News flash: Emails only work when people read them.
Okay, maybe this is not news. But it’s true nonetheless—no matter how artfully worded, carefully crafted, or superlatively phrased your company’s emails are, they need to be read. If they aren’t, it’s a dead loss in terms of time and money spent.
Unfortunately, getting people to open emails is not as easy as getting them to sign up for your email list. I’ve certainly signed up. Offer me a free e-book, a funny video, a must-read industry report, or some other piece of online bait, and I’ll happily supply an email address. If you’re a company I like and do business with, I’ll even give you an email address I actually use (as opposed to the one I keep only for spammy must-sign-up deals).
Your customers probably want to stay in touch with you. Therefore, we can assume that they’ve given you their correct email addresses and not just their spam addresses. How can you attract and keep their attention without flooding their inboxes?
Five Ways to Make Your Emails Read-Worthy
Great emails don’t happen by accident. And, to be honest, they usually don’t happen quickly. I’m going to let you in on a secret: one of the hardest things to do is to write a good email subject line. Add in factors like your email’s length, frequency, source, and timing, and we are looking at something that’s going to call for quite a lot of thought. So let’s break down these five factors one by one.
- Avoid information spillage. Knowing how much information to put in your email is important. You’re not writing a newsletter here. If you are, it’s called an e-newsletter, and that’s a separate concept altogether. In this post, we’re talking about the kind of short and sweet announcements and follow-ups that are part and parcel of modern commerce. Your customers do not need a rundown of all of your latest activities. Just tell them briefly what they need to know and give them a way to find out more if they’re so inclined.
- Fine-tune the frequency. There’s one particular company that I buy from all the time, despite their annoying email policy. They will send multiple emails a day, and I find this very annoying. Wait, you may say, isn’t their email strategy working? Didn’t you just say that you buy from them all the time? True, but I never read the emails. At all. Ever. They’re just a waste of time in cyberspace. Studies have shown that you can actually send too many emails and potentially alienate your customers.
- Pay attention to where your email originates. It should be with an account that is closely linked with your company. For example, yourname@yourbusiness.com. Using yourbusiness@aol.com (or any other free email service) is acceptable, but less professional. If the email is coming from somewhere that doesn’t appear to be connected with your business, there’s an excellent chance that your customers will send it straight to their junk folders.
- Time them correctly. Without going into too much detail—we have links for that below—be sure to time your emails correctly. If you’re announcing a new sale, don’t do it a month before the sale starts, and don’t do it an hour before either. You get the idea.
- Spend time with the subject line. Unless your subject line is good, your email will remain unopened. A good subject line is pithy, attention grabbing, and relevant. A bad subject line is spammy, with lots of capital letters and excessive punctuation. A really bad subject line is both irrelevant and unprofessional. For an idea of what to avoid, check out your junk mail folder.
Want to Learn More? We’ve Got Your Info Here
To help you out, we’ve rounded up some insightful articles on the subject fromConstant Contact, Pardot, and MailChimp. Check them out when you get a chance, and be sure to check in with the Techsperts blog as we continue to bring you more IT news and information.
Featured image credit: 123rf.com
