Send better emails.
Aside from the planning and list maintenance, email marketing today is all about content and structure. Putting the right pieces of information in front of your audience’s eyes at the right time and in the right way. Here’s some pointers to guide you to the sweet spot.
Select your main message.
It can be difficult to absorb and remember many messages. Choose one thing you want to say with your email and focus on it. If you have many things you want to say, it may be better to divide it into several emails.
Headers and intro text.
Much of email marketing takes its inspiration from newspapers. The humble newspaper has used a standard formula for decades and for a good reason. It works.
Take the front page of a daily paper, you’ll immediately see the main headline—the most newsworthy item of the day. Followed closely by a strong, eye-catching image and then a short synopsis of the story, before heading into the article.
Translate that into the emails and newsletters and you can use the same formula to create a basic structure for an entire newsletter, or shorter mailout—even with no images as a plain email. Header, intro, plus image, followed by your copy.
Place your Call To Actions (CTA).
What moves the email away from the printed newspaper is that you can use a call to action to provoke a desired response from the reader. The easiest way to make a strong call to action is by stating clearly what you want the user to do. Ie- “Click here to find out more”. Or, “Buy Now”.
As today we tend to browse online in shorter periods, it’s sometimes a good idea to place your most important call to action towards the top of your email, under your lead story or piece of information.
With Minutemailer, you can make your call to action stronger by placing your text on a nice big, clickable button.
Break things up.
The beauty of email today is that it’s got functions that help a reader work their way through what you’ve got to say. A big block of text is always a little intimidating for anyone, which is why we recommend keeping plain text emails nice and short.
If you’re writing something longer, a newsletter for example, use design elements like dividers, images and headers (as above) to help your mail appear shorter and easier to digest. Psychologically, the user will see smaller stories and be more inclined to read your entire mail in one sitting.
A picture is worth a thousand words.
Most people receive a lot of emails every day in their inbox and may not be able to absorb all the information. Use images in the email to get your message through and make the email easier to absorb.
It may be worth spending some time and budget to produce one or a few really good images. Try deleting text and replace it with images.
Subject lines are the key to success.
Virtually all of the email marketing experts say the same thing about subject lines. They’re the most important part of your whole email. It’s the difference between your email being opened, or deleted on sight.
So invest some time in that little sentence. If you’re unsure what to say, keep things honest and simple. If you have a sale on t-shirts, say so: “Big Sale on T-Shirts this week.”
Test, then schedule or send.
Minutemailer has a preview function for a reason. So you can take a look at your mail and how it will appear in an inbox—be it a standalone computer or smart phone.
Take five minutes to check your images aren’t pixellated, and that your text is flowing nicely. If you’ve the luxury of a colleague or friend, send them a test mail and ask what they think—it’s easy to get snow-blind and an extra pair of eyes can be helpful.
Good luck with your emails and if you need further help check our guides, blog posts, social media or just ask us.
Also read our guide to writing better subject lines.