Email marketing has the potential to reach considerably more prospective customers than any other marketing campaign. Everyone has an email address while not everyone is active on social media or reads their postal mail that arrives in their physical mailbox each day.
You can capitalize on this by developing an effective email marketing message that stands out in a crowd of junk and promotional messages that your target market audience already receives. Here are five tips that will help you develop effective email content messages.
1. Create an Eye-Catching Headline
As emails arrive in a customer’s inbox, he scans the message, taking notice of the subject line first. The content that he reads there will make the difference between that email message clicking ‘open’ for viewing or moving to the trash folder. You have a few seconds to catch his attention and make him want to read more of what that message has to say.
An attention grabbing email headline will contain approximately 50 characters of text. Anything more and you run the risk of that email making its way into the trash folder. Try to use keywords that are popular with your target audience. Avoid using words such as ‘free’ or ‘no risk’ in your email subject line content. Email spamming systems consistently use these words in their subject line titles. When the same words appear in your title, it may prompt the email system to send your message to the spam folder instantly.
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2. Be Direct
Your reader does not have a lot of time to devote to your email message. He may also be receiving the email while on his smartphone. That means he most likely is in the middle of another application when your email comes in. Make sure your content matches this four point criteria to maximize the time you have to grab the reader’s attention.
- Intention – State your intention for contacting the reader in a clear, concise manner.
- Benefit – Answer the question “What’s in it for me/” for the reader.
- Action – Provide the next step you want the reader to take.
- Next – Direct the reader on how to take your call to action.
Keep sentence structure to a minimum of two sentences for each of these points. Content should provide as much information as possible without creating a lengthy document.
3. Be Personal
It is impossible to think that you will be able to sit down and write a personal email to every member of your subscription list. However, you can still add a touch of personalization here and there throughout your email to make the reader feel value and appreciation. When a reader feels a sense of value and appreciation from a company he does business with, it increases the likelihood that he will engage in business with you.
You should also mention any personal contact or shared connection that you share with the reader. It shows that you take notice of the little things in your relationship with customers. Adding personal details is an excellent way to establish a personal connection with potential clients and nurture relationships already in place with current clients.
4. Simple Action Call
As the content message of your email begins to come to a close, you want to prompt a potential client or current customer to take an action with your business. It is what your entire email has been working towards since your introduction. It is what will determine whether your email marketing campaign is a success or a failure.
Keep your call to action simple and straightforward and only include one call to action. You are eager to start forming a connection with a potential customer or nurturing your relationship with a current client. Avoid letting this eagerness create several call to actions as your email comes to a close. If you want the customer to contact you, have a call to action for one method to do this, such as email, phone call or text, instead of providing all three options. Pick the one action you want them to take and state that in a clear, concise manner.
5. Avoid Selling
The focus of your email message should be to motivate the customer to do business with you. You need to establish a sense of trust, value and that you are the only possible solution to their problem. To do this, offer a suggestion for how to do something better or share a practice you use in your business to meet a growing need for the target market audience. Let your message be enough at this point to prompt the customer to take further action with your company.
The key to making a sale through an email marketing campaign is to share something of value with your target market audience. Show them that you appreciate their business and are here to solve their problems. As they gain your trust, they will begin to come to you on a regular basis and add value to your profit margin.