Email marketing works, of course, but only if your emails are well-crafted to strike the right chord with the audience. Then and only then can you expect your email marketing campaigns to boost your engagement, drive sales, and inspire customer loyalty.
Here, we’ll talk about how to write a good marketing email by answering some of the most commonly asked questions. Ready to make some changes to how you write marketing emails? Let’s go!
How to write good marketing emails: 6 questions answered
Before you put pen to paper—or, more accurately, finger to keyboard—you have to have the right approach. That means breaking down the components of your marketing email and ensuring that you follow the best practices for each. Then, you’re going to have some non-writing aspects to consider, like how long it should be and how to send it. We’ll look at all of these.
How do you form an email marketing content strategy?
Strategy is the roadmap to success, but every roadmap needs a destination. Define the objective of your marketing emails. What is it that you’re trying to achieve? That will determine the type of email marketing campaign you're going to conduct.
Once you know the aim of your emails, you have to know your user inside out. Truly, the only bad marketing emails are the generic ones. The power of email marketing lies in the fact that they’re precisely targeted, so create a customer persona and make it as detailed as possible.
The last stage of your strategy is clearly defining what “success” means. Are you looking for increased engagement, or do you want to boost sales? You need tangible data from a great email marketing software to draw insights.
In summary, here’s what comprises a strong strategy:
- Goal/objective of campaign
- Detailed user persona
- Success indicators with good data
How to write effective email marketing content
Even within a campaign, every email needs to have a distinct purpose. Whether you want the content in your email read, engaged with, or acted upon, having one clear goal per email is a good idea. Once your goal is clear, here are a few tips for you to craft marketing emails:
- Personalize your content, as reading their name can instantly pique a user’s interest.
- Keep your content tailored and relevant to the user persona that you created in the strategy.
- Prioritize clarity over cleverness. Don’t let your message drown in clever puns or ambiguous wording.
- Structure your content for easy reading, no clutter allowed!
- Highlight the benefits of your offer and keep your CTA clear, big, and bold.
How to write a good subject line for email marketing
A good subject line can make or break your email campaign. Why? Because if the subject line doesn't inspire the user to open the email, it’ll never get read. Here are a few pointers for crafting compelling subject lines:
- It has to be under 60-70 characters to be read in its entirety.
- Don’t make promises in the subject line that you won’t be able to deliver on in the content. It has to be relevant to what’s inside.
- Personalize with the recipient’s name, but don’t overuse it.
- Ask an enticing question.
- Offer a solution to a confirmed pain point of the audience.
- Use urgency. Say there’s something time-sensitive inside.
How long should a marketing email be?
There’s no ideal length for a marketing email. As long as it delivers value and holds the audience’s attention, the word count doesn't matter. That said, keeping it concise simply out of respect for your customer’s time is still a good idea.
Experiment with shorter or longer emails, and always confirm your findings with data. If you see engagement dropping, maybe try shortening the emails. There’s no right or wrong answer to this. You're good as long as you’ve got the pillars of successful email marketing in place.
What other elements are needed besides text?
Beyond text, incorporating visual elements can be great for effective marketing emails. Visual elements, like images and infographics, break up the monotony of reading and keep things interesting.
Sometimes, images can work better than words, especially for products. At the same time, they shouldn’t be fighting with the text for your user’s attention. Bolder images call for fewer words.
Balance the creative elements to hold your user’s attention and convey your message effectively. Look at a few top email marketing campaigns of 2023 to see how they balance text with images and never lose sight of the brand voice and message.
How to send email marketing campaigns
Now that you’ve figured out the major components of your marketing campaign, it’s time to decide how you’re going to send them. Here are a few things to consider:
- Choose a reliable email marketing platform that provides tracking and analytics features.
- Segment your email list based on demographics, behaviors, or preferences.
- Test your emails before sending them to ensure proper formatting and responsiveness.
- Schedule campaigns at optimal times, considering the audience's time zone.
- Regularly analyze performance metrics like open rates and click-through rates, adapting your strategy based on insights.
Wondering which email marketing platform allows you to do all of the above? It’s YAMM!
Send your knock-out marketing emails with YAMM
YAMM is an email marketing software that allows you to personalize, schedule, and design beautiful emails easily. YAMM also gives you essential performance metrics that you can track and improve your campaigns over time. As an add-on to Gmail, it’s simple to send email campaigns!
Ready to elevate your email marketing game? Try YAMM today!