Email marketing is a form of digital marketing that allows businesses to communicate with existing and potential customers through email.
Although there are different types of email marketing, such as transactional email marketing, automated marketing, and marketing analytics, the basic premise is the same – businesses can send emails to customers to promote products and services, and get feedback about those products and services.
If you’re looking to get started with email marketing or need some help understanding the fundamentals, this article is for you. Here are some essential tips for writing effective emails that will boost your open rates and click-through rates, and convince more people to buy your product or service.
Subject Lines That Work
If you’re using email marketing just to send invoices and transactional emails, you may be missing out on the opportunity to capture a larger audience. While this type of email can be useful in getting a customer’s attention, it usually isn’t ideal for engaging potential customers in an informative manner.
If you want to effectively use email marketing to grow your business, you need to understand how to write good subject lines that will make your email stand out from the rest. One of the simplest yet most effective ways to do this is to use specific words and phrases that your audience is most likely to understand and relate to.
For example, if you sell clothing, and you want to send an email to your customers to promote a special sale event, you can write:
“Hey [customer name], hope you are enjoying your new clothing purchase! We have a limited number of shirts available for sale at a discounted price. If you’d like to get your hands on one before the sale ends, simply follow the instructions below…”
In this case, the customer is likely to relate to the phrase “new clothing purchase” and understand that they are to follow the instructions in the email to get the discount.
Personalize Your Email
Since the entire premise of email marketing is to connect with customers on a personal level, you have the opportunity to really stand out from the crowd. With that, you can encourage customers to open your emails and engage with you on a more personal level.
Simply put, whenever possible, you should try and be personal in your emails. For example, if you are sending an email to a potential customer to promote a product or service, you can write:
“Hello [customer name],
Just wanted to let you know that I thought your blog post was very interesting. I love learning about money management and investing, and how to make the most of my money. I’m sure you’d agree that it’s never easy to get ahead, but with careful planning and using the right tools, it’s possible. I’d also like to point out that it’s never too late to start planning, which is why I believe people should always try and save as much money as possible in retirement. Thanks for taking the time to read my blog post, and I wish you the best of luck in your endeavors.”
In this case, the customer receives a personal message from the company, rather than a random mass email that they might otherwise ignore.
Use Action Words
When you write an email to a potential customer, you have the chance to grab their attention by using powerful verbs and nouns. You want to ensure that the recipient understands what you’re asking of them, and that you mean business. Although this type of email can be effective, you need to be careful how you use this type of language, as it might seem overly aggressive.
If you’re writing to gain trust, you may want to avoid using strong verbs and instead use ordinary language. For example, instead of writing:
“Please respond to this email,”
You could write:
“Please get back to me as soon as possible.”
This is similar to the previously mentioned subject line tips, but in this case, you are using more conventional language, which is less likely to scare off the recipient. As a business owner or marketer, you want to ensure that your emails sound like every other business email, which means you should use action words (such as “please”, “thank you”, “urgent”, and “important”) as often as possible. This will help establish your credibility with potential customers.
Avoid Using Exclamation Points
If you’re using an email marketing software tool, you might be led to believe that exclamation points are an essential element of any effective email. This couldn’t be further from the truth. When used correctly, exclamation points can add a bit of excitement to your subject line or email body, but used incorrectly, they can do the opposite.
To prove my point, I would like you to try a quick experiment. The next time you’re about to write an email, go back and reread your email with and without exclamation points. Without them, the email might not seem as exciting or as important as you intended it to be. With them, it tends to stand out a bit more.
Depending on how you use them, exclamation points can either help or hurt your email’s effectiveness. Since we don’t always have the chance to use them in speech, you might want to avoid using them in your emails.
Make Your Subject Line Short And Sweet
Although you might be tempted to write a long subject line with phrases like “key points of the email”, or “things to include in your email”, you should always try and keep your subject line as short as possible. If you write a short subject line, you are more likely to get your email opened by the recipient, and it needs to stand out amongst the dozens of other emails they might be receiving that day. For example, if you’re using an email marketing tool, you might be prompted to enter a subject line when you compose your email. When entering the subject line, you might be given the opportunity to write a shorter subject line, however, you can’t make it any shorter than 8 words. In this case, you can write something like:
“New styles for Spring 2018”
And that’s it. The email will be perfectly formatted and is likely to get delivered to the recipient.
As you can see, this subject line is very short, but it also has an extremely relevant message. The key takeaway from this subject line is that it is short and sweet. Just like the name, the Fall 2017 Prisoner of War Memorial Stadium Series golf tournament product, and the upcoming Autumn-Winter fashion styles, the subject line does not give away too much information. It is short and sweet, and that’s exactly what you need to be in this email marketing game.
Write To Attract
If you’re new to email marketing, you might not know what type of email to write, or you might not know how to effectively use email marketing to grow your business. To aid you in your email marketing endeavors, I’d like to share a few tips on writing good, effective emails. As you’ll see, many of these tips are similar to those discussed previously, but since we’re building a foundation now, it’s a good idea to review those tips again.
Firstly, you need to keep in mind that you’re writing to attract, and you should tailor your emails to appeal to as many people as possible. As an email marketer, this means you should write emails that will draw in a variety of people, whether they are interested in your product or service, or in general just want to read your email.
With that, you can choose any email marketing tool you might be using, and within that tool, you can select which emails to send. Depending on how sophisticated the tool is, you might have the option of selecting email templates, or you can write your own emails and attach them to your messages. In either case, you should look at how to write a good introduction to your email, as this is the first part of your email that will either set the tone for the entire email, or give the reader the information they need to understand and engage with the rest of your email content.
Once you’ve written your introduction, you can move on to the next step, which is to write your body. The body of the email is where you’ll want to include all the information the reader needs to know about your product or service, or to convince them to take action, such as purchasing your product or signing up for your service.