Amanda Clark — January 10, 2018 — January 10, 2018
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It’s easy to send an email—and it can cost you basically nothing. Your company can send a limitless number of marketing emails, hoping for the best—but if that’s the approach you take, you’ll find that your emails fall on deaf ears. In fact, you’ll probably find that they never get opened at all.
Just because emails are perceived as cheap and mundane doesn’t mean you should be careless in how you send them. With the right approach, marketing emails can be more than just inbox filler. They can actually move your sales needle and improve your bottom line.
How? By accomplishing a few things:
- First, your emails actually have to be opened and read.
- Your emails need to go to the right people.
- Your emails need to offer something of value.
- Finally, your emails need to earn the trust of each recipient.
Maybe that sounds like a tall order, but with the right email marketing strategy, these goals are totally attainable. Here’s how.
Get Your Subject Line Right
Remember, your marketing emails won’t accomplish anything if they don’t get read. And that largely comes down to the subject line. Your subject line sets the tone and establishes the first impression for each email you send—and a good subject line will entice the recipient to explore your message. That’s how you get your emails to be opened and read.
So what does a good subject line look like? For one thing, it’s succinct. According to one study, the best length for an email subject line is four words. Does that mean every email you send needs to have a four-word subject line? No—but you should definitely shoot for brevity.
As for the substance of your subject lines, make sure you avoid clichés. Emoji and overtly salesy language tend not to grab anyone’s attention. Instead, convey the value of your message. What does it say, or what kind of offer does it include? How will the recipient be better off for opening your message?
That’s what you should convey in your subject line—in as brief and punchy a way as you can.
Send Your Emails to the Right People
Another key to getting your emails opened and read is to make sure they go to the right people. Before you hit send, know who you’re sending to.
Accomplish this by keeping a well-curated email list. There are different ways to do this. Maybe you have lists for low-quality and high-quality leads; for returning customers and new leads. At Grammar Chic, Inc., we have distinct aspects of our business—resume writing and content marketing, for example—where the subject matter overlap is pretty minimal. Thus, we maintain separate email lists, only sending resume-related stuff to jobseekers, not to our friends who work in marketing.
Well-curated email lists are key for ensuring that, when someone receives your message, it contains something that speaks to them.
Make Your Emails Valuable
Finally, your emails must earn the trust of each recipient. To put it another way, you need to show that you respect your recipient’s time. Remember that the people who receive your emails probably receive a ton of messages over the course of the day. They have little patience for something that simply hogs space in their inbox. Rather than sending them a bunch of cursory messages day in and day out, send messages judiciously—and make sure each one really counts.
And to make a message count, you need to make sure it offers something of value. Value, of course, can come in many different forms—among them:
- An offer for a white paper, guide, or other downloadable offer
- A discount code or coupon
- A first look at a new product or service, before it’s been unveiled anywhere else
- Carefully curated, value-adding clips from your company blog
The bottom line? Don’t waste anyone’s time. Give them something that speaks to their needs and shows that you’re looking out for them—not just trying to hock your wares.
Write Emails That Improve Your Bottom Line
Good emails don’t just get read; they convert, in one way or another. As such, they can actually move your sales needle.
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