To say email marketing is a delicate business would be an understatement. The success of email marketing hinges upon the thought and craft put into the writer’s actually message, the ability to make the email seem more than a vague pitch at an anonymous email address. Needless to say, it’s not always easy to make marketing emails sound breezy and inviting even when working with the most ideal products and services. You have to strike the delicate balance between selling a product while simultaneously convincing the reader that you’re not “just another one of those junks emails.”
So how do you write the ideal email to potential customers? How can you manage to win over the typical web user with a short attention span long enough to pitch your service? Check out these tips below for some insight on how to pep up your email marketing tactics.
Develop a targeted narrative
This is the key to any effective email marketing campaign. A series of emails without a consistent message or a fitting target audience will fall flat on its face without a doubt. That’s why it’s critical to put as much planning into a the overall goal of an email marketing campaign, not only planning the initial set of emails but those that will go out throughout the length of your series. It’s like planning out a storyboard.
Perhaps a concrete example would clarify the importance of proper targeting and narrative development. Say that you were planning an email marketing campaign on behalf of a new car insurance company looking to get their name out among the public. First, you’d want to develop a strong narrative to pair with your target, namely customers without car insurance or people who want to pay lower premiums. Your emails would have to hook those on your mailing list, and the best way to do that would to be to show them the price differential between the competitors’ rates and your own. You could have a continuing narrative of “Us versus the other guys” to distinguish the car insurance company as a new leader in the industry. The key is that you stay on message and constantly hit the points that matter to the consumer.
Striking a balance between personal and professional
People don’t want to be told what to do; this maxim proves itself every time a person angrily deletes a marketing email that’s too forceful in pushing their service. While no one likes to have information foisted upon them, most will be open to suggestions if the offer sounds enticing enough. That’s the key to effective email marketing—seizing the tone of voice between personal and professional, the grey area between obviously pushing a product and adopting a friendly tone about no topic in particular.
Effective email marketing succeeds in this sweet spot, when the emails take on a friendly but informative demeanor (“Friend, do you grumble about the car insurance rates taking a toll on your monthly bills? I know I do”) without immediately going for the sale. Sure, at the end of the day you’ll have to mention your service in the email eventually, but as long as you prime the reader for it you should encounter more enthusiasm for it.
What are your tactics for writing effective email content?
About the author
This is a guest post by Susan Wells. Susan is from insurancequotes.org, she writes on topics including health/car/life insurance, mortgage, real estate.