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The Ultimate Data-Backed Guide for Sending Quality Emails
Sending quality emails is essential to your email marketing strategy, and it’s an art form that needs to be studied carefully. The key to sending quality emails is understanding what makes up a good email and how to go about the drafting process.
However, before we dive into how to send quality emails, let’s talk about why marketers need to develop impactful emails as we move into 2020.
Why sending quality emails is vital to your email marketing strategy
Email marketing has overcome several intimidating hurdles over the last few years, including the rise of social media and even the implementation of GDPR. While some studies have shown that social media marketing is rising in overall popularity amongst marketing teams in search of reaching new audience members, it’s email marketing that still reigns supreme.
While email marketing still sees the highest overall return on investment, with $38 generated for every $1 spent, one fact that you may find interesting is that—despite the rise in popularity of social media—email still beats it by 40x, when it comes to customer acquisition.
Source: Campaign Monitor
Not only does email marketing provide better results (overall ROI and customer acquisitions), but it’s also the preferred method of communication between consumers and their favorite brands, especially when it comes to promotional content. In fact, 72% of people prefer to hear from their favorite brands via email, compared to 17% who prefer social media.
With the success of email marketing showing no signs of slowing down, it’s vital that every marketing professional understands not only why sending quality emails is vital to their strategy, but also how to go about sending those emails.
The anatomy of a quality email
Before discussing how to craft and send a quality email, it’s crucial to understand the anatomy of a quality email message.
“From” label
The “from” label is vital to sending quality emails because it tells your readers exactly who’s sending the message. Consumers want to know who’s sliding into their inbox, and, if you’re sending messages from familiar names, then your subscribers are more likely to open your email.
For example, Topshop simply uses their brand name in their email messages to establish who they are. People know who the brand is, so this increases the chances of someone opening the message.
Source: Campaign Monitor
Subject line/preheader text
While the “from” label may be essential, the subject line and preheader text are just as crucial, since they’re the first pieces of information that your readers are receiving from you.
You want to make sure you’re crafting intriguing subject lines with as little character use as possible. You have a limited amount of space to work with and you want to ensure that you’re grabbing the reader’s attention right off the bat. Longer subject lines can cause your readers to space out and continue scrolling through their inbox.
Source: Campaign Monitor
Body
Once you’ve gotten your readers to click and open your message, you need to include captivating copy within the body of your message. Your message needs to encourage action and be engaging. To help with overall reader engagement, you’ll want to include top-quality copywriting, as well as interactive content such as videos, images, GIFs, and more.
Signoff
Including a top-quality signoff makes your email messages more relatable to readers, all while reminding them who they’re talking to.
Source: Milled (bottom) / Milled (Top)
CTA
The entire purpose of your email message is to drive action. To do this, you must have some form of CTA within the body of your message, so that your readers know exactly what it is you want them to do.
In the following email example from Nissan, they provide multiple CTAs for the reader to choose from:
Sending quality emails in 5 steps
Now that you understand just how vital sending quality emails is and what the anatomy of a good email is, it’s time to start creating top-quality emails of your own. Read on for a short five-step guide on sending quality emails that your subscribers will love.
1. Sending quality emails: How to write high-quality headlines
We’ve already looked at an email “from” label, subject line, and preheader text. Now you’ll want to consider your email’s headline. The email headline is part of the email’s content once your subscriber has clicked and opened the message.
Source: Really Good Emails
Just like your subject line and preheader text, however, you want to make sure your email headline is captivating enough to keep your reader’s attention. Many marketers use their headline as an extension of their email subject line, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
To craft a worthy headline, you want to keep these tips in mind:
- Intrigue the reader
- Use power words like “introducing,” “update,” “giveaway,” and “sale”
- Use personalization
- Create a sense of urgency
2. Sending quality emails: Crafting quality copy
While the art of crafting quality copy may seem like a big mystery, the good news is that it’s not as difficult as it may seem. In fact, with a few simple tips, you can start creating top-quality copy for your emails in no time.
- Focus on a single audience – just like with selling, you can’t write for everyone. Focus on your niche audience, their interests, and tone of voice.
- Prioritize a single goal – if you ask too much of your readers, they’re sure to close out of your message and move on to something else. Remember, the key to quality copy for your emails is to help guide readers into taking a specific action.
- Don’t make your copy overly niche – leave out the industry jargon, especially if your customer base is the average consumer. Make your copy conversational to encourage user engagement.
- Prioritize the reader’s needs, not your own – remember, the goal is to help your customers with their pain points.
Source: Campaign Monitor
3. Sending quality emails: Design matters
One aspect of sending quality emails that’s often ignored is the overall design of the email. When it comes to top email annoyances, poorly designed emails are one of the top complaints. According to our friends at Really Good Emails, when it comes to email design annoyances, these are the mistakes that take the cake:
- Waiting for images to load
- Too much text/font size too small
- Emails that aren’t optimized for mobile devices
- Poor email design
- Not including a CTA/Buy button
You want to design with your consumers in mind. That means keeping copy concise, making use of images and videos for engagement, and having a prominent CTA button to guide them to your landing page of choice.
Source: Really Good Emails
This example from Hawthorne checks off every design box listed above:
- It’s personalized for the reader
- Captures their attention with a great header
- Uses images to guide the viewer’s eyes
- Uses minimal text to avoid cramming too much into a small space
- Has an obvious “Get yours” CTA button
4. Sending quality emails: Creating clickable CTAs
The goal of any good email is to entice your readers to act on something. Whether it be a purchase, a download, or even simply checking out your latest blog post, you want the reader to engage with your email by moving to your website. To do this, they need to have a clear CTA that they know will take them directly where you want them.
When crafting your clickable CTA, you don’t want to tell someone what to do. Instead, you want to encourage them to make a conscious decision and act of their own accord. That’s why you have to be a bit creative with the text of your CTA. Instead of simply stating, “Buy now” you want to encourage them to “Learn more” or “Check it out” for themselves.
Certain words can come off rather aggressive and demanding, so, instead of coming off as bossy, try these CTA alternatives:
Source: Self-made
Here’s an excellent example of an alternative CTA that encourages action from readers instead of demanding it:
Source: Really Good Emails
Wrap up
When it comes down to sending quality emails, you must first know how to craft them. If you take the time to review the following tips, you’re sure to write quality emails that your subscribers will love.
Remember, you want to:
- Write high-quality headlines
- Craft quality copy
- Design for the reader
- Create clickable CTAs
Need help creating clickable CTAs? Then why not take advantage of Campaign Monitor’s free bulletproof email button tool to help you create clickable CTAs that encourage your subscribers to “act now”?
