Write emails to encourage the audience to act

Write emails to encourage the audience to act

Undoubtedly, you've written thousands of emails in your life. You probably regularly send and receive emails from your family, friends, coworkers, and even strangers on a regular basis. 

Although writing an email to a person is a simple idea, sending an email to a large group of people involves a completely different set of skills. You need to be able to create a message that not only draws a diverse audience's attention, but also clearly expresses a single object and encourages readers to take the desired action, and everything must be achieved without using audio, video, photographs and other multimedia content. 

You also need to figure out how to handle the email's technical characteristics, stop spam filters, and ensure compliance with anti-spam laws. It's both a science and an art to write successful emails.

Understanding Your Audience 

You have to understand who your audience is if you want to write to them effectively. You need to know how old your typical subscribers are, what they do for a living, their gender if they are married, and a ton of other demographics. If you don't know these things, then you should conduct a survey and ask people to share their information with you so that you have a better idea of who makes up your email list. 

It is highly recommended that you build a character of fiction that represents your average customer. This is referred to as an avatar. By creating an avatar, you will have a better idea of who you are marketing to, and it will allow you to get inside the minds of your subscribers. 

When you write an email to your mailing list, write as if you are sending a personal message to your avatar. Ask yourself what your avatar would like to hear in order to take action based on your email.  

If you write to your avatar and use a lot of "you" words, your subscribers will subconsciously assume you've been written to them specifically and they'll be more likely to get involved with the post. 

You need to keep the focus on your subscribers as much as possible, making sure to make your emails about them, and not about you. 

Parts of an Email

When you are getting ready to put together an email, it is easy to think that the only thing that you have to worry about is writing the message body. However, there are several different components of every message that you send to your list.  

If you want your email marketing campaign to be successful, then you need to put as much thought and effort into the other parts of your email as you do the main message body. Here are the components of an email that are key. 

Subject Line 

This is the subject of your message. It is the first thing that your subscribers will see, and it is what will determine whether or not they open your message. 

Preheader 

The preheader is the preview text that is included in certain email services such as Gmail after the subject line. It can be a second subject line to enable the reader to open your message.

If you do not deliberately add a preheader, most email services will use your address as a preheader with the first sentence or two.

“From” Name 

This is the name of the recipient of the message. You want to use your personal name rather than the name of your company because most email users are more likely to open an email from an actual person.

Message Body 

This is the main text of your email. It will include the email you would like to receive from your subscribers.

Call-to-Action

Call-to-Action This will be a hyperlink at the bottom of your message body to prompt readers to take specific action, such as clicking on hyperlinks.

Signature

You want to keep the signature of your email simple. Long email signatures may be a distraction to your email's main content. The best signature is the first line's personal name and the next line's company name.  

Postscript 

Use a "P.S." below your email signature to occasionally consider acting as a secondary sales tool after your primary address. 

Footer

Usually, the footer should include an unsubscribe reference and other data you need to include in order to comply with anti-spam legislation. This may include your e-mail address and your company name.The footer will likely be the same for every email that you send out.

Keeping Your Emails Balanced 

While you will send your audience emails for a variety of reasons, you need to maintain a healthy balance between sending emails that provide value to your audience and email that take value away. 

Emails that contain information that is helpful to your audience, at no cost to them, such as educational content, tips, resources, and training videos, provide value to your audience. Emails that challenge your audience to buy a product or take action that will help your audience more than they do. 

For each email you get, you will consider sending at least two value-added emails to your audience. Ideally, you will give your audience so much value that they will respond to your emails for sales and marketing out of sheer gratitude for the value you have already given.

Writing Great Subject Lines 

The most important words that you will write as part of your email marketing strategy is your subject lines. When you write an uninspired subject line and don't get your subscribers' attention, they're probably not going to open your email. 64% of people say they will choose to open an email because of the subject line, according to a recent report. You are guaranteed to receive higher open rates if you write a persuasive subject line, which will result in more click-throughs and more sales.  

A well-written subject line can often receive twice a poorly-written one's open rates, which in turn will double the clickthrough rates and double the sales generated by the email.

You can also use a number of techniques to change subject lines to highlight words and make unsaid promises about your message's content. 

If you are going to use any of these different techniques, you need to move them from email to email and not use any of the strategies more than twice a month.

If you use them too often, subscribers will note these patterns and make them ineffective.

Best Practices to Follow with Your Email 

When you are creating an email, there are several best practices that you should follow in order to obtain the best results.  

Don’t Rely on Images 

Approximately 10-30 percent of your readers will never click "enable images" on your emails. This means that you should never rely on images to convey critical points in your copy. If you do decide to use pictures, make sure that you use clear and descriptive ALT text. You can use CSS styling to make your ALT text larger and more visible to subscribers that don't enable images.   

Avoid Grammar and Spelling Errors 

A huge turn-off is poor grammar, capitalization, and spelling errors for many email subscribers. If you want to talk to your audience with a professional voice, you need to do so by writing simply and properly.

No one will believe you are an authority on anything if you can't write a complete, grammar and spelling free sentence. Make sure you double-check every email you write for errors or consider having someone else check your email before you send it out.

Include Multiple Hyperlinks 

If you have a specific link that you want your readers to click on, then you need to add a total of three hyperlinks to every email. At the bottom of your message, as well as just above your email signature, be sure to hyperlink your main call to action. 

You also want to add hyperlinks to a few relevant words in the first paragraph of your email to direct readers to the page on your site that you want them to visit. Eventually, a second call-to-action must be included below your email signature and in any postscript you apply to your messages. 

Avoid Design-Heavy Emails 

Subscribers are more likely than a faceless company to read emails that come from an individual. Although businesses in their email often use models, people rarely do so. You want to try to avoid using heavy-duty models to make your emails look more private.

Only Use One Call-to-Action Per Email 

You don't want to try to get your subscribers to do multiple things in any single email. Each email that you send out to your list should have a sole purpose and a single call-to-action that you want them to take. Readers are less likely to respond if they need to weigh which of your calls-to-action they want to take, if any. 

Have a Clear Unsubscribe Link

Do not attempt to highlight or obscure your unsubscribe link. Have a clear unsubscribe link in an average font size.

If you decide to obscure your unsubscribe link, your subscribers that flag your message as spam, putting your email service provider at risk if your account receives too many complaints about spam. 

Copywriting is a skill to practice for some time. The emails you send will not be flawless for the first few months, and that's okay. 

Your copywriting skills will improve over time and ultimately you will become a professional copywriter whose emails will yield results.