Putting together the perfect marketing email can be very complicated, and will often require a lot of thought and creativity on your part. What goes into your emails will depend very much on the nature of your business, and the products and services that you offer. However, if you were to look at various successful marketing emails, you will see certain elements that are present in all of them. There are certain things that you can put within your emails that will help improve communication between you and your customers, as well as enabling you to interest and engage with them on a personal level. Here are a few of the things you should be considering when putting together your email marketing campaigns:
Before The Email Is Opened
Your subscribers will get a taste of what your email (and your company) is about before they even open your message. A lot has been written about the importance of the subject line. While there are no hard and fast rules, there are certain things you should consider: it should be neither too long nor too short, and it should concisely describe the contents of the email. As well as the subject line, there are certain other elements whose importance is growing. An increasing number of email clients display the pre-header text below the subject line. Therefore, you can use your pre-header text to increase the likelihood of your email being opened.
Too many companies waste the pre-header space with things like this:
Nothing about this will encourage a customer to open an email – they won’t know if they are having trouble viewing the email until after it’s been opened. Instead, the pre-headed should be used to contain information that is interesting and relevant to the subscriber, like this one:
This improves on the subject line by letting the reader know about the extra 10% saving and free delivery – two pieces of information that are likely to encourage a customer to open the email and read on.
The Header
The header is the first thing that the customer sees when they open your email. It therefore needs to make a big impact. The design of the header should be consistent with your brand. The majority of them mimic the look and feel of the brand’s home page. This kind of consistency inspires trust and confidence in the customer.
The header shouldn’t serve to confuse the customer. Use just one major call to action. This should reflect what you said in your subject line, while also inspiring the customer to read on.
This example, from TK Maxx, should what a good header should contain:
It contains a lot of relevant information without going overboard. It also expands upon what was said in the subject line:
The Footer
The footer is arguably the least important element of a marketing email, but that doesn’t mean that it should be ignored completely. If used correctly, it can be a useful relationship building tool. There are certain elements that need to be included within your footer (unsubscribe link, contact details etc), but they can contain much more than that. In this example from L’Occitance, as well as the required information, they have also included various links to information that could be helpful to the customer. They have also made it simple for their customers to connect with them by including social media links:
Of course, there are many more elements that come together to make a successful email marketing campaign. But, by considering some of these points, you’ll increase your likelihood of success.
