Building an email list of engaged customers is still among the best marketing tools any business can have in its arsenal. But with your emails jostling for space in your subscribers’ overflowing inboxes, how do you even get noticed? Here’s the lowdown.
Identify the purpose
How you approach an email campaign will depend on the outcome you want. For example, are you trying to form a relationship with your subscribers, drive visits to your blog, or sell a new product? Take time to get to know your audience, so you know what they truly desire in the first place.
Keep it short & snappy
Emails are not the place for an essay or loads of industry jargon. Your subscribers are busy and overloaded with information, so they’ll often only read scannable emails. Breaking up your paragraphs with bullet points, headings, short sentences, and a clear call to action (CTA) will achieve that aim.
Personalise & connect
Email sign-up forms ask for a first name for a reason; we all respond better when someone appeals directly to us. Incorporating a first-name field and using second-person pronouns (the ‘you’ perspective) will encourage a personal connection.
Likewise, writing like you speak will make your text easier to read and help your subscribers click with you. Focusing on how your business can benefit your readers rather than simply listing features will further forge that sense of understanding.
Tackle objections
If you’re selling something, your reader is probably looking for a reason not to buy. Get around this by answering predictable objections in your emails, backing up your assertions with social proof, such as reviews and case studies.
Sign off with a CTA
No email is complete without an action-based call to action, such as ‘call us today’ or ‘sign up now’, unless it’s purely informative. But don’t go overboard – keep to one, easy-to-spot instruction. Having a hard time deciding which CTA to use? Pick the action you most want your audience to take.
Use psychology, not tricks
Some businesses resort to overdone subject lines and ploys to catch their subscribers’ fleeting attention. But with most of us receiving hundreds, if not thousands, of marketing emails a year, audiences get tired of attention-grabbing tricks fast.
So instead of those ‘I’m so sorry’ and ‘Re:’ headlines, appeal to your subscribers’ deeper needs and then offer them the solution they crave. Once they want your product or service, scarcity can motivate them to follow your CTA. For example, if you’re launching a course, maybe limit the number of spots available or put it on sale for a short time.
Split-test your campaigns
You can tweak your campaigns for better success with A/B testing. This is when you send out two emails with a different element, such as a subject line or a CTA, to see which encourages the most engagement. Over time, this will help you understand what appeals to your unique audience.
To sum up, the best email campaigns are easy to read, personal, focus on the benefits of your product or service, and provide clear instructions.
Time to get writing or if you're struggling for time check out the campaign library with designed and written campaigns for you to use and just send!
