There's endless amounts of tips, tricks, hints, hacks, guides, and how-to's on the best way to write a good marketing email but it all depends on your target audience. Not everything works, that's a fact, but taking small steps towards optimizing your emails for engagement can mean the world of difference. We could sit here and talk about campaign goals or segmented email lists but there's some really simple things you can do before that, right now, to help your email marketing.

1. Write Better Subject Lines

Subject lines are basically the most important part of your email. You could have the best written content and be giving away free puppies but nobody will notice unless they open the email first. Treat your subject line as the call to action for your newsletter or email broadcast.

7 Words or Less

7 words or less isn't a law but you need to make sure to keep your subject lines are under 50 characters! Keeping them concise and to the point isn't only important for relaying your message to the audience, but it's essential for making them fit on the user's screen. Over 60% of emails these days are opened on mobile devices, it doesn't matter if you write the most amazing subject line ever, it won't work if people can't see it.

USE EMOJIS TO VISUALLY COMPLEMENT YOUR MESSAGE

Adding visual elements like emojis or font symbols can help boost the response your subject line receives. However, you shouldn't go filling your subject lines full of with them. Use them sparingly and make sure they are relevant to the text in your subject line. Emoji's aren't for every audience, do some A/B testing with your subject lines to make sure the emoji is helping and not harming.

Get 100% More Attention Using Numbers

Ok, I'm not 100% sure about the exact numbers here but I do know that big number caught your eye. Start using numbers to get the reader's attention, it really works. Adding relevant numbers in the subject line can help create an urgency to your email and stand out among text. Numbers can be a good trick to get more opens but you should always use them wisely, don't over do it, make sure the number you put in the subject line is means something.

Make It Personal

It may sound super cliché or maybe obvious but using personalization is another great way to make your subject lines stand out. Personalized one's have been known to consistently outperform the non-personalized subject lines. If you're not sure how or don't want to use a subscriber's first name in the subject line, revert to using words like 'you' or 'your' to make your customers feel as if you're speaking directly to them.

2. Send Emails at the Right Time

If you aren't scheduling emails with specific times in mind you definitely aren't getting the most possible conversions from your email marketing. 10 AM has widely been thought of as the sweet spot for increasing your open rates. This of course will depend on your audience but there's a good chance your subscriber will be awake and ready to engage with your email. 

Not every day is the same, but studies have shown that emails sent at 8 PM also perform well compared to mid-day inbox notifications. Also of note: Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays are the most active days of the week for emailing. 

Stop sending out your emails when people aren't reading! Check out this CoSchedule Article for much more information and studies about when to send out your emails.

3. Keep Your Emails Short and Purposeful

Longer emails have been known to have less engagement and lower click rates. Like I noted before, a majority of people are checking their emails on small screens. Long blocks of text are unappealing to read on a mobile device and users engaging often have a shorter attention span because they may not be in a place to read a bunch. 

The longer your email, the less readable it becomes. Subscribers prefer short, simple emails that are to the point. When you're creating your email, make it fun to read, visually appealing, and most importantly engaging. That's it, short and sweet.

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Filed in // Email Marketing