Let's Get this "Write"!
If I asked you to list the top ten things from your work life that annoy you, I’m confident that email would make every single person’s list. Aahhhh Email… both a blessing and a curse! With the astonishing number of emails people send and receive each day you would think we would be better at it! The sheer quantity of email traffic we deal with causes our precious time to be wasted as we wade through the never-ending inbox clutter searching for what we need. Frustrations grow with every email we send. How can we fix this?
Let’s Get This "Write"! - Making the Most of Email
Whether your irritation lies with the emails received from individuals on our teams, with those passed around within small groups of our co-workers or our customers, or even the mass emails sent out for marketing purposes, the undeniable fact is that email offers a marketing benefit unavailable on any social media channel because a brand’s message can show up directly in their audience’s inboxes whenever and however they want.
I have 3 suggestions to help YOUR emails stand out, and they all have one thing in common: write with your email recipient in mind.
1. See email’s true value.
Use email to provide real value to an audience in the form of useful information, solutions to their problems, and access to exclusive deals.
More than just a channel to drive traffic to a website, to an e-commerce platform, to socials, or for generating traffic elsewhere, taking advantage of the undivided attention we get by sending an audience targeted information that they can use demonstrates the respect we have for the recipients’ time and attention. Sender reputation can be lost quickly and regained only with sustained effort over time, so guard it wisely. Stop tempting unsubscribes! Providing relevant, grouped content instead of dominating contacts’ inboxes with repeated daily emails will prepare recipients to look forward to opening and learning from the emails being received.
2. Be clear and make information easy to access.
Clicking, registering, and downloading doesn’t equal a lead and engagement. Making sure the receiver knows how a company’s offering will
help solve their problem should be of highest priority. Get to the point near the beginning of an email and steer clear of long-form. Using all those summarizing tools - headings, numbering, bullets, capitals, bolding, underlining – will make it easier for a reader to consume and engage! Why not consider playing with using text, emojis, being less formal, asking a simple question, or making a quick statement. Be creative, be clever, be intriguing, but be clear that what is being sent is of value and inspires true engagement. Aim for clarity and relevance above all else.
3. Learn what the audience wants.
Becoming familiar with what works for an audience and brand voice all starts with the subject line. As people react more to the fear of losing than the joy of gaining, it can be tempting to incorporate words that add a sense of urgency, time constraints, etc., but be careful to only use them when warranted. Like crying wolf, recipients will only open one non-urgent email that says *URGENT* before they no longer trust that word’s use. Subject lines that accurately reflect an email’s content inspires trust and creates anticipation for future emails, while creating shocking, attention-grabbing subject lines inspires the exact opposite. Clickbait subject lines may initially lead to higher open rates, but the resulting low engagement will make those open rates short-lived. Testing and keeping track to find the right length, frequency, content mix, calls to action, subject lines, and pre-headers that work for a particular audience or segment helps to give them what they want.
Use email to provide real value to an audience in the form of useful information, solutions to their problems, and access to exclusive deals.
More than just a channel to drive traffic to a website, to an e-commerce platform, to socials, or for generating traffic elsewhere, taking advantage of the undivided attention we get by sending an audience targeted information that they can use demonstrates the respect we have for the recipients’ time and attention. Sender reputation can be lost quickly and regained only with sustained effort over time, so guard it wisely. Stop tempting unsubscribes! Providing relevant, grouped content instead of dominating contacts’ inboxes with repeated daily emails will prepare recipients to look forward to opening and learning from the emails being received. 2. Be clear and make information easy to access.
Clicking, registering, and downloading doesn’t equal a lead and engagement. Making sure the receiver knows how a company’s offering will
help solve their problem should be of highest priority. Get to the point near the beginning of an email and steer clear of long-form. Using all those summarizing tools - headings, numbering, bullets, capitals, bolding, underlining – will make it easier for a reader to consume and engage! Why not consider playing with using text, emojis, being less formal, asking a simple question, or making a quick statement. Be creative, be clever, be intriguing, but be clear that what is being sent is of value and inspires true engagement. Aim for clarity and relevance above all else. 3. Learn what the audience wants.
Becoming familiar with what works for an audience and brand voice all starts with the subject line. As people react more to the fear of losing than the joy of gaining, it can be tempting to incorporate words that add a sense of urgency, time constraints, etc., but be careful to only use them when warranted. Like crying wolf, recipients will only open one non-urgent email that says *URGENT* before they no longer trust that word’s use. Subject lines that accurately reflect an email’s content inspires trust and creates anticipation for future emails, while creating shocking, attention-grabbing subject lines inspires the exact opposite. Clickbait subject lines may initially lead to higher open rates, but the resulting low engagement will make those open rates short-lived. Testing and keeping track to find the right length, frequency, content mix, calls to action, subject lines, and pre-headers that work for a particular audience or segment helps to give them what they want. Email is meant to make life and work easier, to help us communicate, to help us learn information on a larger scale, and to keep us productive, but most of us find it does the opposite. By respecting the true value of email, being clear in communication, and learning about and giving the audience exactly what they want, perhaps your emails will set the trend for being the first-opened when they pop up in recipients’ inboxes! By reorienting our focus to serve the email recipient and not ourselves, we will be creating emails that attract recipients, making them WANT to open, read, click, and act, and gain back email’s true advantage. Start now!