Email marketing is a powerful tool that can help you promote your business, generate leads, and drive sales. Email also serves as a great way to connect with your audience that is unaffected by the whims of social media giants who choose to update their algorithm. Do you see the periodic stories from influencers claiming nobody is seeing their stories?
That’s because they’re at the mercy of Facebook and Instagram to display their content to their own followers. With email, you have control over when you contact your list, and it exists even if Instagram goes away tomorrow.
That said, we all get a lot of email every day, so if you’re sending an email to your email list, you’ll want to make the most of the opportunity so it doesn’t fall flat.
Write a compelling subject line
The subject line of your email is the first thing that people will see, so it needs to be compelling enough to encourage them to open it. Make sure to include your target keywords in the subject line, but also make it interesting and engaging. Use power words that evoke emotions, ask a question, or make a promise to grab the reader's attention.
Personalize your email
Personalization is key when it comes to email marketing. Use your subscriber's name in the greeting and personalize the content of your email based on their preferences, interests, and behaviors. This will make your email more relevant and engaging, and increase the chances of it being read and shared.
Optimize your email for mobile devices
With more than 50% of emails being opened on mobile devices, it is crucial to optimize your email for mobile. Use a responsive email design that adapts to different screen sizes and makes it easy to read and interact with your content. Also, make sure your images are optimized for mobile and your CTA is easy to tap.
Cut out the corporate jargon
Marketers love to rely on their library of phrases for their business. The problem with this is that the language often isn’t clear, or it means something different to them than it does to their readers. Even if your email is about a complex topic, keep the language as simple as you can, and less is definitely more.
x% of people read an email for x seconds, and x% of people for X seconds. You’ll want to create subheadings or bold important phrases. Which leads us to our next point, make the CTA (call-to-action) obvious to a reader skimming the email.
Use a clear call-to-action
Your email should have a clear call-to-action (CTA) that tells the reader what action you want them to take. Whether it's to visit your website, download a free guide, or sign up for a webinar, make sure your CTA is prominent, clear, and easy to follow.
Mention it more than once in the email, and keep your email short to ensure your CTA isn’t lost in the clutter.
Test and measure your email
Finally, test and measure your email to see how it performs. Use an email marketing tool that allows you to track open rates, click-through rates, and conversions. This will help you identify what works and what doesn't, and optimize your email for better results.
Send the email to the right audience
Take the term “email blast” out of your vocabulary. A mass message “blasted” to your full contact list is likely to end in low open rates, less likelihood that you’ll land in your contact’s inbox, and may even lead to you being marked as spam, or worse, on an email blacklist.
Make sure that the list you’re sending to is filled with:
Contacts who have opted-in to hear from you
Contacts who are familiar with your business
Contacts who are expecting to hear from you
By following these tips, you can create an email that engages your audience, generates leads, and ultimately drives revenue for your business.