The Secret To Creating Successful Marketing Emails 

Marketing emails usually have one purpose.

To sell something! A product...a service...an idea...a point of view...

In today's busy world, marketing emails need to intrigue people, bribe them, pique their curiosity - whatever you want to call it - so they will actually open them.

Period.

And if your email DOES earn the click, it needs to work hard to hold your reader's attention. 

Many marketers try to make an email do too much.

With an email, you don't have enough room, time, and flexibility to get too wordy.

Your email should sell one idea. 

It's your website's job to do the selling.

Key Marketing Email Characteristics

So what are the important elements of a successful marketing email?

The subject line is the most important part of your marketing emails. Bar none. 

According to Aweber, 47% of email recipients ONLY consider the subject line when deciding whether or not to open an email.

Especially when they don't know you.  

Think about it. What's the first thing we all look for when we get an email? Of course. Who sent it ?

So if you aren't a welcome guest, you need to create a subject line that intrigues or excites your prospect enough to open your email. 

Otherwise, it's game over.

(I'll address subject lines in a future issue.) 

The best copy, best offer and the best price will have no impact if it goes unread.

And, of course, your subject line should not be misleading in an effort to intrigue the reader and get them to open it up. 

The stronger the relationship you have with your email recipient, the more leeway you have with your subject line.

The general rule of thumb is that your subject line shouldn't be more than 44 characters. Exceed that and you run the risk of having it cut off. 

Anytime, you can personalize your subject line by using the person's first name, it's a good thing.

You WANT your email to "feel" personal whether you send it out to 10 people or 10,000.

These days, with a "cold" audience, it's good practice to start with something that shows you've done a bit of homework.

Bots, AI and all the other impersonal methods of firing off a ton of emails don't resonate well with potential customers. 

Many of my selling emails start with a reference to a post they wrote. 

I know what you're thinking...Geez Gerry, that means I gotta do some research on their blog. 

True. And it DOES take commitment.

But, it's worth it.  

What's the point of sending an email if the person receiving it sees "Buy my software" right out of the gate?

Your next sentence should convey why you are emailing them. 

Here's an email I sent out yesterday: 

Don't use long sentences. We've all received the overwhelming 'sea of words' email. It's hard to read. It's hard to look at. And your reader won't.

From time to time, I will go up to three or four sentence paragraphs but not often.

Overwhelm your readers and you run the risk of having them take one look at it, decide they don't have time to chew their way through it - that they might read it later. 

But of course, later never comes.

Never make your email longer than three quarters of a page. If you don't let them see the end of it, you run the risk of having them assume it's long.

If that happens, you're done. We all know how fast emails can pile up. 

And, be sure to include a P.S. It's often the second most read part of the email.

Make sure to include your contact information where applicable.  - a phone number, your social media links etc. 

It gives your recipient additional ways to learn about you if they want to. 

By law, your marketing email must include a physical address. Major email programs like Constant Contact and Aweber insert it by default.

And you must include an "unsubscribe" option in every email you send.

Follow the guidelines above and you'll see some positive results from your future marketing email campaigns.