For marketing professionals, one of the most effective tools used to reach consumers is email. According to a study, the average return on investment (ROI) for email marketing is $42 for every $1 spent.
This means that your emails can be a cheap and reliable way to market your products or services. However, if you want to get the best results from your email campaigns, then there are some key strategies you should follow.
Here’s what you need to know about crafting an effective marketing email:
Start with Email Marketing Strategy
The first step to crafting a successful email marketing campaign is to determine your strategy and goals. Here are some questions you should ask yourself when developing a plan:
- What is the purpose of this email?
- Who is my audience?
- What are my goals for this email campaign?
- How will I encourage recipients to take action, such as buying something or filling out a form?
After answering these questions, it’s time to map out your strategy.
Define the Purpose of Your Email
The next step in crafting a marketing email is to define why you’re sending it. What do you want the recipient to do? What action are you trying to get them to take? This can be as simple as getting them to sign up for your newsletter list or as complex as making a purchase.
The next thing is defining the purpose of your email marketing strategy as a whole. Are you trying to increase sales? Increase brand awareness? Increase engagement with current customers or prospects? Once again, this can be as simple or complex as needed based on your larger goals and objectives for your business.
You should also define the purpose of your campaign – the series of emails that make up one larger initiative designed around an overarching goal (e.g., “Increase sales by 15% over last quarter.”). This helps ensure that each individual piece has very clearly defined goals.
Write Your Subject Line
You should use a subject line that is relevant to the content of your email and short and catchy. You want people to open your emails, right? So don’t make it too long or misleading.
Your subject line should be:
- Relevant: Make sure it relates to what is inside the email. If you are sending an article about marketing automation, then put “Marketing Automation” in your subject line, so they know what they will get when they open it up.
- Intriguing: It needs to be short (less than 20 characters) and not misleading so people will open it up.
Write the correct length of the subject line
The most important part of your subject line is the choice of words. It has to be short, impactful, and compelling enough to make people click. The problem is that if the subject line is too long, it won’t have any impact.
If you’re trying to write a subject line that gets attention, there is only one possible way: the correct length. And since long ones have a lower success rate, it’s best to take a shorter approach.
The trick is knowing when to stop adding words. You don’t want to make it too long — but you also don’t want it to be too short. How do you know when to stop?
Using the Word Counter Tool
To answer this question, you need to use an online word count tool. This tool will tell you how many characters are in your email subject line and how many words are in your email subject line so that you can determine exactly how long your email subject line should be.
There are many other benefits of using such a tool. For instance, you can correct potential mistakes in the email subject line since the word counter tool offers a free grammar checker.
Other prominent features of the word count tool include autosave, text size increase/decrease, font selector, erase all, and word density checker.
Write engaging content
To achieve the purpose of writing engaging content, try following the below suggestions:
- Make sure your content is relevant to your audience.
- Make sure your content is valuable to your audience.
- Make sure your content is well-written, not too long or too short, and not too technical for the average reader’s skill level.
The Timing of Your Send is Important
The timing of your email is just as important as the content. If someone opens their inbox, sees dozens of emails, and decides to close out of it without reading any of them, then you’ve lost a potential customer.
The best time to send an email depends on the type of product or service you are promoting and who your target market is.
For example: if you are promoting an online course about dog training, then my target market would be dog owners; if you were selling auto parts for high-end cars, then the audience would be mechanics and car enthusiasts, etc.
Personalize your marketing emails
It’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day of running your business, but don’t forget that customers appreciate it when you pay attention to them.
That’s why it is recommended to personalize every email you send – and not just by adding a “Dear John” at the top of each message. Here are several ways you can make sure that each email is unique:
- Include the recipient’s name in the subject line. This one is simple and effective because it shows them (and their colleagues) that this message was sent directly to them and no one else.
- Personalize based on interests or preferences expressed through previous orders, purchases, etc., as well as demographic information like age range or gender.
If someone has bought t-shirts from your store before, let them know about special deals on new designs coming out soon.
Keep your marketing emails concise
Including too much information or not giving the reader a clear call to action can be detrimental to your results. You want to keep the Content simple and easy for anyone on the receiving end to understand and act upon.
For example, if you’re sending an email about a new product or service, focus on making it clear what you want them to do next (e.g., sign up for a demo).
You also don’t have to pack every single piece of information into one email – you can split the content into multiple emails by segmenting your audience based on interests or previous behavior, such as purchases, newsletter signups, etc., and then send those segments separate emails with enough information in each one, so they don’t get overwhelmed by too much content at once.
Include one call-to-action button per email
Once you’ve got your reader’s attention, it’s time to take action. A call-to-action (CTA) button is a tool that can help you increase engagement and sales. A CTA button should be located at the end of each email or in a prominent spot where people will see it. You can use CTA buttons that are:
- Clear and concise – Ideally, your text will be short and sweet enough for readers to grasp quickly what they’re supposed to do next. For example, if you want them to sign up for your newsletter, don’t make them read through paragraphs about why they should subscribe before getting into the meat of what they need; instead, just say something like “Sign up now.”
- Actionable – Your CTA needs some action on their part for it to be effective; otherwise, all you’re doing is telling them what they already know.
For example, if I told someone, “You need new running shoes,” without providing an easy way for them to buy those shoes online right then and there. Well, then, obviously, this person isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
- Exciting – People often associate words like “free,” “easy,” or “fast” with positive feelings, which makes these types great candidates as CTAs when appropriate (i.,e., not every single email).
Make sure whatever word used here still aligns with who/what brand messaging is being presented though – otherwise, there is a risk of losing credibility with consumers/prospects by coming off disingenuous or misleading content.
Avoid mistakes and maximize results
Crafting your emails with an email marketing strategy in mind will help you avoid common mistakes and maximize results.
Email marketing is a powerful tool that has been proven to be an effective way to get your message out to your target audience. It’s also a great way to build brand awareness, generate leads and sales, and build loyalty.
With all of these benefits, it’s no wonder that email marketing campaigns have become so popular with businesses of all types (big or small). However, if you want to take full advantage of this powerful platform, then you need to take some time planning out your strategy before jumping right in.
Crafting your emails with an email marketing strategy in mind will help you avoid common mistakes and maximize results.
Conclusion
Don’t get discouraged if you don’t see the results you want right away. Developing an effective email marketing strategy can take time, and it is important to experiment with different approaches to find what works best for your company.
For example, you might try sending your emails at different times of the day or tweaking the subject line. By constantly monitoring and testing your emails, you will be able to optimize them over time
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