How To Write Email Campaigns That Get Read And Responded To
Despite all the hype over Facebook and Twitter, email continues to be the warhorse of internet marketing. It can be used to build trust, create rapport and sell more of your products. That is, of course, as long as people read your emails.
When writing emails, a copywriters first goal is to ensure theyre opened. The key to this is, of course, is the subject line. Unless the subject lines copywriting builds the readers excitement or interest, then the email isnt going to get read.
A common mistake is to write email subjects that are clever or witty. The problem with this approach is that you risk confusing people who might not understand your humour or what youre hinting at. Being clever or witty also doesnt give your recipients a strong reason to read your message.
So how can you write emails that get opened faster than presents on Christmas Day?
The key to writing subject lines is to focus on the reader (rather than the copywriters creative brilliance). Think about why they should read your email. Whats in it for them? What benefit will they gain from reading your message?
This could be the promise of news, exclusive information or suggesting you have a solution to a common problem. Starting an email with This is how.. or a question (e.g.Do you know why) are two powerful copywriting tactics you can try.
Keep it short and avoid spammy words
With different email providers offering different size windows to read subject lines, its a good idea to keep your subject lines short. A maximum of 50 characters is a good target, which is about 10 words. This ensures most people can read the whole subject line and understand what benefit youre offering.
Try to avoid using spammy words like Free, Help and Percent off. These risk sending your email to the junk pile, and in tests these words have shown to lower open rates.
So in summary, write email subject lines focused on the recipient that suggest what benefit theyll gain from reading your message. And save your creative or witty brainwaves for the message itself.
Email readership is on the rise
There are plenty of social media gurus youll arrogantly tell you that email is dead. Theyll tell you that social media is where everybody is spending their time these days, and that people are so busy Tweeting and reading peoples Facebook updates that they dont have time to read stale old emails. To put it bluntly, these gurus are wrong. The fact is that email readership is actually on the rise.
Why? Because people are now reading email in those spare moments throughout the day on their smartphones and tablets. In fact, there has been a massive 81 percent rise in readership of email on mobile devices. So email is far from dead. Its evolving and now mobile.
What this means is that along with writing punchy, benefit packed emails, you need to ensure they look good on a mobile device. Thankfully, most email marketing services, such as Mail Chimp and Aweber, are ahead of the curve and already enable you to send emails optimised for miniaturized screens.
Optimising the entire path, from mobile to your website
Another effect of the shift to mobile is that when people click through your message you have to ensure your website provides a smooth experience on mobile devices. You can achieve this with responsive web design which automatically adjusts the size of your text, images and other elements to suit the screen size they appear on. So if you havent already, its worth checking how your website looks on a mobile device so you can ensure your email campaigns not only get read but can also generate traffic and sales on your website.
When writing emails, a copywriters first goal is to ensure theyre opened. The key to this is, of course, is the subject line. Unless the subject lines copywriting builds the readers excitement or interest, then the email isnt going to get read.
A common mistake is to write email subjects that are clever or witty. The problem with this approach is that you risk confusing people who might not understand your humour or what youre hinting at. Being clever or witty also doesnt give your recipients a strong reason to read your message.
So how can you write emails that get opened faster than presents on Christmas Day?
The key to writing subject lines is to focus on the reader (rather than the copywriters creative brilliance). Think about why they should read your email. Whats in it for them? What benefit will they gain from reading your message?
This could be the promise of news, exclusive information or suggesting you have a solution to a common problem. Starting an email with This is how.. or a question (e.g.Do you know why) are two powerful copywriting tactics you can try.
Keep it short and avoid spammy words
With different email providers offering different size windows to read subject lines, its a good idea to keep your subject lines short. A maximum of 50 characters is a good target, which is about 10 words. This ensures most people can read the whole subject line and understand what benefit youre offering.
Try to avoid using spammy words like Free, Help and Percent off. These risk sending your email to the junk pile, and in tests these words have shown to lower open rates.
So in summary, write email subject lines focused on the recipient that suggest what benefit theyll gain from reading your message. And save your creative or witty brainwaves for the message itself.
Email readership is on the rise
There are plenty of social media gurus youll arrogantly tell you that email is dead. Theyll tell you that social media is where everybody is spending their time these days, and that people are so busy Tweeting and reading peoples Facebook updates that they dont have time to read stale old emails. To put it bluntly, these gurus are wrong. The fact is that email readership is actually on the rise.
Why? Because people are now reading email in those spare moments throughout the day on their smartphones and tablets. In fact, there has been a massive 81 percent rise in readership of email on mobile devices. So email is far from dead. Its evolving and now mobile.
What this means is that along with writing punchy, benefit packed emails, you need to ensure they look good on a mobile device. Thankfully, most email marketing services, such as Mail Chimp and Aweber, are ahead of the curve and already enable you to send emails optimised for miniaturized screens.
Optimising the entire path, from mobile to your website
Another effect of the shift to mobile is that when people click through your message you have to ensure your website provides a smooth experience on mobile devices. You can achieve this with responsive web design which automatically adjusts the size of your text, images and other elements to suit the screen size they appear on. So if you havent already, its worth checking how your website looks on a mobile device so you can ensure your email campaigns not only get read but can also generate traffic and sales on your website.
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