How many emails do you write a day? 20? 50? If you’re anything like us, you lose track by lunch. So it’s easy to think that email marketing is just an extension of a muscle you flex all day every day. But there are a lot (and we mean A LOT) of best practices, dos and don’ts, tips and tricks, insert your colloquialism of choice here, about crafting engaging emails that convert. We’re breaking down just a few of them to get you started with a kick-@$$ email newsletter.
The process of creating and sending an engaging email newsletter starts well before you start designing and writing. In fact, the most critical component of any successful email marketing campaign has nothing to do with an eye-catching design or persuasive copy. It’s all about building and maintaining a healthy email list.
There are plenty of elements of a good email list - so many that there are people in the world who spend their entire day ensuring the health of their CRM and the important data it holds. But it really comes down to one simple question: does everyone on your list want to be there?
HubSpot has a “sniff test” for determining whether your email list has gone bad that includes checking these five boxes:
Once you’ve determined who you want to send your newsletter to, you need to work on getting them to actually open it. Your subject line acts as your first (and all too often, last) impression. So while it’s tempting to dive into the fun and creative side of crafting your email (see the next tip), it’s important not to gloss over this or to treat it as an afterthought.
If you’ve been writing emails for a long time you might think that you can craft pure gold off the top of your head. And maybe you can. But for the rest of us mere mortals, here’s a trick. Try brainstorming at least 10 (it’s better if you can get to 20) subject lines for your email. Forcing yourself to come up with options will help you step outside of the box and to craft something really eye-catching. It also helps to have a few guidelines to keep in mind when writing subject lines:
For a few (dozen) examples of great subject lines crafted for today’s readers, check out Campaign Monitor’s 2021 Best Practices. We also highly recommend checking out Coschedule’s free headline analyzer tool. It’s a lifesaver, even for seasoned pros.
The ins and outs of branding strategy and marketing copywriting are rabbit holes that we can’t get into in this post, but of course, we have some best practices we can share. If you’re using an email marketing program that comes with pre-designed templates, consider starting with one of those and tweaking it to match your brand. A lot of really smart people have put a lot of research and time into creating those templates and generally, they’re a great place to start with your design.
You’ll definitely want to update the template to fit your brand though. No one likes a cookie-cutter email. Try to deliver a consistent experience across all of your digital efforts - from your website to your social media profiles to your email designs. That way, when someone sees your work, they’ll learn to immediately recognize it as yours - and brand recognition is always the goal when you’re talking design.
A few other technical details to consider:
We won’t spell that out for you, but you get the picture. In email marketing - as in all persuasive writing - it’s best to keep your messaging clear and concise. People are busy and their inboxes are full. If you capture someone’s attention long enough to get them to open your email, don’t waste their time with fluff. Constant Contact says emails that are about 200 words long have the best click-through rate. If you’re reaching out to your audience less frequently - say in a monthly newsletter - you have a bit more freedom in your word count, but limit each highlight to 200 words or less - and preferably less.
Don’t waste your precious word count being overly salesy or flowery, just be helpful and get to the point. It also helps if you have one simple goal in mind for your email. What is it you want people to do? Is it to sign up for an event? Download a content offer? Buy a product? Tailor the entire email around that message and include ONE easy-to-understand call-to-action. Giving people too many options just confuses them.
Please, we’re begging you, do not blast your email to your entire database without first sending it to yourself and checking it on both desktop and mobile. Apple, Gmail, and Outlook have really cornered the email platform market, so at least check your design in those formats to make sure everything looks groovy. And the testing shouldn’t end when you click “send.” Once you’ve crafted and sent your masterpiece, make sure it had the intended impact by monitoring these five key metrics.
So there you have it, folks. A quick and dirty guide to sending emails people will be happy to open. And a happy audience means more moolah in your pockets. Want to start printing money using email? Send us one.
