Simone Smith
There is no shortage of email these days. And if you are a marketer, the chances are very high that your emails are in danger of landing in your recipient’s spam or junk folder. There are steps that you can take to minimize your emails ending up as junk, or just as bad, being deleted on sight.
Here are a few tips on how to make sure the emails you write will get opened AND read.
Subject lines
Of course, your entire email matters, but if your subject line fails to attract attention — or attracts the wrong kind of attention — your email will never get read. Think about how you read a newspaper. You skim the headlines and read only the stories that interest you, right? It works the same way when you have an overflowing inbox that you have to sort through. When crafting your headlines, consider the things that people are looking for in an email and the things that turn them off.
What people want to see in their inbox:
- Useful information on a subject they are interested in
- Critical information related to things they are involved in
- Personal email from friends and acquaintances
- Rewards and benefits from companies they do business with
- News and timely information could be helpful
What causes people to delete your email without opening it:
- All caps and exclamation points
- Donation requests
- Pleas for help
- The words “special offer” or “FREE”
- Statements that are too good to be true
Frequency
At the outset, you want to establish how often you plan to send out email. Make sure your subscribers know what to expect when they sign up to your list. Then be consistent and stick to your schedule. As long as your subscribers know to expect your email and they get used to seeing them on a regular basis, they aren’t likely to hit the spam button on you.
Content
If you want people to actually look forward to getting your emails and then reading them word for word, you have to create interesting content that entertains people while giving them information they can use. Think of it as feeding your audience broccoli that tastes like pizza. Boring and irrelevant is the kiss of death.
From: You
Send your emails from an email address that has your name in it. It doesn’t have to be your personal email address, but vague, generic no-reply addresses are a dead giveaway that you are a marketer with no interest in building a personal relationship with your audience.
Conversational
Write your emails in a conversational tone if you want people to actually read them. Emails written in corporate-speak, using jargon and formal language that would be more appropriate for company documents and legal or academic papers should be avoided at all costs. Formal language and jargon throw up barriers between you and the reader and create a cold, distant atmosphere. Treat your reader like a friend and talk to them like one.
Emotional
In order to be persuasive, your emails should appeal to your readers on an emotional level. Use plenty of sensory words. Sensory words are like power words — they can make even mundane topics come alive.
Curiosity
Studies have shown that the most powerful way to get people to read your emails is to pique their curiosity. Create an itch with your subject line that can only be scratched when the person opens and reads your email. Of course, you can go too far with this. Click-baiters use this method in the most annoying way possible. They often create strong curiosity and then fail to follow through and satisfy it or their headlines are so misleading that it ends up creating frustration in the reader.
Writing an email for an upcoming tradeshow? Refresh your exhibition plan with this free ebook.
Digital & Social Articles on Business 2 Community(103)
