How to Write an Email That Gets Replies – The Secrets of Email Marketing
Writing emails is hard. This is why a lot of email marketing campaigns don’t always get results. You don’t want to come off like a spam email. You want to be persuasive, have a message that’s well thought out, and which contribute value to the reader’s life.
If you are not getting replies to your email marketing, this article will help you improve your writing skills. The objective may be to get a click but the underlying purpose of an email marketing message is to start a conversation in the head of a reader. If your response rate is lower than expected, here’s what to do.
Why are my email marketing messages not getting opened?
A low percentage of replies to an email campaign can be a sign of many things. In a split second, you’re trying to get a subscriber to read an email and opt-in. No one should expect every person to do so. Your subscribers may be leading busy lives and aren’t always going to say ‘yes’ to what an email is about. Even so, absurdly low open rates and conversions are worrisome.
A bad headline is not going to get any clicks. This is obvious. If you determine your headlines to be weak, learning how to write better may immediately change those numbers on open rates and conversions.
The issue you have with email marketing might be they’re opening the email but not clicking through to the next step. Your email may be too long and wandering. Write straightforward, short emails that take 30 seconds or less to skim through.
In an email, don’t waste time. State your benefits, value, and offer. Don’t beat around the bush. Give the subscriber your offer upfront and then further down in your email, expand and tell them how this offer impacts them.
Strong conversion rates on email marketing are achieved through personalization. If you’re focused on writing about yourself rather than to the needs of your subscriber, they’re going to lose interest awfully quickly.
Spelling and grammar mistakes shouldn’t be in an email marketing message. If you’re rushing through writing an email and not paying attention, silly errors are easy to make. Always read your email over again prior to sending and double-check for grammar.
You may not be getting replies because you’re offending the subscriber. If your email makes a promise it doesn’t deliver on, is implying that the subscriber is inadequate in some way, or spreading divisive socio-political messaging, this could be the reason subscribers aren’t replying to your email.
Your call-to-action in an email marketing message should feature clearly. It should be straightforward the next step you expect a reader to take. A subscriber should not have to think about it.
What are the basics of an effective email marketing message?
If your email marketing campaign is not working and you don’t know why the worst action to take is to continue repeating the same type of messaging. Here’s a cheat sheet for basic, necessary elements of an email marketing message you want in place.
1. A catchy, action-oriented headline.
2. Exciting, short, and to-the-point text.
3. A personalized greeting to open the email, containing the subscriber’s name.
4. An offer stated, for your beginning.
5. How the offer contributes value to the user, for your middle.
6. A clear call-to-action that comes across as strong and persuasive, for your end.
Is your email marketing personalized and targeted to the right audience?
You won’t walk away with a high conversion rate on emails if you don’t effectively know your audience.
Divide up your subscriber base into targeted groups. At all costs, you want to avoid sending an email to a subscriber that’s not in your targeted demographic. For example, you wouldn’t sell baby diapers to a teenager. This doesn’t make sense. Boost your email marketing success by targeting customers where you’re contributing value to their lives with a product or service.
You may want to divide subscribers up by age, region, or other categories. Create customer personalities. Think of their responsibilities, professional and personal goals, daily priorities, and values.
What’s the best tone to use for an email marketing message?
The tone you use in your writing should match that of the customer. A subscriber may prefer conversational writing as opposed to more technical, formal-sounding words.
While you’re evaluating your tone, think of keywords that are likely to resonate or catch their attention. The more you know who’s receiving your emails, the better you can tailor every conversational aspect to them. If you know their pain points, challenges, or struggles, use the information to deliver quality writing in an email.
How do I write an email marketing headline?
There are 7 sales-friendly approaches to writing an email marketing headline. We suggest experimenting to see which approach best suits your clientele and your brand.
A sense of urgency. Subscribers who feel like an offer’s time-sensitive or available for a limited time are more likely to opt-in. That said, use sparingly. Too many urgent-style marketing headlines will exhaust this approach.
An offer that’s at a discount or free. Who doesn’t love getting a good deal? An offer for a free product or at a significant cut in price states value with clarity. There will be no confusion as to what your email message is about.
Curiosity. This can be a tricky email marketing headline to write. The objective is to generate enough curiosity that the reader has no choice but to click. Think of situations, stories, or something that your client is not going to be able to resist.
Self-interest. These types of email headlines are direct and mention the benefit to the audience a specific product or service will have. These are often formed in the phrase of a question like, “I have a basement leak. Is it time to call a basement repair specialist?”.
Tell a story. Start your email headline with a tease to a story. This plays on curiosity once again and encourages one to click into the email to find out the rest. It can be difficult writing a one-line story preview though. That could prove a challenge for many.
Authority. If you can promise some sort of exclusivity, expert advice, industry trends, or ‘secrets to’, this often works at capturing the interest of a subscriber. The most difficult aspect of writing like this is that you’ve got to pay it off in the end. If you don’t deliver, you’re only going to frustrate or disappoint the reader and they may not click on you again.
Social proof. These include success stories, testimonials, and/or showing how others are using a product or service. It’s easier to justify a purchasing decision when there’s social evidence.
How do I make my emails visually interesting to look at?
A large area in email marketing where brands lose the interest of a prospect is in including too much text. An email is just as much about what it looks like graphically as to what it says. Animations, images, graphics, and even video. Wrap it together with a little bit of text in an attractive, easy-to-read graphic format and that’s a winning email!
The visual landscape of your email shouldn’t be unexpected or overwhelming. There are a number of email marketing grids and navigation-friendly email templates that can be used as a starting point. For added inspiration, look to emails written by your favourite brands. There are many kinds of very simple mobile-responsive graphic grids that work amazingly well for email marketing.
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