How do you get your readers to act?

Setting a clear and precise goal is the linchpin for campaign success. It's not just about blasting emails; it's about crafting a journey that guides your audience to take action—be it a click, a purchase, or a share. This focus on actionable outcomes is what separates the big moves from the static noise in the inbox. Remember, every email is a direct conversation with your customer, and the goal you set dictates the flow of that conversation. It's giving strategy with a purpose.

Every email should have ONE goal. Do you want to make a sale? Promote a new blog post? Get a customer review? The goal dictates everything else in the email. For example, a sales email will be longer and more "complete". Meanwhile, a blog post promotion email will be shorter, teasing the full post's contents.

Start with a clear goal. What do you want your readers to do after reading your post? This goal guides your content, helping you craft a message that leads readers towards this action. Keep this goal in mind as you write, ensuring every word pushes towards this aim.

Knowing your goal is important, based on which you can position your product to the right audience, this helps a lot in email marketing

Actually knowing your goal, and starting anything is useless. In fact your goal will determine the strategy on which you have to work in future

Understand who you're writing for. Tailor your content to meet their needs, answer their questions, and solve their problems. Speak their language, and your message will resonate, making them more likely to take action.

Send messages that are contextual. This means they must be both timely and relevant to the recipient’s current circumstances. Recipients expect senders to use any data they’ve asked for or could reasonably have to contextualize the message and timing.

Understanding what your audience want and communicating it in a precise way through your email can help your email marketing campaign to be successful. Instead of always trying to sell something, nurture your audience by delivering value through each email.

Give them what they signed up for. Adopt a friendly tone and build trust along the way. Get them excited every time they see your newsletter name pop up in their inbox. Let them feel heard from feedback. Make them feel valued by giving them more content that is valuable.

Before crafting your email, pinpoint exactly what you want your readers to do. This goal shapes everything from your email's tone and style to its structure. It's like setting a clear destination before starting a journey, ensuring your message leads your readers precisely where you want them to go.

Your headline is the first, and sometimes only, impression you make on a potential reader. Make it count. A good headline sparks interest and invites readers in. Think of it as the front door to your content; make it welcoming and relevant.

Clear and catchy is ideal. But focus on clear first. The reader should know what's in it for them. What will they get from opening your email? That means you must "pay off" the subject line, too. If the subject line is "The truth about X", you better talk about X. If you can get a clear headline/subject, THEN try to make it catchy... without sacrificing clarity.

A headline is like the front door to your message – it needs to invite readers in. Use catchy, concise headlines that speak directly to the reader's interests or needs. Techniques like incorporating numbers, posing questions, or highlighting benefits can spark curiosity and urge them to delve deeper into your email. It's all about creating that initial hook that makes your message irresistible.

Catchy yes, clickbait NO! That's a rule. Making your email headline interesting and teasing is acceptable and desired. Trying to deceive your audience to open your email is not a sustainable strategy. You will lose them altogether (they will soon unsubscribe). To craft the best email headline, do this: keep it sweet and short, tease them about what they are about to read if they open it, stay relevant and no more than one emoji!

Clear and catchy headlines grab attention, ensuring recipients open and engage with the email content, ultimately driving higher click-through rates and conversions. They also convey the message succinctly, making it easy for readers to understand the offer or information being presented. A few more useful things: 1. Don't use stop-words and caps lock for headline/subject. 2. Numbers good work for e-com 3. Don't forget about the subtopic. It can be useful If a user reads an email on mobile. 4. Remove extra spaces. It gives you a clear and readable headline/subject.

People care about how your content can improve their lives, not just the details of what you’re offering. Highlight the benefits of taking action. Make it clear how acting will make their life better, easier, or more enjoyable.

Feature -> Benefit -> Concrete example of what that benefit looks like. "So you can" is a good mental exercise for teasing out the benefit and the concrete example. "Feature X automates bookkeeping transactions SO YOU CAN save time SO YOU CAN end your work day earlier" or something like that. Know your audience, though. The same feature could benefit different audiences differently.

