Businesses have been sending each other emails for so long that it’s become second nature.
“I’ll shoot you an email.”
“Let me dash off an email, and I’ll be right there.”
But there’s an art to writing a good email, especially if that message is part of your marketing strategy. When done right, email marketing can help you cultivate your audience and share great content. Let’s look at a few uncomplicated ways you can strengthen your email marketing efforts.
1. Craft a great subject line
Your email marketing campaign won’t work if people send your messages straight to the trash without opening them. One way to decrease the odds of that happening is to create a subject that gets your readers’ attention.
You could:
- Make them an offer (“Download our new email marketing webinar”)
- Appeal to their curiosity (“Why Jim Tollson’s business landed him in jail”)
- Tell them something is urgent (“Seats at our conference are nearly SOLD OUT”)
Give them a reason to open your message, and keep it short. You’ll note that all our fake subject line examples are under 50 characters. Try to stick to that number.
2. Keep it short and simple
Save the long reads for your blog. No one wants to have to scroll through an email the size of a New York Times Magazine article.
Keep your messages short and to the point. It’s not like college, where you needed to turn in a five-page paper to make the grade. Your readers want bite-sized chunks of info, and to know what to do next.
Keep your email templates simple. That means using a good amount of white space, not too many images, and responsive design (meaning your message is readable whether users are on desktops, tablets, phones, etc.). It’s important that your messages are mobile friendly, as nearly half of all email opens happen on mobile.
3. Use segmentation
Your content may not always be relevant to everyone in your audience. That’s why segmentation is so important for your email marketing efforts. More than three quarters of the return companies get on their email marketing investment comes from segmented campaigns.
Segmentation is what it sounds like: you’re dividing your audience into smaller segments, and sending them content that’s relevant to them. That way, emails aimed at, say, engineers, wouldn’t go to salespeople, and vice versa.
As the marketing platform Hubspot, notes, segmentation – and the lead nurturing it allows – has helped marketers make huge gains in turning leads into customers. Their research shows that targeting emails to various buyer personas increases clickthroughs by 16 percent.
4. Give readers an incentive
Your email may look great and read well, but what are you offering readers in exchange for opening? Your message should include valuable content – case studies, white papers, offers to attend a webinar – that matches the recipients’ stage in the buyer’s journey.
For example, readers who are in the consideration stage, the middle part of the buyer’s journey, would do well with a case study. Those who are closer to becoming customers would benefit from a free demonstration or trial.
Are you ready to launch a new email marketing campaign but aren’t sure where to begin? Let IQnection guide you.
Our digital marketing experts can work with you to create and maintain customized email lists for your company. Contact us today, and we’ll help you craft emails that speak to your audience.
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