Ready to create an email campaign that drives customer conversion and boosts click-through rates? These five lesser-known tips to crafting engaging emails will help you achieve better results, fast.
Email Elements
1. Subject Line
Most people’s email inboxes are overflowing with newsletters, flyers and brand announcements. Grabbing the reader’s attention and convincing them to click all starts with a dynamic, compelling subject line. Without it, all the awesome stuff inside your email doesn’t matter one bit.
When it comes to creating a killer subject line, a sense of urgency is the number-one ingredient. You want your reader to feel like they’re missing out on something if they don’t open your message.
Examples:
- Your Competition is CPR Certified, Are You?
- Tired of Virtual? Get Hands-On Training for Just [Open to Reveal Pricing]
- Real Estate Agent? This Local Training is for YOU
- Grow Your Practice in 2022 >> We Can Show You How!
- FINAL CALL: Early Bird Pricing for 2022 Yoga Teacher Training
Be careful with tone. You don’t want to come across as threatening (“It ends today”, “You have until Monday…”). Combine a sense of urgency with the personalization that comes from focusing on your potential customer, their problems, and how you can help solve them.
2. Call to Action
CTAs (Calls to Action) are crucial to the success of any email campaign because they tell the reader what next steps to take.
Limit your email CTA to a single action step. What do you most want readers to do at the end of your email?
Some businesses are promoting an online course; invite readers to click a button that says “Enroll Now”. Others are inviting readers to explore a new product line; a simple “Shop the Collection” button works great.
But beware: a multiplicity of options leads to reader overwhelm and low click-through rates. Choose one ‘next step’, and stick to it throughout the email body.
Examples of powerful CTAs:
- Reserve Your Spot
- Get Early Bird Pricing
- Join the Revolution
- Start Saving Now
- Count Me In
- Begin Your Journey
Adding CTA buttons to your emails (2-3 with the same message or theme) can greatly increase the traffic back to your website.
3. Message Clarity
The body/copy of your email should follow a simple formula: address the reader, acknowledge the problem they’re facing, introduce your product or service as the answer to their problem, tell them the plan for success, and end with a goal (how you can help them win).
For maximum clarity, here are a handful of questions to ask as you write email content:
- Who am I writing to? This will almost always be your ideal customer.
- What problem am I addressing? There might be more than one. If this is part of a campaign, consider addressing a different problem for each email.
- What is the solution? This is your main announcement, but frame it as the solution to their problem as opposed to a general invitation.
- What is the plan? This is your Call to Action (see point no. 2 for more details).
- What will success look like? You started with their problem; now, illustrate what their future will look like if they follow the plan (your CTA) and get the solution they need.
4. Visual Appearance
Simplicity is good, but an email that’s too simple becomes boring.
Even plain text can become overwhelming as readers try to decipher the highlights of what you’re saying. Most readers will skim an email for the main idea, so make sure you catch their eye and deliver your message through both the text and the images.
According to recent research, emails with three images and around 20 lines of text report the highest click-through rates.
Don’t be afraid to get creative with your layout, but steer clear of filler videos, GIFs, text, and images. When the average person spends 8 seconds or less scanning your email, every little detail counts.
5. Personalization
Dale Carnegie said, “A person’s name is to that person, the sweetest, most important sound in any language.”
Using your reader’s preferred name is a sure-fire way to move your email from the promotions folder into your reader’s direct line of vision.
When gathering data on your potential customer, always include a field that allows them to input their first name. Auto populate any and all email introductions with that name, and watch as your click-through rate increases without you lifting a finger.
More Ways to Personalize Your Email:
- Automatically populate their first name and address them in the subject line. Examples of successful subject fields that include a first name are, ‘[Name], Have You Seen This?’ or ‘We Think You’ll Love This Deal, [Name]’.
- Refer to a specific service or product they have already purchased. An example of this could be sending a customer more personalized content about what to expect when assembling a product, attending a conference, or implementing a brand new tool.
At Goalpost Group, we help our clients break the cycle of bad marketing using strategy, structure, and killer content that drives sales and wins the day. Get in touch with a member of our team to learn more about how we can help transform your marketing.
