Is your email marketing strategy not driving your engagement and conversions?
Your email lists are an important part of your overall marketing strategy. Email is the most cost-effective way to promote your business and communicate with your target consumers.
In fact, for every $1 you spend on email marketing (and with the right online marketing company to guide you through the noise), you get an expected return of $43! That figure climbed up from $40 just in 2017.
But some businesses find it difficult to write copy that will compel their leads to buy. If you’re one of those businesses, think about the type of copy your emails are using: was there any strategic planning involved? Is it working?
If you answered no to both, then these trade secrets will help improve your email marketing strategy so that you can get more leads and sales:
1. Encourage readers to reply.
The purpose of email marketing is to usher in meaningful discussions with potential customers, and simply rattling off information to leads and clients will not work. So instead of wasting your time and theirs, always keep these three variables in mind:
a. Begin with a killer subject line.
Distinguish your email from thousands of others by grabbing the reader’s attention right off the bat. We’ve noticed that the best subject lines are those that speak to the audience directly, and which promise something that the other emails in the person’s inbox can’t.
When people surmise that by opening your email, they’re either gaining an advantage or avoiding the feeling of missing out, then you’ve successfully achieved the first step in email marketing. That is, you’ve put your foot in the door, and opened their minds to new possibilities only your business can offer.
b. Adopt a distinct, likeable voice.
Okay, so you’ve succeeded in getting the reader to open your email. But this does not automatically mean that your email won’t be deleted any time soon. To reduce the possibility of this happening, make sure your words sound like they’re from an actual person with thoughts and feelings; not a robotic, digital marketing instrument.
c. Target your content.
We can’t stress enough how important it is for you to know your audience. For your email marketing to work, segmenting your email lists by reader demographic is a good step that should not be missed, since this helps fabricate a message that can really resonate with and engage your audience. When your content speaks to your audience, they are more likely to make a purchase or even share your service to other potential clients.
These strategies are all meant for one thing: to get your customers to respond. Sure, clicking a link in your email is a victory in itself, but the main goal is to get a positive reaction from your customer.
2. Nail the Preview Text
If your killer subject line got you through the door, your preview text (which is a simple line or two which gives subscribers an idea about the content of your email) will basically be your introductory speech. Depending on the client, it could range from 35 to 140 characters. A good copywriter will be able to craft one with no problem at all.
Since preview texts appear below your subject automatically, it’s prime real estate that should not be wasted. You could end up having an unclickable link to your websites, or instructions on how to read your email, and we don’t want that.
3. Optimize Your Content for Web
There isn’t a lot of difference between writing email marketing copy and web copy.
This is an important tip when writing for online marketing: People don’t read on the web, they scan. Don’t overwhelm your readers with long sentences and never-ending paragraphs; they’ll just lose attention halfway through. Designing your email in a way that breaks up your ideas into short, punchy subheads, numbered lists, and bite-sized pieces of information is more effective in helping your reader absorb your content.
Mobile users are also more likely to read your content when it’s scannable. A study by Litmus revealed that 54% of email opens are done on portable devices.
If you ask any digital marketing company, these criteria are to be carefully considered when writing email copy:
- Maintain a logical structure.
- KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid).
- Stick to one main idea per paragraph.
- Use bullets and subheadings to break up blocks of text.
4. Use Psychology to Your Advantage
It’s important to understand how the human mind works in order to predict buyer behavior. In theory, using psychology in email marketing strategy can help you create high-converting email marketing copy.
Some consumer traits that could influence them to read and click include:
- FOMO, or Fear of missing out.
This is why ‘limited time only’ promotional techniques work so well, because people don’t like losing opportunities. In the same vein, scarcity and urgency could be used when writing your email copy to make more people click,
- Color choices
Different colors evoke different reactions. Applying this to CTA buttons as well as other design features in the email will help get your readers more interested in what you have to say. If you don’t have an in-house marketing team, then your online marketing company will be able to provide directions for which colors to use for your specific business.
- Photos of people
Faces elicit an emotional reaction in readers because they’re relatable. Having faces that gaze towards your CTA, for example, will help induce readers to click on it.
- Social proof
This prompts readers to think that people of their stature patronize your company, which makes them more inclined to read your emails.
5. Be Relevant
Don’t go for generic marketing if at all possible—delivering generic messages to a large and relatively undefined audience is shown to be less effective, despite the wide reach. Any digital marketing company worth their salt will tell you that targeted marketing is more precise, and aims marketing messages at smaller, defined targeted segments or even individual people. Aka, people who are more likely to respond.
Relevant emails improve open and click-through rates, so remember that segmentation is vital.
6. Punctuate Properly and Prudently
You might think that in order to stand out, you have to ‘shout’ in your emails (aka, write LIKE THIS!!! IN UPPERCASE LETTERS!!! AND MULTIPLE EXCLAMATION MARKS!!!)
But using them unnecessarily is just considered lazy, spammy email marketing. It will hurt, more than help, your email open rate. Subscribers are also more likely to report these emails, and may even affect your email deliverability or get you blacklisted.
Another thing to note is the use of emoticons. 🙂 While they may seem more in-the-now, they aren’t significantly helpful in improving engagement and conversions.
Now that you know what it takes to create effective email marketing copy that converts, expect your open click-through rates to skyrocket.
For more marketing tips and guidance on drafting your overall marketing strategy, Muzeum offers a range of services that can help you turn your marketing game from zero to a hundred.
Call us today at 1-888-311-1053 or send us an email for more information on how Muzeum can help you connect with your customers.
