Email Components

There are various components that make an effective email. The subject line, imagery, copy and call to action are all crucial to a successful email marketing campaign.

email marketing

Audience

Your strategy must include your buyer’s journey to align your emails to the right audience.

Potential customers should be getting welcome and promotional emails.

Existing customers should be getting regular newsletters and seasonal or holiday emails.

Long term clients should get loyalty discounts and offers.

Subject Line

The subject line is your first chance to convey a good first impression. It will determine if they will open the email. Therefore a sense of urgency and tone help drive opens. The subject line should also match the body of the email and be engaging as well as relevant to the recipient.

Subject lines can be with the following tones:

  • Self-Interest: direct, benefit, provide a clue (‘‘28 ways to increase organic social traffic’)
  • Curiosity: generate interest, not giving away too much information (‘Pokemon GO: 3 Marketing Mistakes, Millions of Users Lost!’)
  • Offer: free stuff, give something away (‘10-week live training and certification’)
  • Urgency: scarcity, limited availability, act now (‘Are you In or Out?’)
  • Humanity: person behind the product, thank a user, human appeal for attention (‘Why I (kinda) HATE surveys… ’)
  • News: new features, latest developments (‘ANNOUNCING: Marketing Mastery Class’)
  • Social Proof: success stories, familiar names, highlighting number of users (‘[Case Study] $25,865/mo in recurring revenue’)
  • Story: tell a story, tease the beginning (‘I got Botox—& THIS is what it looked like’)

You can have a better open rate for emails that have personalized subject lines. Segmentation also further increases email opens by 14% and clicks by 100% as the subject line is relevant to the recipient. Always keep in mind that spelling errors in subject lines are an unacceptable mistake.

Email Copy

It is essential to grab attention, build anticipation, call the reader to action and target to the right recipient.

Setting the right tone will engage the reader to go through the entire email and capture their

Attention. Write like you are talking to a friend and keep it to the point

Keeping the email scannable will allow the reader to skim through the finer points before reading it completely. This means having punchy subheadings, bullets lists and short paragraphs.

Focus more on the reader by meeting their needs and providing value.

Ask yourself, what’s in it for them? Describe the benefits rather then features.

Make sure you keep in line with the subject like and follow through on what you promised. Knowing your target marketing by learning through market research will give you a bigger chance for your subscribers to relate to your emails.

Create a sense of urgency such as deadlines for a sale to encourage to take action immediately.

Keep the font legible and consistent.

Legal Requirements

Always have a working unsubscribe link or a preference center in the footer of the email as well as a postal address.

Some optional entries in the email footer can include your social media links and privacy policy.

Call to Action

This is arguably the most important part of the email, with which you can generate a ROI on your email marketing efforts.

Here are some examples:

  • Apply Now
  • Book Now
  • Download Now
  • Learn More
  • Buy Now
  • Sign Up

The guidelines for having an effective call to action are the following:

  • Use action verbs
  • Make it obvious
  • Set expectations
  • Bring you somewhere
  • Give a sense of urgency

Images

Be careful with using images in emails. Email with images are not a replica of a print mailer or brochure and not all email service providers will display your email images. Overusing images may land you in spam as well.

Here are some best practices for using images:

  • Use your brand assets
  • Product photos
  • Size your images
  • Use pixel tracking images
  • Use the less than 25% rule
  • Include alt and title text
  • Don’t trap your messages

Final Thoughts

Email Marketing remains the best digital marketing strategy in terms of ROI, simply because the subscribers are at the bottom of the funnel, classified as warm and interested leads, and ready to be converted into clients.

Are you struggling to get any traction or results with your email marketing? Click here to get an email marketing strategy in place designed to get you and your business results!