Email marketing is effective.

Yes, everyone’s inboxes are overflowing and filters like Gmail’s ‘promotions’ make your sales pitches pretty transparent, but people are still opening and reading and clicking. It’s about crafting an email right, offering value time after time and having a bit of fun.

There is no one formula for the perfect email, but there are guidelines that can help you to create successful emails.

Really think about your subject line 

Your email subject line is how you attract a reader's attention, it needs to stand out and convince the reader to open your email.  There a number of tricks you can use that heighten your chance of an open. For example, use a number or build suspense or use powerful words that incite emotions.

Remember that your readers receive hundreds of emails a week, they browse through them quickly to see if anything ignites their interest, ask yourself if you’d choose to open your own email based on the subject line.

Don’t be dull 

The content of your email should have a personality, one that exudes enthusiasm, interest and relatability. So when you are writing content for email marketing, write like you are speaking to your readers face-to-face, that natural writing style will have readers, reading every word.

We should add, shy away from formulaic writing, it just becomes dull. Following one structure gets boring, quickly.

Write with simplicity and clarity

They say all good writing, has two traits, simplicity and clarity. Your content should always be easy to follow and to the point especially in the “sell” of the email. Unclear and confusing writing shows a lack of quality, but also puts up a barrier of readability. It's always best to use a typical structure; introduction, body and conclusion, it's how we are trained to read. 

You should also use your content to show benefits, provide the opportunity for built-in links and be very clear with your call-to-actions.

Remember to edit, edit, edit. Edit your content and edit your length. Short emails are always more effective.

Use great design 

Design is where you can include some extra personality and really wow your readers. Your design also needs to consider user experience, placement and calls-to-action. The top of your emails needs to engage your readers immediately. 

Before you press send, ensure that your design is responsive as 47% of all emails are opened on a mobile device. 

Be mindful of spammy words

Spammy words like free, buy, click below and even open, trigger your email server to filter your emails into the spam folder. Spam filters are always becoming more sophisticated and more words get added to the spam list each year. It’s a good idea to scan a spam word list before writing your email subject line.

Reward your reader 

Always include some sort of gift or reward. It can be in the form of a useful tip or a great offer. When you provide your reader with a reward it makes your email a worthwhile read and helps to convince that reader to continue to open your emails in the future.

The bottom line, for readers to continue to read your emails, with each send you need to provide value. If value is not there then your email no longer becomes effective. Trust the digital marketing experts at H&C Inc. to put value into your email marketing campaign. Start today by booking a meeting with a member of the H&C Inc. team.