an offer? In that case, the most likely reason your emails didn’t achieve the desired results is that the wording of your message didn’t inspire subscribers to part with their money. Here are 10 tips to help you make your next batch of marketing emails more compelling.
- Keep It Simple
Marketing emails are best kept simple. Avoid using long words, sentences, and paragraphs. And try not to use too much jargon that people might not understand. Instead, write the email as though you were talking to a friend. You will want to use powerful and persuasive language. However, your marketing emails will need to appeal to a broad audience with varying vocabularies.
- Match the Content with the Subject Line
How to write marketing email subject lines is a topic for another article. One crucial point to mention here is that the body of the email must deliver on the promise made in the subject line. Suppose your subject promised a significant discount on a product, for example. In that case, how to claim that discount must be immediately apparent in the body of the email. And, of course, the deal must be genuine. If the body does not match the subject line, you will lose the trust of your subscribers.
- Personalize Marketing Emails
Subscribers know they are not the only ones on your mailing list. Nevertheless, if your emails address the individual rather than a crowd, people will be more receptive to your marketing messages. The first step to personalizing emails is to segment your mailing list. Then you can tailor your marketing message to the interests of the individual. Addressing the individual by their name will help, too. And finally, using pronouns such as “you,” “yours,” and “your” will sound like you are talking only to the individual recipient.
- Have One Objective Per Email
Your marketing emails will be confusing and less effective if you try to push too many calls to action (CTAs). It is advisable to have only one desired action per email. For example, if you were to ask recipients to “buy now,” “subscribe to our newsletter,” and “register for our podcast” in one email, which CTA should people be following? At best, each recipient will probably only follow one of the CTAs. At worst, people won’t understand what is required of them and consequently follow none at all.
- Make Marketing Emails Scannable
Marketing emails need to cater to those who skim-read the text. This group of recipients will take seconds to decide if the email contains anything of interest. Consequently, it’s best to highlight the crucial points of marketing email to ensure the content can be skim-read. For example, bullet-pointing vital features of a product and using bold paragraph headers will help. You can also use a bold, italic font within the body of the text to highlight crucial points.
- Focus on Benefits
The fundamental question of every recipient of a marketing email will be what’s in it for me? You need to answer that question in the subject line and body of the email. Consequently, it is best to focus on benefits rather than features.
- Create a Sense of Urgency
Creating a sense of urgency will increase open rates and conversions. If you are offering a special price on a product, make it clear that the deal is time-limited. You can create a sense of urgency even if there is no time limitation by using phrases such as “subscribe now,” “don’t miss out,” and “start saving today.” The crucial thing is to provide a reason to act now rather than later. Otherwise, the recipient may decide to go back to the email later. Then, the email eventually drops way down the list in their inbox and is forgotten.
- Don’t Be Too Pushy
People don’t like being shouted at or told what to do. It’s best to persuade rather than command. For example, “we know you won’t want to miss out on this month’s special offer” is persuasive, time-limited, but polite. However, “buy now or miss out” is a command and would be aggressive if written in capital letters. It’s also best to avoid the overuse of exclamation marks and emoticons.
- Use Relevant Images
Images attract attention and sometimes convey messages better than words. However, any photos in a marketing email must serve a purpose, or there is no point in them being there. If an image adds something to the message, use high-quality but moderately sized pictures. Large pictures or too many photos may distract from the written words and make the email slow to load.
- Proofread Emails
It should go without saying that emails should be proofread before sending. Nevertheless, everyone will have probably seen marketing emails with typos and spelling mistakes, sometimes from big brands. The best way to proofread is to put the content aside for a while once it is finished and proofread it later. When proofreading, consider how the email sounds when read aloud and correct any mistakes. If proofreading isn’t your thing, consider using a grammar checker app, such as Grammarly. Alternatively, the Microsoft Editor will help you find errors.
It can be tricky getting the tone of a marketing email correct. And, of course, the sales message must be written to resonate with the target audience. The above tips will help you create emails that convert. Still, you can’t beat A/B testing. So split your mailing list into test groups and try various approaches to ensure that you get the optimum results from your marketing emails.
