To a business or any personal brand, marketing is equally important as the products and the services it offers. E-mail marketing is one of the most effective marketing strategies if done efficiently. Many get misled by focusing on the graphic and design of an e-mail. But in reality, a well-written e-mail can bring better results than a well-designed one with zero importance to the written copy. Let us take you through the details of ‘how to write a professional marketing e-mail’ that stand out every time.
- Subject Line: Though it may seem negligible, for cold e-mailing, the subject line can be the most crucial element. To initiate a professional relationship with potential customers, you need to grab their attention at the very first glance. Research, think creatively, and come up with a subject line that attracts the reader and generates curiosity. A catchy subject line helps you stand out from the enormous e-mails in the mailbox.
- Preview Text: After you catch the attention through the subject line, the reader is likely to read the preview text. It is a small part of the e-mail text, often the first line of the e-mail. Utilize this to navigate the readers to open the mail. Don’t waste this opportunity by writing irrelevant text or adding social media buttons etc. Focus on the products/services, the discounts, and upcoming events, Find your selling point and highlight it in this section. The preview text should be relevant to the subject line.
- Structure it well: Once the reader opens the mail, the person should have clarity of the business and what it offers. Don’t overburden the mail with long paragraphs, lengthy sentences, and heavy words. Use simple and understandable words. Make the sentences easy and not text-heavy. Use short paragraphs to break the text monotony. Use relevant and engaging graphics. Make sure your e-mail has a good balance of text and pictures and looks appealing to the reader.
- Know your audience: Before sending e-mails to a mass audience, it’s important to understand the demographics of the readers. The approach of an e-mail will highly depend on the demographic. For example, sending e-mails for attractive home loan offers to a group of readers between 20-25 years of age will be irrelevant. In such case a well-structured mail with attractive writing will also not help as the target itself is not fit.
- Choose words wisely: Always remember the main motive of these e-mails is to generate revenue for your business. That’s why you need to be careful and strategic while choosing words. Firstly never use any word that has adverse effects. Rather choose assertive words to convey the same message. “People below 30 are not eligible for the session” and “only people above 30 are eligible for the session” convey the same thing but the approach is totally opposite. Also use actionable words such as ‘shop now’ ‘subscribe’, ‘download’ etc. it helps the reader know what exactly this e-mail is for.
- Connect with the readers: While making a sale, if you succeed to evoke the correct emotion within the readers, your job is half done! It is necessary to create the need for the product or service before approaching. Your e-mail copy should bring out the desires in the readers they didn’t know they had. For example, if you are promoting an app for a healthy lifestyle, you need to make the readers realize the need for it without hurting their sentiments.
- Add personal touch: Gone are the days when e-mail used to be written formally. Especially for marketing purposes, the e-mails must have an informal or rather friendly approach. First of all, use the one-to-one approach. Though you’ll be sending one mail to a group of people, the reader will be alone while reading the mail. The reader must feel that the e-mail is talking to him only. Secondly, write as a person, and not a business. Write as if you are writing to a friend, it helps your brand connect better with the readers. Rather than, “ABC Fitness offers 25% off on dietician consultation”, “Consult our dietician for better care of yours @25% less fees”
- Let them know you: The brand of a business is like its character. While writing about the products, services, and offers, write briefly about the brand. A short but well-written paragraph about the vision of the brand or the person behind helps readers connect better.
- Keep Clarity: Always choose clarity over creativity while writing marketing e-mails. To make writing creative, you may end up confusing the reader. It’s important to understand that people spend very less time on one thing on the internet. The moment they feel distracted or disinterested, they move on. To make your e-mail content more engaging, keep your approach straight. There is not much scope for wordplay. Find your selling point, and navigate the readers to take action through your writing.
- Talk about solutions: Never focus on the features of a certain product or service. Always keep your focus on how these products and services will solve a problem and benefit the readers personally. If your business can’t solve readers’ problems, there is no point in having several features. For example, if you sell home décor items and you write, “We have an exclusive collection of home décor pieces” no reader will be interested at first as it doesn’t benefit or solve anything. But an approach like, “confused about how to decorate your home this Diwali? Check our collection!” will immediately make the reader click the CTA button as it talks about a solution.
E-mail marketing is vital for brand promotion and, the right strategy can generate a solid customer base. Next time while writing marketing e-mails, keep these points in mind. These will help you get better results and bring in more traffic in terms of customers and subscribers.
