On any given day, people receive a flood of automated emails. In fact, more than 300 billion emails are sent daily. This makes it pretty tough to stand out in your customers’ inboxes.
Anyone can write an email, but crafting one that leads to clicks and conversions is an art that not everyone masters. So, how do you write a marketing email that stands out?
We’ll cover seven steps to help you create emails that resonate with your recipients.
How does email work as a marketing tool?
With email, businesses can reach out and connect with their audience directly. Think of it as a digital version of sending out flyers—but instead of paper, it’s a message that lands in someone’s inbox.
Businesses collect email addresses from people interested in their products or services, often through sign-up forms on their landing page or when they buy something.
Once they have an email list, they can send out various types of content, like special offers, news about new products, helpful newsletters, or updates about their company. This way, they keep their target audience engaged and more likely to buy from them.
What makes an email effective?
The primary aspect that makes email effective is the ability to send mass emails personalized for each individual.
You can use email marketing software like Sender to segment your prospects based on their interests or purchasing history. You can then send customized messages to each group, making the content more relevant to each recipient.
According to Litmus, email is the most effective marketing channel, followed by social media and paid search. It’s so effective that 87% of marketing leaders say that the medium is crucial to the success of their businesses.
Such stats show how effective email is in reaching customers, building relationships, and driving sales.
Tips for creating high-impact emails for your business
Let’s now look at seven tips you can implement in your email marketing strategy to create highly effective emails.
1. Write a killer subject line and preheader
Email subject lines are critical aspects of your email marketing campaigns. According to Invesp, 47% of recipients open emails based on what the subject line looks like, while 69% report emails as spam based on how they perceive the subject line.
One of the best ways to make your subject line compelling is to optimize your preheader text to complement the email subject line.
The preheader is what your email clients see after the subject line, which means it also determines whether or not readers open your email. In fact, emails with preheaders get an open rate of 32.95% and a click-through rate (CTR) of 3.12%. Those without have lower open rates of 25.72% and CTRs of 1.97%.
When writing your preheader text, make sure it complements the subject line to encourage recipients to open the email. Think of intriguing ways to combine the two elements to attract your recipients’ interest.
Here’s an excellent example from Ross-Simons:
Image source: Ross-Simons
Ross-Simon’s preheader complements the subject line, making it more captivating. Both elements are also tailored to the brand’s desired audience, even though they don’t mention the recipient’s name.
2. Personalize your body copy
Another way to create a high-impact email campaign is to personalize the body copy of your emails. Personalized emails have an open rate of 30.26% and a CTR of 2.7%. Compare that to non-personalized emails with an open rate of 26.55% and a CTR of 2.1%.
Personalization is so crucial that the biggest priority for email marketers is to expand how they use this strategy in their email campaigns.
The best way to personalize your emails is to segment subscribers based on their behavior and preferences. The easiest way to gather this information is to use a quiz lead magnet, which auto-segments your leads as soon as they subscribe.
For example, suppose you run a retail clothing store. You can group customers based on their past purchases or size preferences. After that, you can send exclusive offers or personalized recommendations to frequent buyers interested in specific fashion styles or clothing categories, such as fitness or sportswear, casual, underwear, etc.
That way, your emails will feel more like a one-on-one conversation than a generic marketing message. This increases conversions, as recipients are more likely to engage with newsletters that resonate with their needs or interests.
Here’s a brilliant example of a highly personalized email from Netflix:
Image source: Netflix
3. Write in the second person
The second person point of view is when you write your email from the reader’s perspective, addressing them with the pronoun “You.”
The email from Ross-Simons we looked at earlier nails this pretty well. Although its subject line doesn’t have the recipient’s name, it addresses the reader in the second person (You’re going to love these). The preheader also does the same (The styles you deserve are waiting).
Before writing in the second person, know who you’re talking to. What are their interests, needs, and expectations? How do they relate to your message? How do you want them to feel or respond after reading your email?
This way, you can tailor your style, tone, and language to match your audience and build a connection with them.
4. Have immediate clarity
Have you ever come across an email you read once or twice, and still don’t understand what the person’s trying to say? It can be annoying, right? We all recognize a bad email when we receive it, but we can sometimes be guilty of the same mistake ourselves.
Clarity is crucial in any type of writing, but even more so in emails. So, keep your email’s purpose clear from the subject line and retain that clarity throughout.
Don’t make subscribers try to figure out what you want. Be upfront from the beginning, and don’t complicate your message with unnecessary details and vague language.
Here’s an example of an email that lacks clarity:
The email uses phrases like “various aspects of the project” and “several elements,” making it vague. It doesn’t specify these aspects or elements, leaving the team guessing what’s being referred to.
The email also doesn’t provide clear actions that team members should take. It tells them to stay on top of their tasks but doesn’t outline what those tasks are.
Now, here’s another email that has clarity from the start:
This email is much clearer, with a subject line that tells the recipient exactly what the email is about—confirming attendance for a specific meeting.
It also offers specific, actionable items listed for the recipients and a clear deadline for confirming attendance, which helps team members plan their schedules.
5. Use engaging visuals in your emails
Packing your email with copy alone won’t do much to hold the reader’s attention. Even if the content is interesting, it won’t keep their attention unless you deliver it in a visually pleasing way.
