In a personal email, there’s no limit to how long you can go – well of course, you actually are limited a bit – by your mom’s patience for reading. But what about for a marketing email?
Well, a marketing email is a totally different thing. Even if you’re writing to a willing subscriber, you’re invading their inbox with a message that is at the very least unwelcome and annoying.
Do Consumers Want to Read Your Marketing Emails?
To be compelling, make sure that every marketing email you send is short, to-the-point, and as relevant as possible. Here are the three keys to writing the perfect marketing email.
Take 3 Steps to Create a Great Marketing Email
#1: Subject Line
This is pretty much the most important part of your email, because if it doesn’t get the recipient to open and read the main message, it’s all over. You’re then headed to the virtual trash can.
To avoid being dumped, create a relevant, attention-getting message. Give your target audience a compelling reason to click it open and read the message.
- Do you have a product that will save them time and money?
- A brand-new kind of service that nobody has ever offered?
- Are you giving them an exclusive offer?
Lead with the message that will get them curious enough to open the email!
PRO TIP #1: Try to abide by the “billboard” rule here – 7 words or less.
PRO TIP #2: There’s a long list of words that you need to avoid to keep from being labeled as spam. Skip words and phrases like “Free” or “No Cost” or “Save $.” (You can search and find long lists of these words.)
#2: Brief Body Copy
I’ve been lucky to work with several email experts over the past few years, and they taught me an extremely important lesson about a marketing email’s body copy:
Keep it short. Like really short.
The point is to consider your email as one step on the journey you’re trying to provide for your reader. And what is this step? Getting them to react to the Call-to-Action (see below).
So, give your reader a healthy taste of what you promised in your subject line, then get them to click the CTA and go for more information.
PRO TIP #3: Your email copy should be no more than 3 short paragraphs. And when I say “paragraph,” that’s basically one or two short sentences.
#3: Strong Call-to-Action (CTA)
This is it. It’s all about the CTA.
Maybe it’s a big shiny red button that says “Learn More” or “Visit Our Site” or “Start Saving Now,” or whatever else you can fit inside.
If they don’t click your CTA button or link, you’ve lost them. But you had them! They opened your email, they’ve even read your copy.
So bring it home. Convince them that the answer to whatever question they have is just one more click away. And once they give you that click, you’re one step closer to success.
PRO TIP #4: Don’t provide more than one CTA, or multiple links. Keep consumers on the path to one single destination.
Commit to Marketing Email “Best Practices” for Success
So that’s the 1-2-3 of crafting an appealing marketing email that your audience will want to read. It sounds simple, because it is – and you can start to implement these steps today!
Make it your goal to keep your marketing emails highly focused, relevant and brief, and you should be able to keep your target audience on the path to wherever it is you want them to go.
Have any other email marketing tips? Feel free to post in the comments. And please share this blog with your social networks if you found it interesting!
