Create your very own Auto Publish News/Blog Site and Earn Passive Income in Just 4 Easy Steps
Does it sometimes feel daunting to write the “perfect” email? The odds may be stacked against you, especially since Hubspot’s study shows that readers open less than 24% of all promotional emails. So how do you get new subscribers to open your email and click through to your landing page?
Constant communication isn't necessarily the answer. But simpler email marketing can be the answer. While there are many email marketing tools and software out there, all claiming to be the key to your email problems, the real solution is much simpler. But simple email marketing does not mean easy or sloppy email marketing.
Whether you're a large corporation, a startup, or a small business, whether you have an established marketing strategy or are still looking for free plans, the answer to the question of how to create the best email possible is simplicity. We'll look at how you can simplify your emails, from strategy to coding, to improve your marketing metrics.
5 Ways to Create Easy Email Marketing Campaigns
Good email marketing starts with comprehensive planning. We've identified five ways to simplify your emails and optimize your email marketing strategy:
- Simplify your email strategy.
- Simplify your email layout.
- Simplify your email design.
- Simplify your code.
- Simplify your copy.
Let us look at each of these points in more detail below.
1. Simplify your email strategy
Think back to the last great email campaign you read. Was it long-winded, with paragraph after paragraph of creative wording and thematic layers that you eagerly read through only to discover the vague rationale for the email in the last paragraph? I don't think so.
Successful email copy should focus on one thing. One goal. One audience. This singular focus is known as the Rule of Unity. This will help you help your readers focus on your call to action (CTA) in the 8.25 seconds you have to make an impression and drive your readers to your online store. You can blame this on social media if you want, but we all have the attention span of a goldfish these days!
When you send an email to your subscribers, you should always have a goal in mind. Whether your goal is to remind the reader of an item in their shopping cart, confirm a purchase with a transactional email, reach your subscribers through an email newsletter, or send a simple welcome email, each element should support that goal. Address your goal right from the start to quickly hook your reader.
No matter how niche your market may be, you undoubtedly have different customers with different needs. In your copy, you want to appeal to the individual, not the masses. Use email list segmentation or dynamic content to personalize your emails for your readers at scale. Finally, audience segmentation allows you to target different people with similar characteristics at once.
2. Simplify your email layout
You have a lot to say to your reader—we get it. But to follow the trend toward simplicity, we recommend optimizing your email layout. Sidebars and menus are great for fitting in more information, but sometimes less is more. Create a single-column layout that works on both mobile devices with smaller screens and laptops. In addition to simplicity, this has the added benefit of better accessibility.
Studies show that email readers generally skim an email and skip the introductory sections. Create a layout that makes it intuitive for your readers to skim and spot important information and actionable points. Stronger subscriber retention means more lead generation.
3. Simplify your design
Now that we're getting to the point, size does matter. What do we mean by that?
Some inbox service providers (ISPs), like Gmail, will abbreviate your email if it's too long. This means your readers will only see the first part of your email in their inbox. They'll have to follow a link in their email client to see the rest of your message. The more clicks it takes to get a customer to make a purchase, the more likely you are to lose that customer along the way. Keep your emails short so all the necessary information is conveyed right at the beginning.
Additionally, remember to optimize your images to keep them small. First, large images take a long time to load – you don't want to lose your reader's attention while your beautiful image waits to render! Second, large images or long emails can trigger spam filters, which often flag large emails as spam or malicious. Don't let your legitimate emails end up in spam traps! This will negatively impact your email deliverability rates and prevent you from reaching as many customers as you'd like.
To sum it up: reduce the size if possible to improve your deliverability.
4. Simplify your code
Work with your email development team to make sure they simplify their code. Bloated code contributes to slow email load times. You don't want to lose your reader while they wait for your message to render.
We leave the coding to your developers, but to reiterate, here are four basic coding principles:
- DRY (Don't Repeat Yourself): Clean up repetitive code to keep it shorter and simpler.
- KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid): Write the code as simply as possible. This will render the code faster and make it easier to maintain.
- Modularity: Break the code into small, reusable parts.
- Restructuring: Refactoring the code to clean it up before deployment.
5. Simplify your text
As we've already mentioned, readers want valuable information, and they want it now. This means readers have little to no desire or time to be taken on a linguistic odyssey. To convert a prospect into a customer, you need to speak to them in familiar, relevant language that aligns with your brand's voice.
This starts with the subject line. Keep your subject line short and on-brand to increase the open rate of your emails.
After you've taken this opportunity, make sure your message is easy to understand. A Boomerang study provided compelling evidence for this, too, showing that emails written at a third-grade reading level have the highest response rate. While this isn't a call to “simplify” your email correspondence, it does provide evidence that simplified, informal copy has a 17% higher response rate than copy written at a high school reading level.
Overall, it's important to keep it simple when writing email copy, and in most things in life. If you establish a single, clearly defined purpose for a specific audience, your email can increase open and click rates. (Remember: the Rule of One.)
By shortening your email copy to be as concise and engaging as possible, you'll get higher response rates and have more time to convert your readers into customers. Clear and direct writing also saves your readers' brain power and clearly shows the value your company offers. Save yourself the time-consuming flipping through the thesaurus by simplifying your copy and getting incredible results.
What's next?
So you've simplified your email, what's next?
First, you can use an email marketing service to optimize your email design. Whether you're building your email from scratch or looking for an HTML email template that you can customize with a drag-and-drop editor, our team is here to help when it comes to email marketing services, features, and solutions. We have something for you, no matter your price point. Check out Mailjet's email marketing platform to take your marketing automation workflows to the next level. Use Mailjet's email editor functionality to optimize your email design.
Next, you can A/B test different versions of your email to segments of your contact list. Use a customer relationship management (CRM) tool to keep an eye on email analytics. This way, you can measure your email's performance and continue to develop the more successful version.
Wrap up
After all your marketing efforts in creating a conversion-focused eCommerce campaign, it would be a shame if it looked bad in your reader's inbox. If you want to make sure your email performs well in all areas, try us free for 7 days and get unlimited email, image, and spam testing! As always, our customer support is available to help you with your email needs. Don't guess with your emails: test!
This article was updated on September 9, 2022. It was first published in April 2016.
Author: The Email on Acid Team
The Email on Acid content team is made up of digital marketers, content creators, and real email geeks. Connect with us on LinkedIn, follow us on Facebook, and tweet us at @EmailonAcid on Twitter for more interesting stuff and great conversations about email marketing.
Create your very own Auto Publish News/Blog Site and Earn Passive Income in Just 4 Easy Steps
