Each medium has its pros and cons, but email has a unique place in a digital strategy. Email is more direct than social and a little further along on the “trust spectrum” (which I coined just then), which means that you managed to gain their trust at some point. At least enough for someone to hand over their contact details. So it stands to reason that they’re interested in hearing from you.
Now your job is to:
- Build further trust in your brand.
- Encourage engagement. Usually in the form of direct action.
- Educate and entertain.
- Have them looking forward to the following email.
Every email is an opportunity to connect with your audience. So here are 13 things to keep in mind before you fire off that email to your hard-won email list.
Listen before you speak.
Like any conversation, you should listen to understand, don’t just start talking. Granted, a mass email is just about the most one-sided conversation you can have, but that doesn’t get you off the hook for not caring about the needs of your audience.
We all know that guy that only ever talks about himself. That guy is someone we all avoid. So why would you want to get emails from him?
If you are writing for a company, you are talking to their audience as if you were the company. This extra layer of complexity makes it a challenge because you have to understand your company goals, your brand tone of voice, the campaign’s key messaging, and your audience. You need to know all of this intimately before you even start discussing what goes in the email.
How do you listen to a customer?
There are many direct and indirect ways. An excellent place to start is looking for the group you are targeting on social media. Use Facebook and Reddit to listen to them. What are their hopes and dreams? How do they feel about your brand right now? Or your competitors? What annoys them, and what delights them? How do they speak?
Speak only when you have something to say
If you have nothing to say, spend some time listening. Never betray your audience’s trust or waste their time by sending an email for the sake of meeting your marketing quota. It would be far better to email a few times a year than to betray your audience’s trust by padding out your email schedule with pointless emails.
A few words to say it all.
Depending on the device, the format, and the orientation, you might only see 30-40 characters before the text is cut-off. So you only have a few words to get people to take notice.
You don’t have to summarise your whole email in four words. Or that you are only allowed to have one message in your entire email, but the email needs to be opened before it can be read.
The simple fact is; you only have one subject line, and people will read it in a fraction of a second as they scan through all their other emails. So while you can put multiple things in that subject line, there will be diminishing returns on readers of your copy.
The purpose of the first sentence is to get you to read the second one.
This is why wrapping an email up into a single theme is often a good idea. You can put a few messages in the email, or even in the subject line and pre-header, but summarise them succinctly.
Below are some examples, with the first 30 characters in blue. If someone only reads these words, that should be enough to give them an understanding of what’s in the email, and to open it.
A list that’s too wordy to skim:
- Bad: Introducing our brand new beginners Ballet class, and we have ongoing Beginners Jazz…
By the time we have gotten to the vital information, you have already lost the reader. A better way to approach a subject line that’s a list:
- Good: This week: Ballet 101, Jazz Hands for Beginners, Advanced Tip-Toeing
A ‘slow burn’ subject line will very rarely hold people’s interest long enough to get them to open:
- Bad: Setting templated scheduling and enhanced customisation in this free-to-trial beta.
The important thing needs to be front-loaded and drive your reader to open the email. A more direct and action-orientated opening will probably work a lot better:
- Good: You’ve been upgraded! Try our beta scheduling system today.
Depending on how important the information is to your customer, the language they use, and the value they might find in a beta test of a scheduling system, ‘Try the beta now’ could be a great hook. If so, consider simplifying to:
- Good: Try the beta for free! All new scheduling and customisation just a click away.
Keep people reading.
- We often talk about a ‘hook’ that will keep you reading. That’s the point of the subject line and the header of each email.
- The slippery slide: put something in the opening that pays off later.
- Tell a little story at the beginning of your article, but leave the end of the story for later in the email.
- Referring to something that comes up later can have the same emotional weight, even if it isn’t technically a story. A quick and easy way to grab attention some people use are phrases like: ‘Here’s the deal…’ and ‘The question is…’ It’s conversational and sets up the reader for a quick payoff, but it often comes across as ‘clickbait.’
80% read the headline, 20% read the copy.
Rule of thumb
Try super-specific headlines
Everything your audience need to know should be included in the headline. Before you read any further, you should know roughly You should include everything your audience needs to know in the Headline. The chances are excellent that they’ll never read more than that, no matter how good your email is. That might sound contrary to the above idea of a ‘hook’ but take a look at these headlines:
- ‘Save 2 hours per day with these 7 productivity hacks.’
- ‘We analysed 5 million Google search results, here is what we found about organic click-through rate.’
- ‘How to become an SEO expert – the definitive guide.’
- ‘Link building strategies: the complete list.’ ‘
- SEO case study: How I increased organic traffic by 652% in 7 days.’
They haven’t given it all away in the first line, but each has created an unresolved tension in the audience, which will pay off later in the email. With a bit of finesse, your reader will look forward to more from you.
Use FOMO
If you can use the urgency of FOMO, do it. But only if it is true, inventing FOMO is not sustainable. Some common examples:
- Limited offer! EOFY 25%-off sale ends today!
- Only 5 tickets left!
- Offer expires dd Month.
Remember, the whole point of FOMO is that there should be a genuine risk of missing out. If there is no risk, or if it seems insincere, you will never be able to use it when it counts.
As tempting as it might be, DO NOT extend your limited time offers, cut-off dates, or release more tickets just for a quick money grab. Your customer’s trust is more valuable than the short term gains you’d get from doing this.
Lead with a strong hook
So they have opened your email. Congratulations! You have beaten the odds.
Where to now? The email could have various structures, maybe a single message that follows from the subject line, or it might jump straight into a series of events or articles. Regardless of the content, your job remains the same. You have to keep people on the page and keep them reading.
