5 Simple Tips to Help You Create Stellar Email Content for Your Campaign

Laura Ginn

Content marketing is all the rage today, but so is email marketing. So, what do you do? You integrate both digital marketing features and produce an impeccable email marketing campaign.

First impressions matter. Our attention spans aren’t as large as they used to be. Digital content must be simple and easy to fathom. These are all things to take into account when a marketer or brand is looking to compose email content for their next marketing campaign.

Email Marketing

Once a subscriber on your email list opens your messages, you will have only a couple of seconds to impress the recipient. If the content is stellar then they will take the time to comb through the rest of the email. However, if the content is not up to par then they will immediately delete it.

Most content marketers are taking advantage of email. Unfortunately, they sometimes don’t see any results. In the first quarter of 2015, the average click rate for marketing emails was less than four percent. With email marketing becoming popular again amongst brands and marketers, why aren’t they seeing good results? It’s likely due to the fact they are penning poor content.

The meat and potatoes of it all is that the email you shoot off to your subscribers should contain content that your readers care about. It doesn’t matter if the content of the email is promoting a service, offering a free product or providing pertinent information. The important aspect of all marketing emails is to leave the reader wanting more in the end. What that more is really depends on what you’re looking to accomplish in your latest email marketing endeavour.

Unsure where to begin? Here are five simple tips to help you create stellar email marketing content:

  • Highly Anticipated Emails
  • Stay Honed in on Objectives
  • Focus on the Reader
  • Power of Email Subject Lines
  • Your Emails Must Be Engaging

Highly Anticipated Emails

If you’re a company or a website that sends weekly emails to your subscribers, then you want your emails to be highly anticipated, eagerly awaited by most of your subscribers. You want them to be sitting on the edge of their seats, biting their fingernails and constantly looking at their monitor clock just waiting for you to click send and shoot off your email.

Is that just a pipe dream? It doesn’t have to be. If your content is great then you could garner these reactions (maybe not to the extent of biting nails, but any sort of positive reaction helps).

Here are several tips to make your subscribers excited to actually receive your company email:

  • Avoid talking about what you’re giving them. Instead, go straight to the point of why you’re emailing that subscriber.
  • Only email your subscribers when you have something valuable to offer.
  • Use your real name and your real “from” address; use their name as well.
  • Reward your readers, whether it’s with a white paper, useful tips or inspiration.
  • Continue to be a trustworthy brand with honesty, facts and true reactions to your products or service.

Email content is crucial for anything marketing campaign. Don’t be boring, but don’t be crazy. Be creative, but follow spelling and grammar rules. Shield your subscribers from bad content.

Stay Honed in on Objectives

Even for professional writers, sometimes it’s easy to sway from your original message, the initial theme and style you wanted to compose. When you do this, the reason behind your email can become confusing and perhaps messy. If this happens, your readers will bounce away from the email, which is something you never want to happen. So, what can you do exactly?

It’s simple: follow the same formula for every single email that you write and eventually send. Remember, just because you follow a formula it doesn’t mean you don’t have to be creative.

For all of your emails, use these four elements to ensure you stay on your objectives:

  • Headline
  • Teaser
  • Image
  • Call-to-Action (CTA) Button

Of course, you should also establish your own formula. You can perform several experiments to determine what works and what doesn’t with A/B testing. Just because it works for another brand, it doesn’t mean that it will work for you. Be creative and try out various possibilities.

Ultimately, you must always write your email content with a single goal in mind.

Focus on the Reader

Oftentimes, writers compose a blog post, article or even emails for themselves. Unfortunately, they ignore the intended recipient and only write what entertains them personally, which is the wrong approach. Simply put: you should always focus on the reader when you’re writing an email.

This is easily done by always incorporating the word “you” instead of “I” or “we.” By using this very simple three-letter word, you shift the focus of the email onto the customer.

Moreover, you can focus on the reader by personalising your emails. Customisation is key to a successful email marketing campaign. By using the customer’s name sparingly and tailoring the message with facts relatable to them, such as their favourite colour or their favourite sports team, you will encourage them to feel confident with your brand and trust you in recommending products or services that are right for them.

Personalisation and the word “you” will prove to be valuable assets to your campaign.

Power of Email Subject Lines

The email subject line can make or break your campaign. If it’s intriguing, a user will click. If not, the email will head to either the trash bin or the spam folder (gasp!) and nobody wants that.

So, what do you do then with subject lines? A lot of research has gone into this. Below are several things that experts suggest when you are coming up with the right subject line for your subscribers:

  • Keep your subject lines short and sweet with no more than 50 characters maximum.
  • Customise subject lines by using their names in the subject lines.
  • Never make false promises, avoid heavy punctuation and don’t be boring.
  • Try to be urgent by informing them they only have 24 hours to take advantage of your free eBook or to participate in next week’s webinar for free.
  • Using questions and numbers are simple but effective techniques.

Email subject lines should also be optimised for mobile devices. So when you’re conducting split testing, perform it for both desktop and mobile user. This will save headaches in the future.

Your Emails Must Be Engaging

Fortunately, because your brand is so strong and popular right now, subscribers are opening up your emails. However, many have noticed that they’re rather dull, and a lot of people are not paying attention to the emails because they’re not engaging at all for the reader.

Huh? What do you do?

Well, first off, your emails should never put somebody to sleep. Secondly, the emails should always be captivating, engaging and exciting. Third, try adding a personal touch to your email (think of the Lubitsch Touch if you’re a fan of classic cinema).

Here are several tips for you to incorporate into your engaging email marketing strategy:

  • Make sure the emails are short based on the sentences. If your sentences are long winded and never seem to end, your readers will get frustrated and bored.
  • Ask your readers questions. By doing this you are engaging their input in the emails.
  • Never automate your greetings and goodbyes.
  • Be natural in your emails and add some personality with words and expressions you use.
  • You should always care about your readers by focusing on what they need and want.

There’s nothing worse than a monotonous email, especially when you have 20 others waiting for your attention. Remember, you’re always competing for space and attention on your recipient’s mailbox.

Final Thoughts

Let’s face it: creating stellar content isn’t always easy, no matter how great of a writer you are or how poor you are. Trying to come up with 200 words to invigorate your audience on a tiresome Wednesday afternoon can be a difficult task to accomplish. But once you come up with a functional strategy and a formula that suits your brand, you’ll get into a groove. Before you know it, your bounce rate will be low, your open rate will be high and your sales will spike.