Welcome to the third and final instalment of the email marketing mini-series. In part one we covered Top Tips for Email Marketing, in part two we looked at 5 Steps to Email Marketing Success, and finally, we’re now going to reveal how to create emails that convert.
Email marketing is one of the original digital marketing channels, but it’s far from outdated. Research from The Content Marketing Institute showed that email is still right up there with social media in the top three organic content distribution channels, and is the second most popular method for professionals sharing business-related news stories and information.
With over 4 billion people on the planet using email and opening our inboxes daily being a ritual in everyone’s personal and work life, it’s no wonder email marketing is still going strong. One thing everyone unanimously hates though, especially marketers, is poorly constructed, spammy emails – in this day and age there’s also no need for it. Let’s take a look at the anatomy of a successful email…
Subject Line
Probably the most important part of an email…you cannot generate any traction or engagement if no one is even interested in opening your email. There are roughly 5 different types of email subject lines to drive open rate; Ambiguous, Tempting, Urgent, Personal & Ego driven.
All of these subject line tactics can increase open rates, but the most important factor is that whichever tactic you use you ensure it is appropriate and strikes the right note for the recipient and the content that you’re delivering in the email.
Header/Headline
If your subject line did its job, then it’s up to the header or headline to convince the recipient to keep reading. Microsoft recommends a simple 10-word max headline with a single message.
This message needs to be clear, specific and formatted correctly from a user experience (UX) perspective so that it stands out and is easy to read. This is not a time to use script style fonts or tongue-twisting grammar.
Call to action (CTA)
This is the pinnacle moment and the whole reason you are sending emails in the first place – what do you want the recipient to do? It’s always more effective to have one single action that every other part of the email is focused towards driving attention.
Use hyperlinks to place links behind a button style image to send recipients to landing pages, content downloads, forms or whatever destination you’d like your recipient to reach next.
Bonus tip: If you have the ability to, always select the option to open the CTA link in a new browser window so they can fully focus on where you’re taking them rather than staying in their inbox where they might get distracted.
Trampoline content
This is the content that sits below your CTA but is there to ‘bounce’ the recipient’s attention back up to what matters. Typical trampoline content might be a customer review or testimonial, or other kinds of social proof or validation of your company and why the recipient should be keen to be hearing from you.
The key with trampoline content is that it needs to be related to your CTA but not so interesting that it steals away the recipient’s attention or distracts them from your main CTA.
Personalisation
Personalisation can be separated into 2 categories. One is making sure you address your email recipient by name, not ‘Dear Prospect’…or even worse, ‘Dear BLANK’. Make sure you are utilising your marketing platforms mail merge, merge tag or variable tag functionality to automatically pull your recipient’s name into the email, and potentially the email subject line as well. For more tips on personalisation, read our blog A Guide to Personalising your Email Campaigns.
Secondly, the real meaning behind personalisation is making sure that your email is delivered at the right time and includes the perfect messaging for the recipient. If you use a marketing automation platform as part of your CRM then there are ways to pull in so-called ‘dynamic content’ so you can send relevant messaging to different groups in your database.
If you don’t already have a marketing automation platform, or if the thought of marketing automation seems a little daunting then this is where you can utilise Marketscan Edge – the all in one, no fuss email marketing platform.
Edge allows you to create segmented sending lists of GDPR compliant contacts, create drag and drop email designs that are mobile responsive, create landing pages, forms and pop ups for your CTA’s without a developer and take advantage of clever automation that helps improve lead conversion. With Edge, you also get real-time reporting and insights to arm your sales teams with the latest info on their campaigns.
Squint test
Finally, when you’re ready to hit send, perform the all-important ‘squint test’. This might sound trivial but it’s a really simple and quick check to make sure that the design and layout of your email is optimised for success.
Sit back from your screen and squint whilst looking at your email draft and check that all the elements are the right size, in proportion and well-spaced out. It’s also advisable of course to also send a test and perform a render check to make sure that all your elements work for the various most popular email clients.
Give your emails the Edge
So there you have it, a simple formula for creating emails that convert. Email marketing is one of the most trusted forms of outreach, but creating the right messaging, perfecting the format and interpreting your results can be challenging, which is why our Edge platform is so powerful. If you’re short on time or concerned about complying with GDPR, then Marketscan Edge is the tool for you – get in touch to learn more.
