Email marketing remains one of the most effective ways to reach a customer to build brand awareness and to increase sales throughput. One of the main reasons – although it’s not as obvious as one might think – is the introduction of GDPR.
‘Why?’ you ask. Well, because it means that the people who have opted in to receive mail from you are just that…opted in! This suggests that these people are hoping to receive communications, expecting to get early notifications on great offers, and happy to engage with your emails if they’re able to get some sort of benefit.
So basically, you’re halfway there! The other half? Well, that’s the next step you need to consider…how to convince the person receiving the email to open it and click on the call to action
To help you increase the percentage of email recipients who click through, here are 10 top tips for writing the perfect marketing email.
- Give a clear, recognisable visual cue as to who the email is coming from. Use your logo prominently at the top, or your company’s name in larger type font that the rest of the mail content to ensure instant recognisability.
- Focus your subject line with features & benefits orientated text that really strikes at the core of what a recipient finds valuable. Be specific, for example “Up to 50% off all summer tops” or similar. Ideally, you want to keep your subject line under 30 characters to ensure the whole line displays on mobile, as well as web. There are also key words that attract better open rates than others, including personalising the subject line to include the recipient’s name (there are personalisation tag capabilities in most bulk email programmes.)
- Capture the recipient’s interest with the preheader text (the first few lines of text that are displayed under the main subject, in the inbox before the mail is fully opened. Again, use personalisation tags to bring the recipient’s name into this text, and clear language that highlights how the recipient will benefit from this email.
- Now that you’ve enticed a recipient to open the mail, your body content needs to lead them to your (and their!) desired goal. Use clear text, bullet points, direct language, images and a strong call to action to lead the reader from email to click through. Once you’ve got them to engage, you’ve really moved significantly closer to closing the sale or engaging at a deeper level with your customer.
There are a few methods and frameworks you can lean on to help you make your body content really compelling, including the 4Ps (Promise of benefit, Paint a picture of how this offer changes their life, Proof of how this has worked before and Push to take action) and the BAB formula (Before your solution, After your solution and how you can Bridge the gap for them).
- Big Up your Button! The call to action button in your email is the link between your customer feeling enticed and actually taking the next step – be clever about the text on the button. Instead of ‘sign up now’ say ‘start saving now’ or ‘yes, I’m in!’. Be original and avoid friction words (that grate a recipient’s sense of control) like Download, Apply, Order, Submit.
- Dodge the Spam Filter by keeping the use of spam-targeted words to a minimum – words like ‘free’ and ‘buy’ and ‘deal’ flag spam filters if used too often. And you can also ask your recipient to add you to their mail contact list as this automatically clears your email straight to the recipient’s inbox.
Getting email marketing right doesn’t happen right away, but rest assured that if you apply the above pointers, and continue to send genuinely valuable offers to your mailing list your sales and enquiries will increase.
Find out more about creating the perfect digital marketing campaigns – speak to one of our experts today on 01223 550800 or email info@realnet.co.uk.