Email marketing has evolved a great deal over the past few years. Some marketers are striving to create fancy, over-the-top emails, but is it really worth it? What resonates best with readers? Sometimes a plain-text, well written email can perform just as well as, or even better than, a design-heavy email with lots of bells and whistles.
It’s important to understand that no matter how fancy your marketing emails look, if they don't provide quality content, your contacts will stop opening them and possibly unsubscribe.
So, how do you write a compelling marketing email? How can you start to see your open rate and click rates improve? The two biggest factors to keep in mind are writing enticing subject lines and solid email content. Here are seven tips for writing strong marketing emails!
Writing Enticing Subject Lines
1. Personalize
According to a study by Direct Marketing Association, segmented and targeted emails generated 58% of all revenue for the marketers surveyed, and 36% of revenues were driven by emails sent to specific target selections.
When you segment your email list, you’re better able to personalize the subject line in a way that connects with each of your different audiences. Always ask yourself if there’s a way to make your email subject line more personal.
2. Inspire Action
You want to use language in your subject lines that makes clear to your contacts what they can do with the information in the email, if they open it.
For example, “Take Mom to Brunch!" could be good actionable language for a Mother’s Day campaign.
3. Clarity First, Catchiness Second
First and foremost, your subject lines should be clear. After you’ve written a clear subject line, you can try and make it catchy if you’d like, but don't sacrifice clarity for cleverness.
4. Make Sure Your Subject Line and Email Copy Align
Just as your calls to action and a landing page offers must naturally connect, so must your marketing email subject line and email copy. Whatever you promise in the email subject line you must deliver in your email. If readers don't get what they’re expecting, your click-through rates will drop and in the long run, so will your open rates.
Writing Enticing Email Copy
5. Write in the Second Person
Write your emails with a focus on the reader, not your brand. Writing in the second person means using pronouns like, “you,” “your,” and “yours.” Try and use more of those pronouns and fewer first-person pronouns like “we” and “I.”
6. Focus on the Benefits
Make sure your email sufficiently explains the benefits of what you're offering. Plenty of marketing emails offer a discount or other promotion with the assumption that the audience understands why they should value the product or service in the first place. For example, rather than just sending your contacts a coupon for 30% off, including a summary of the benefits of the discounted item is likely to yield a higher response rate.
7. Keep it Short and Sweet
A big mistake some marketers make when writing email copy is trying to squeeze too much information into one email message. In today’s fast-paced world, people rarely take the time to read every single word of a marketing email; they tend to scan emails for important points and decide if it's worth examining more closely based on what they can see at a glance.
Focus on summarizing what the reader will get in a compelling way, then provide a link to a page on your website for more information. Investing in professional content creation is also a great way to ensure the your emails are well written and only include only the content that's necessary.
Bonus Tip: You can use marketing automation tools like HubSpot to simplify your email process!
When it comes to email marketing, simple is often more effective than fancy. Start seeing your open rates and click-through rates improve after you implement these simple tips. For more information about email marketing and refining your overall inbound strategy, subscribe to our blog!
