We’ll be expanding on a myriad of email marketing topics as our blog series continues, providing bite-size nuggets for you to chew on as you consider where you can improve your current email marketing strategy. This blog focuses on creating good email content. Crafting compelling content is just one piece to the puzzle, and the following discusses the top five rules that every marketer should know, to develop strong email content.
Kudos to those of you who are already practicing what we’re preaching—you’re well on your way to an effective email marketing strategy, and this will serve as validation to your efforts. For any marketer reading this blog and realizing you need to reevaluate your current email content strategy ASAP, don’t fret. We have an in-depth report, just for you, detailing content best practices and much more, available for download at the bottom of this blog.
Here’s a quick synopsis of the top five content rules you should know:
Keep it relevant. Relevance is for the reader, not for you. A current customer may accept an email that meanders from what they’re looking for, or has some extra technical jargon. A prospect likely won’t. Relevance is all about matching the content to your target audience’s needs. Did you recently launch a new product? That may be relevant.. Are you offering a sale? That could be important, too. Unless, for instance, the person receiving your sales offer just bought a product from you that has a buying cycle of five years. Not only is that sale not relevant, but including it in your email could hurt your brand’s reputation. For example, let’s say I just bought a new computer. Know what emails I don’t need anymore? Computer sales ads, along with computer comparison articles. I feel good about my purchase. Don’t be the company that makes me second guess my purchase from you. I’ll unsubscribe.
Keep it simple. That means don’t make it look overly fancy. It’s an email blast, not the manifest destiny. They don’t give away Pulitzers for emails; there’s no design awards. Your email should be mostly text, and doesn’t need a lot of tables or code.
Keep it aligned to your brand. This content is from your company. Don’t change your brand image, and don’t introduce a voice that isn’t genuine.
Keep it readable. You’re not crafting a whitepaper (although you may link to one). It’s an email and so should be easy to read. People read email on the go, in between meetings, on the train, at traffic lights, etc. (PSA: Please stop doing that last one. It’s not safe.) And, this means people are reading emails on small screens. Don’t try to put too much information in front of the target audience all at once.
Keep it memorable. Selling a new product? Provide an incentive. Don’t waste the reader’s time just stating you have something. Changing a service? Make sure the customer knows how it helps them, not just that you are changing. Don’t send boilerplate. If you have the ability, customize that content dynamically so they will remember.
So, were you surprised to learn something new? Or have you been nodding along in agreement to our points? Either way, be sure to get your FREE copy of our whitepaper, Email Marketing is A LOT of Work. For the comprehensive guide, please fill out this form, and we’ll email you a copy.