| By Tom O'Leary
Every email marketer strives to optimize her results with each campaign. There is nothing more frustrating than investing your time and effort to send a great message to a strategically relevant list and being met with open and click through rates below expectations. So how do successful email marketers get their customers to open the message, click on the link and take action?
Stripping an email message down to the bare essentials, there are three main sections that can make or break an email marketing campaign; the email subject, the call-to-action and the unique proposition. These three lines, if written well, will improve open and click through rates of any email marketing campaign.
The Email Subject
Perhaps the most important element of any successful email camaign is the subject line. Your customers' inboxes are full every morning, afternoon and night. Because of the amount of email that is sent today, online consumers don't have too much time to analyze each message. In fact, email recipients scan email subjects, deleting those that don't interest them after the first glance. It's a process of elimination, and the worst-case scenario for an email marketer is if their message doesn't make the initial cut. For any message to be effective, it has to be opened and read. Your email subject should be directly related to your call-to-action. If the objective of your message is to sell your latest product, mention the product proposal in your subject line. If the objective is to get customers to your site by offering articles relevant to them, then put your best article headline in the subject. Here are two examples:
- Product Proposal Example: Improve Open Rates with GroupMail
- Relevant Article Example: Email Marketing: 3 Lines of Success
Your subject will be effective only if it is relevant to your recipients. Understanding that legitimate email marketers only send email to customers who are interested in their products or services, the first tier of relevance can be implied. But there is another aspect of relevance that must be illustrated in the subject. What problem is this message going to solve for the recipient. The people on your email list might all have an interest in email-related information, but what is it specifically about this particular message that is relevant to your customers? Relevance responds to a need or desire. It is highly recommended to personalize the subject when possible. By personalizing the subject, I don't mean putting the recipients name before the subject line (i.e. John, Improve Open Rates with GroupMail). Many spammers use this approach, and yours won't be the only subject with your customer's name in it. Be creative with your personalization. If you split your list into regions of the US, for example; you can personalize the subject effectively by including the region in the subject (i.e. Improve Open Rates with GroupMail in the Northwest or Improve Open Rates with GroupMail in New York). This subtle personalization strategy identifies with the recipient's locality and thus is interesting to them. Ok, so you've got their attention enough that they click on your message. Now you have a couple of seconds to grab their attention again.
The Call-To-Action
Don't bury your call-to-action in your email marketing campaign. State the intent of your message clearly and quickly at the beginning of your message.
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Link your call-to-action directly to your point-of-purchase if the objective is to sell something. If you expect the recipients of your email to purchase your product or service, don't make them search for the checkout. If your objective is simply to get customers to your website, link them directly to the page that you want them to see. Calls-to-action should be clear and concise. Remember, you only have a few seconds to hold their attention. To persuade customers, you must communicate why they should follow your recommended action. What makes you different from the others flogging similar products in their inbox?
The Unique Proposition
Differentiate yourself from the competition in your message. Why is your product the best? Why is your article or resource of more value than others? What sets you apart from the crowd? One effective way to do this is to show how your product has already helped customers who use your product or service. Use testimonials from reputable names (if you have any), showing why they think your brand is better than the others. If existing customers recommend your product or service, the confidence of new prospects will increase. Use your market positioning effectively to distinguish yourself. If your price is positioned at the low end of the market, communicate the value. If your product is positioned at the high end, communicate the personal support or extra features that set you apart.
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You don't have to write a thesis explaining all of the features that set you apart. Remember, email readers skim content. Summarize your unique proposition in one sentence, and then expand on it or go into more detail afterwards. Highlight the summary of your unique proposition by
setting the text apart, or
using bold characters.
By paying special attention to the subject line, call-to-action and unique proposition, your email marketing campaign should meet and hopefully exceed your expectations. Of course, there are other factors to consider; like the day and time that you send your message, the effective management of your lists, and market demands at any given time. Consider these 3 elements of effective email messages before you send out your next email, and measure the results yourself. |
