Want to write an email that people actually read? It’s simple. No, really.
Writing a good email is the cyber equivalent of leaving a really clever message on an answering machine: we all aspire to do it, but few have actually seen it done. And yet, email remains one of the primary ways that businesses and their customers communicate. What can you do to make your next email click-worthy?
You know some of the basics by now: start with a professional email address, don’t deluge your contact's inbox with unsolicited information, and do your best to personalize. But the three keys to writing a good email may surprise you.
As I pointed out in another article, your purpose in emailing is to share one idea. One. And really, the body of the email is not the place to explain your new product offering in detail. An email should serve as a gateway to another contact.
For these reasons, the trend now is to keep emails as short as possible. If two sentences explain why you’re emailing and what you want your contact to do, don’t search around for sentence number three. People are busy. They appreciate you not wasting their time. Brevity is the soul of successful emailing.
A Marketing Land study shows that 66% of all emails are opened on a mobile device. That means that customers will be looking through a smaller screen at smaller letters. Depending on their email provider and the email app they use, multimedia content may or may not be displayed. Attachments may or may not download.
I’m not saying you should never send another email attachment or embed another picture or video in an email. But when you’re sending an unsolicited email, it’s best to keep the frustration factor down. Make the subject line interesting and shortish. One study suggests that around 65 characters is the sweet spot.
And that opening line? Some providers or apps will display it; others won't. Best to be on the safe side and make it intriguing. Make customers so curious that they want to find out what else your email says.
So you know that you should have one goal in mind when you send an email. This means you should have one CTA, or call to action. In marketing-speak, a CTA tells the contact what they need to do next. This can be opening a website link, replying to the email, making a phone call, signing up for a webinar, visiting a landing page, etc. Make your CTA clear and easy to follow.
At all costs, avoid the confusing CTA. You know them – emails that encourage you to click here to learn more, click there to visit a website, press this button to speak to a representative now. Remember, the magic number for emails is one: one idea, one message, one call to action.
In short, writing a click-worthy email is simple, as in Keep It Simple.
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