The Headline and your lead article set up the rest of the email contents. You have a few seconds to capture their attention, and if you’re fortunate, they aren’t skimming their emails on their phone while half-watching TV, and also eating with their other hand, while their partner asks them about their day. Assume the worst. Keeping it simple and direct while setting up a reason to keep reading is a good strategy.
A hook grabs your attention. First, the subject line was the lure; they have taken a bite, so now we need to reel them in. A hook might be a gruesome analogy, but another way to look at it is like the punchline of a joke or the ending to a dramatic story. So the ‘hook’ is what sparks the initial interest.
Some examples of a hook in email subject lines:
- ‘Afraid to take your business to the next level? Here’s what to do…’
- ‘The biggest killer during a pandemic might not be what you think’
- ‘We’re trying to save 50,000 lives with this simple demonstration’
- ‘What’s the #1 killer these days and how can you take a simple step to prevent it?’
We still want to keep the Headline succinct, but we have a little more time with the Headline. It’s rare to see one more than a sentence—this is because the most likely place to read an email is on your phone. With the font around 30-40pts, we don’t have the space to say much more.
Try a mini-story.
“One of my customers, John, sent me this email: “I’ve been doing this for over 3 years, and I’m ready to give up. I keep my site updated and promote on social, but nothing seems to work…’
You can see why this works. The reader gets invested in John’s problem. I want to hear more. It sucks you in and holds your attention, which is the unique power of storytelling.
Use short sentences.
Short sentences are 711% easier to read, according to the American Press Institute. Which I don’t need to tell you… is a lot of percent!
Keeping sentences short is one reason why bullet points are so effective. They are:
- Easier to scan
- We are used to seeing checklists
- So we remember them easier
- And recall them for longer
Don’t use big words.
Simplicity is a primary tenant for communication design. And on a personal note, jargon is one of my pet hates. Marketing jargon is particularly infuriating. So please, I beg you, don’t use a series of fancy words when a more simple word will do.
The only reason to use big words or jargon is if your customer loves marketing jargon or overly complicated terms. If you are writing an email to a pompous marketing executive, then yes, absolutely, stuff that email full of long nonsensical words! They’ll probably lap it up, but you should seriously reconsider your audience.
For everyone that isn’t into sounding clever so that people won’t notice they are clueless:
- Unparalleled product attributes = unique
- I augment online transactions by highlighting intrinsic worth = I write email copy.
- Utilize = use
- Overwrought energetically = excited
- Demonstrated = show
Action is the primary goal of the email. But ‘action’ doesn’t necessarily mean ‘sell.’
The ultimate goal of any email strategy is to get someone to take action.
So we usually think about emails as a sales tool, but an email channel can be so much more than that.
An email could be simply about building trust or keeping you updated. And the action might be to build trust.
Reasons for sending an email might include:
- Sales, offers and product showcases. Goal: to put products and services in front of people so that they might buy them.
- A product update
- Education. Goal: ShowingAllowing them to use the product better. Goal: Repeat purchases, upselling, more loyalty.
- A content-driven email might invite engagement with user stories, articles, brochures, listicles and videos. Goal: Engagement with your brand on social media, your blog, YouTube. This might increase your customers’ engagement frequency, allowing faster decision cycles, more purchases, and better trust and loyalty.
If your goal is to get your reader to click through, you’ll need to set up a compelling reason why. You’ll also need to leave some information out of the email so they have something to read when they click through. If this is the case, your email becomes a teaser.
Sell the dream. Sell the benefits, do not sell the features.
Benefits speak to the heart of what they want in life. Features are usually a footnote. They are the details you get into once they have decided they like what you’re selling.
Sometimes people need the features to make a decision: They might need a specific screen size, or they want the cupboard to fit across a particular wall. But that detail should probably live on your website. Your email is trying to get people to click through to that website.
Benefits sell. Features validate a decision.
Benefits sell. Features just validate a decision.
All you need is love.
When it comes to brand, don’t ever settle. Your customer might like you okay. But probably not enough to fall in love.
And make no mistake, it is ‘love’ that you are aiming for.
Show them your unique personality. Highlight how exciting your product is, and yet also how reliable it is. Sell the idea that life would be so much better with you than it currently is.
If you have ever been in love with a person, the way you fell in love was more or less the same. I am willing to bet that when you started to fall in love, this person didn’t address your concerns or argue their merits. There wasn’t a sales pitch with a slide presentation. Instead, their amazingness just compelled you to feel for them. You couldn’t help it. In fact… you never stood a chance.
Aim for that.
13. Address their objections
There will come a time in any relationship where problems come up. But, on the other hand, there is no sense in trying to convince someone that isn’t right for you right now.
So too with your customers. Once a connection has been established, things will pop up, like:
- “But, it’s too expensive!”
- “It’s not a good time.”
- “I’m not sure this is for me.”
This might be true. And there is no point denying that some handbags are too expensive, and some customers are out of money. That’s okay. Keep feeding the fire, and even if the timing isn’t right for both of you, there may come a time later on when they are ready.
Notice that premium brands like Ferrari or Apple don’t ever talk about the price. A premium brand will assume that its customers are willing to pay for quality and are discerning enough to buy when ready.
But instead of waiting for the starts to align, you might want to remind them about your payment options. For example, AfterPay, pay-by-the-month, or casual memberships might be discretely referenced in the footer or wherever a direct call to action is mentioned.
Even if you aren’t a premium brand, don’t be pushy in your sales tactics. Instead, focus on selling the dream, building a good brand experience, and occasionally highlight how easy it is to afford when they are ready.