Having a knockout subject line is your first and best opportunity for attracting attention in an overflowing inbox. (Read more on this topic in my previous iMedia Connection column, "7 fixes for terrible subject lines.") But, a good subject line is only the start.
Your readers have to trust that your message is worth the cost of a few seconds of their day, even if they don't buy the product you're offering. They should feel like they haven't wasted their time on your messages because there's a little something extra tucked in, like the Cracker Jack boxes back in the days when the prize inside was worth keeping.
When readers come to expect your messages will be well-written, nicely designed, and deliver valuable content every time, they'll open your message ahead of yet another promotional email or another email notice from Facebook. (And we all know our inboxes are deluged with those these days.)
Here are five questions you should ask yourself in gauging whether you're sending truly meaningful emails.
1. Do you write or do you "message?"
Email forces you to be concise, but "concise" does not exclude "elegant." It's an email message, not a text message or a tweet.
Be thoughtful in your word choice and logical in your organization. Choose each word carefully, not just to inform but to instill a specific personality (more on this below). Use words that will draw in your reader. (Keep it focused on them, rather than you, for starters.)
Use white space and bullet points to make your most important concepts stand out. Put your most important copy (your name, value proposition, and call to action) in HTML text so that the words render even when images don't.
About images: Forget the saying "a picture is worth a thousand words." A picture isn't worth anything if the image doesn't render, and it won't render for half or more of your readers, unless they download it, which many readers are not apt to do.
The images in your message should support your copy, not vice versa. Look at your messages without the images. Can you tell what the email is about, whom it's from, or what it wants you to do without the images? Words are your first and last resort in email, and they deserve extra time to ensure they're the right ones. With this in mind, only include pictures if they are truly imperative to the message and will be worth the extra time and effort it takes your readers to download them.
2. Does every part of your email work?
This seems painfully obvious, but I have listed it here because I still receive emails with errors that could have been caught had the sender taken five minutes to test the message before pressing "send."
Here are some common errors to make sure you correct before you send:
- The wrong subject line. It's good to know that you test content before sending, but your recipients don't need or want to see this.
- The wrong landing page. The wrong landing page link in your newsletter can turn readers off, especially if it takes them to an outdated offer, or one that is even better than the one you are promoting.
- Broken images. If you're going to put every detail about your offer into the image, you better be sure the image works. Nobody ever buys from the big red X in the rectangle.
3. What's your personality?
People like to buy from other people, so the saying goes. Inject some life into your messages so that they read like a note from a friend.
Maybe you can't muster a really drop-dead-fabulous offer -- maybe it's free shipping or a 20-percent-off discount. But if you can wrap it in a message that sounds like a note from a friend, you can distinguish yourself from all the other free shipping offers in the inbox.
Even if you cultivate a breezy, off-the-cuff, or cool persona, your words and images should be chosen carefully in keeping with your established personality.
4. Do your messages offer something extra?
Always give your readers something else to do if they don't want to buy the product or act on your offer.
Here are a few things to add that give your readers another reason to act on your message:
- Include links to other departments at your company, such as customer service, company news, your blog, your Twitter or Facebook pages, or your RSS feed.
- Link to a preference center so your readers can sign up for other email streams you offer, change their subscriptions, or unsubscribe. Just an unsubscribe link alone isn't enough.
- Add a secondary offer.
- Promote your other email programs, and link to the preference or email page to help readers sign up as seamlessly as possible.
- Add some complementary copy, such as a customer or employee-generated product review or comment, a joke, observation, or perhaps a personal column from a buyer, your CEO, or someone else from whom your readers would want to hear.
5. Is your email worth sharing with others?
When your email is truly meaningful, it's one your readers will want to share with others. Many of your recipients are trying to build their social networks and relationships online, and they can use all the help they can get with great content from credible sources to help them increase their "social capital."
Make it easy for them to share your email:
- Add a send-to-a-friend link.
- Include links to post to Twitter, Facebook, and other social networks to make your email easy to pass along.
- Pick relevant networks for your audience; you might use LinkedIn, but including it in a message targeted at teenage fashionistas will make you look old and out of touch.
All of these ideas will help you establish the idea in your subscriber's mind that he or she has to open the email immediately or risk missing out on something good. That's what makes email truly meaningful -- not forgettable, delete-able, or even "wait-until-later"-able.
Wendy Roth is the senior manager of training services for Lyris Technologies.
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