5 Tips to Help You Create High-Quality Emails
Email newsletters provide readers with essential information about your business, such as announcements, engaging and informative content, and promotions. This form of communication was designed to keep your audience informed and updated and give you leverage to nurture subscribers and build the trust that is essential for them to purchase from you – whether immediately or down the road. Create high-quality emails that engage prospects and keep your domain off the blacklist.
Why Creating High-Quality Emails is More Important than Ever
Microsoft conducted research on how smartphones leave people with shorter attention spans than that of a goldfish, which some estimates have shown is a mere nine seconds.
Microsoft research surveyed 2,000 participants in which they, assessed the brain activity of 112 of the participants, and found the attention span of the average human declined from 12 seconds in 2000 – when smartphone use first got started – to just 8 seconds today.
The acceleration of smartphone usage and the ensuing decrease in attention span has substantially increased the need for exceptional writing skills. For instance, if you’re unable to grab the reader’s attention with a catchy subject line, you’re not going to get them even to open your email. Also, if you can’t quickly and easily explain your offer, they’re not going to take the time to click through and purchase your products.
How to Create High-Quality Emails
While there are many components of crafting high-quality emails, we’ve highlighted the most significant ones to get you started.
1. Use a Familiar Name within Your Email
The “from” name within the emails you send is typically the first thing subscribers will look at once your email hits their inbox. Many subscribers base their decision to even open up an email on the “from” name. Therefore, you must match the “from” name with your audience’s expectations.
For example, say you subscribe to Forbes Magazine’s newsletter. Would you be more inclined to open emails from “Forbes Magazine” or “Steve Forbes”? Chances are, because you signed up to receive emails through the Forbes Magazine website, you’re probably expecting to receive emails from Forbes Magazine, even though Steve Forbes is the editor-in-chief.
2. Balance Out the Content of Your Newsletter
Your subscribers likely didn’t subscribe to hear about your products and services only. Although they might be loyal to your brand and want to hear from you, they’ll eventually tune you out if your emails only contain product promotions.
You want to keep your email newsletters balanced, where the majority (90%) of the content is informative, timely, relevant, and educational, and only 10% is promotional.
3. Include a Short Subject Line
The length of your subject line is another important factor in whether the subscriber will even open the email. While the length of the subject line typically doesn’t have a tremendous impact on open and click-through rates, you should try and keep your subject line to under 30 characters. This will help ensure the entire subject will completely appear on mobile devices and desktops.
Aside from the length of your subject line, you should also use various power words to help improve open rates. Some include:
- Introducing
- News
- Update
- Invitation
- Offer
4. Set Subscribers’ Expectations at the Start
Excite potential subscribers before they receive the first newsletter by telling them exactly what your newsletter will include and how frequently they’ll hear from you.
5. Choose the Main Call-to-Action
Chances are your newsletter will feature different content requiring specific call-to-actions (CTAs). However, keep in mind that all CTAs don’t share equal prominence.
You’ll need to decide on one main CTA (the primary thing you want your subscribers to do). Then, if needed, you can have additional CTAs that serve as options for your subscribers to investigate. This could be a simple “forward to a friend” or “click-through to see our most recent blog post”.
Are You Ready to Increase Your Open and Click-Through Rates?
With these simple five best practices, you’ll be on the road to creating high-quality emails and making your next email newsletter campaign stand out. By incorporating one or more of these tips, you’ll see an improvement in open and click-through rates, ultimately driving additional sales and profitability.
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