Visuals act as the vehicle that conveys your copy in an engaging way.
That said, always stay on-brand and use the right images when adding visuals to your emails. An off-brand picture can distract readers from your message and reduce engagement.
For instance, suppose you’re promoting a specific item. In that case, you can simply add an image of the product and its description. That immediately tells the recipient, “Here’s the item on offer, and these are its features.”
Let’s look at a superb example from Warby Parker:
Image source: Warby Parker
Warby Parker’s email design is simple but effective. It concisely describes the events people can wear its sunglasses—BBQs, boat rides, hammocks, road trips, water balloon fights, long weekends—then adds high-quality images of the eyewear.
6. Use mobile-friendly designs
Did you know that around 1.7 billion people use mobile devices to read emails? That’s a huge number and all the more reason to ensure you use responsive email designs.
Mobile-friendly emails give customers a great user experience, which improves overall satisfaction and conversions.
The good news is that designing responsive emails is pretty simple, thanks to email marketing services like Sender or Mailchimp, which offer drag-and-drop email builders and responsive templates. With these features, you can create responsive emails without writing a single line of code.
You can also preview the emails to ensure they look good on mobile devices before hitting send.
Image source: Sender
7. Use action-oriented CTAs
The end goal of sending an email is to direct readers to take a specific action that will produce positive results for your brand. This makes the call-to-action (CTA) button one of the most important elements in your email.
The language you use in your CTAs should be action-oriented, clear, and have a sense of urgency. For instance, phrases like “Shop Now,” “Only Y Products Left,” and “Limited Offer” create a sense of urgency and make recipients act fast.
However, there are no hard-and-fast rules for writing CTAs. You can get creative with your calls to action, as Grubhub has done:
Image source: Grubhub
The “Get your $7 perk” CTA button is direct and concise. It tells recipients what to do, which raises their curiosity and makes them want to click on it.
Email marketing challenges that businesses face
Email marketing, while effective, has its own challenges. Some of them include:
Deliverability issues
Making sure that emails reach the recipient’s inbox and not the spam folder is a significant challenge for many email marketers. In fact, nearly 27% of businesses had an inbox placement rate of less than 70%.
Solution: Clean your email list regularly and use a reputable email service provider. Also, avoid spam-triggering words like “free,” “act now,” and “earn money” in your subject lines and content.
Maintaining an engaged subscriber list
Building a list of email subscribers that are genuinely interested in your offerings can be challenging, as customers typically have many options.
Solution: Use opt-in strategies such as offering valuable lead magnets (like ebooks and whitepapers) to attract prospects interested in your products or services. This way, you can nurture them with your newsletters and turn them into loyal customers.
Collecting customer feedback
Getting meaningful, actionable feedback from customers can be difficult. According to the Litmus report, 17% of email marketers say that gathering customer feedback is one of their biggest challenges.
That’s because customers may not be motivated or have the time to respond to feedback requests, which leads to low response rates.
Solution: Offer incentives like discounts or freebies to motivate customers to complete feedback forms. In addition, use short, easy-to-complete surveys like clickable rating scales or multiple-choice questions.
Staying compliant with regulations
Different countries and regions have their own laws, like the GDPR in Europe and the CAN-SPAM Act in the U.S. These laws have specific requirements regarding consent, data handling, and unsubscribe options.
Furthermore, the legal frameworks of these regulations are frequently updated, which means businesses must stay informed and adapt to their practices accordingly to avoid penalties and legal action.
Solution: Use a reputable email service provider for all your email marketing needs. These platforms are often designed to help businesses comply with these regulations by offering features like automated opt-ins, opt-outs, and data protection.
Creating effective CTAs
Crafting compelling CTAs that motivate recipients to take the desired action without being too aggressive or salesy is an art in itself. People naturally resist change or action. So, your CTAs must be motivating enough to overcome this resistance.
Having that delicate balance of persuasive language, design elements, and strategic positioning can be challenging for some email marketers.
Solution: Ensure your CTA is relevant to the content of the email. If the email is about a new product, the CTA should relate directly to purchasing or learning more about that product. You can also personalize your CTAs based on the customer’s previous interactions with your brand for a more targeted approach.
Adapting to changing consumer preferences
Factors like social trends, economic shifts, and new technology can affect consumers’ interests and purchase behavior. This means their preferences can change quickly. As a result, it can be challenging to stay relevant in your email campaigns under these dynamic conditions.
Solution: Stay informed about your industry’s trends. Use surveys, social media listening, and market research reports to keep an eye on customer preferences. You can also encourage feedback from your subscribers through direct surveys within emails or monitor their feedback on other platforms.
Conclusion
There you have it. The steps above will help you create effective marketing emails that engage and convert prospects into loyal customers.
As you apply the tips in this guide, remember that email marketing is a continuous process. So, monitor the performance of your email campaigns to determine whether they align with the goals of your content strategy.
At Omniscient, we understand how important email marketing is in your strategy, and we can help you leverage it to engage your audience, boost credibility, and strengthen customer trust.
Contact us today for compelling email campaigns that resonate with your audience and drive significant results.
