Whether
you call it an email, email blast or email promotion, essentially it is an electronic version of an advertisement. These
are emails that are sent to your subscribers or people that have opted-in to
receive information from your company or business. It’s also worth mentioning that
email promotions can be very effective, no matter how big or small your
subscriber list. It’s quality over quantity in these situations, and as you
continue to grow your list, you’ll have quality and quantity on your side.
5 Essential Parts of Every Email
Blast
In
order to make sure that your email blasts are effective, make sure that all of
your email promotions include these five elements.
Personalization.
You want
the recipients of your email to feel as if you’re speaking directly to
them rather than sending the same email out tothousands of people. One way to help your email look less like a sales
attempt and more like a personal message is to use the recipient’s name. Another
way to personalize your emails is to separate your mailing lists so
that you're only sending emails that the recipients are interested in
receiving. Contact management software
programs all have personalization capabilities.
Introduction. The next piece of your email
should be a
1-3 sentence introduction. This is simply a preview of what the email has to offer them before launching into a sales pitch. Then you can move
on to the details of the offer.
Use sub-heads, bullet points, bold and italic fonts. Break up your email by using sub-headlines, bullet
points, bold fonts and italics. This helps from overwhelming the reader with a
complete page of text and helps to capture the attention of skimmers--readers that skim rather
than read from beginning to end. Skimmers quickly
scan the email to see if it contains information that interests them. If something grabs their attention, they'll go back and read the entire message, but if they don't they hit
the delete button.
Tell them what you want them to do. Never assume that the readers of your email know what
to do next. It’s important that you tell them exactly what you want them
to do. Always be sure to include a
call-to-action statement at the end of your email with statements such as,
"Shop now," with a link to your website or "Call me today
for a free consultation 305.555.FREE." Whatever it is
you want them to do next, tell them! While you
should at least have one call-to-action at the end of your email, it’s
even more effective to tell them what to do more than once, in a couple of different ways and have it scattered throughout the email.
Graphics and Photos. In some
instances, text-only emails work just fine. Including photos or graphics in your email is another way to break up copy and grab the attention of your readers. The picture may be what grabs their attention first
and gets them to read the text. This is especially true if you're selling products, but can drive the point home just as much if you’re
selling a service.
About. It may be in the footer of your email or in a sidebar, but
all of your emails should have a section
that is about
the company. This area should also include all of the company contact information such as a website address, phone number, address and email.
About the Author
Copywriter
and marketing consultant, Kristie Lorette, is passionate about helping
entrepreneurs and businesses create copy and marketing pieces that sizzle,
motivate, and sell. She
is also the author of Action Marketing: A
Step-by-step Guide to Launch Your Business Marketing Plan. For more
information, visit http://wp.me/ptLrh-1.
