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Creating Emails That People Have To Open
Email is the most effective and inexpensive way to reach your customers and prospects alike. If you can managed them correctly, your email campaigns will provide huge returns. You will get more visibility, maintain and even improve your image, and increase the size of your email lists so your next campaign will have even greater success.
Your email's content is of course, hugely important, and the structure of your email matters more than you might think. By following these 8 steps, readers will not be able to help themselves; they will want to open your emails and act on them (translation: they will read then buy).
1. The more you know
The more you understand your target audience, the better you can determine what the best message is to convey to them. Your message needs to be tailored to suit your objective and your audience simultaneously.
2. Do not go all "Tolstoy" on them
It is not the time to struggle with your inner author. If you want to get overly descriptive and drawn out, go write a book. For email, it's important to keep your messages to the point and succinct. One or two short paragraphs with uncomplicated sentences should be enough to get your message across. People do not want to think too much, and you literally have seconds to impress the reader enough to click and take an action within your message. Try being ironic, or bring in some humor to the mix. Think about how you feel when you get a great email offer that engages you, and actually has something you need. Something you just have to have. The response you want is almost caveman basic: "Offer good. Me want to buy."
3. Be interesting
Simply spell out the offer first thing. Don't let your customers lose interest in your message before you even hit them with the offer of a lifetime. Call out the why the offer is a must have and emphasize the valid time frame for the offer immediately. This sense of urgency will be a nagging inner voice, reminding the reader about this amazing opportunity. Example: "Limited time offer - 25% off Pool Repair when you buy a deluxe pool cleaning kit by April 3rd, 2009!"
4. Ask
Make sure there are call to action links to make it simple for a customer to move forward. Include links right at the beginning, in the middle and at the end of your email to help them take action. In addition to the offer itself, provide supporting documents, a free download, and a link to your website for more resources. They are going to hop, skip and jump around your message. Make sure you're ready for them and collect their contact information whenever it makes sense.
5. Sally sells sea shells
You need to make sure your content is easy to ready. Read it out loud. Seriously - find a private space, and let it roll. If your content reads poorly, or sounds like you're stumbling trying to read it, it is not going to be a simple read for the user. It is time to redo. When you're confident in your work of art, ask another person to review it, they might have some effective suggestions that you didn't even think of, or catch some grammatical errors that you didn't catch.
6. Simplicity in design
A simple design is the most pleasing to the eye. Do not get overly complicated with format. Too many graphics put the brain on sensory overload. However, you need to shoot for the perfect balance. Have a picture of your product or offering? Add it in. Offering a service of sorts? Add in a nice graphic to illustrate. The right balance of pictures and text are the key to email success.
Always make sure you are consistent with your style and image for follow on email campaigns, it helps the customer remember you, and respond accordingly.
7. The best subject
The subject line is the main thing folks will read when your email flies to their inbox, so you need to be sure your subject line relates to the topic of your email. After your email is complete, it is time to make an effective subject line that will entice folks to open it up.
8. Learn the lessons well, Grasshopper.
Track and measure your email campaigns. Write down how many emails bounce, get trashed without being opened, and note how many visits you get to your website. After a time, you can compare the effectiveness of your campaigns and understand why one did better than another. This will allow you to learn from past mistakes, and tweak what you think necessary for the next round. Your email marketing campaigns are sure to evolve as you fine tune your offerings with lessons learned from old campaigns. Give these proven and sound ideas a try. You have got nothing to lose, and many sales to gain.
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