The best way to entice your lead through benefits is by using bullets. Use some that start with "How to...", others with "The Secret to..." and others with "The Foolproof Way to..." Let's say you have a product that teaches how to win someone's heart. Okay. Write down all its features. By doing this, you will have a few hundred features of the product. Next, your job is to transform them into sexy benefits in the bullets. The bullet answers the lead's question "Okay, what can your product do for me?" with the precision of a bullet. So, write something like: ? The secret to seducing even if you're shy ? How to make her swoon with 7 intense words ? The foolproof way to become No.1 in her mind - tested!

Communicating the USP of the product or service is critical. The advantage the reader gets by using the product or service alone doesnt get the sale closure, but why should the prospect choose your product or service against your competition. This paired with the solution mindset will give reader a chance to get your product/service to consideration set

<< This one nails it. Read it again. To paraphrase, your readers don't care about what you're offering, they care about how it makes their life better or easier. Compelling copy that drives action always focuses on highlighting 'what's in it for me.' If the value proposition is weak, conversion will be, too.

Tell your readers exactly what you want them to do next with a clear, strong call to action (CTA). Whether it’s to sign up, learn more, or get in touch, make your CTA impossible to miss and easy to follow.

Your email has ONE goal. Don't add more actions to take. For example, don't have send CTA to a product and another to a blog post. You could have two CTAs if they go to the same place and are within an unbroken "narrative". For example: Your welcome email can have a CTA at the start where you deliver your lead magnet. Then, tell your origin story, and have a second CTA at the end.

Include one clear call to action. If you include too many, you’ll cause decision fatigue. And test variations of CTAs to determine what your audience responds to best. Try buttons, linking text, images, etc. and determine which people are most likely to click.

Make sure your CTA is easy to scan. If you have a field of CTA buttons, which one should the subscriber click on? It's a bit overwhelming in my opinion. Keep it concise and clear. Emphasize the value of your offering.

A few ideas to try to enhance your CTA: - Use a full link - instead of hiding the link behind a button or hyperlinking text - use the full url. It's not common and stands out. The only time I find it looks awful is if the link if super long or you're using UTM parameters. It can look a bit odd, so then I hide that behind a simple url. - Make the CTA personalized - one of the easiest ways to do this is to merge their first name into the button or text. Makes it seem like there is a little ownership over the CTA. - Don't overuse the same CTAs. "Click Here, Save Your Spot, Download Now" are all overused and people tend to tune them out. Be different and stand out.

Always look for ways to improve. Test different approaches in your content, from your headlines to your CTAs. See what works best with your audience and refine your strategy to boost engagement and conversions.

Everything is testable. Look for the lowest common denominator and test that until you can bring it up. Low opens but high clicks? Analyze your deliverability and/or A/B test subject lines. High opens but no clicks? A/B test copy/design. High both but low revenue? There may be some incongruency in the copy on the next page.

One thing that many fail to test for is accessibility. I still receive emails where images are not optimized for recipients using dark mode, where text is unreadable due to its font colour, or where the email looks clunky on some ESPs (especially Outlook). By ensuring your email campaign is accessible on as many devices as possible, you can expect higher click-throughs and engagement rates overall.

Don't just "set it and forget it" when it comes to testing. Develop a testing roadmap and be sure to revisit findings on a regular basis. Your audience's needs and expectations, as well as external factors, change over time.

It's important to split test. Subject lines, email body, and call to action can be easily split tested. For instance, if a certain subject line format is a winner in a split test, then the next split test can test it's variations. For email body, the length or the format of email can be split tested. The split test results should be documented, as this data can be used over and over to craft emails.

Keep learning and adapting. The digital landscape changes fast, and what worked yesterday might not work tomorrow. Stay up-to-date with trends, tools, and techniques that can help you connect with your audience and motivate them to act.

Continually test how to format your emails. Often there’s a tendency for brands to send overly designed and templated emails, when a simple text email could promote more conversions. Or any variation. Test keywords, lengths and styles of subject lines. Try different calls to action. Test senders, timing, frequency and content to create formulas that get you the best results.

Never underestimate the power of visuals. Adding visuals grabs attention, helps process the information faster, increases engagement, and helps with retention of the messaging.

I am a fan of using visuals in email, and that includes photos, graphics and even video. As a recipient, I would much rather browse a well-laid out email that includes compelling visuals, rather than read tons of text. In my experience as an email marketer most recipients feel the same way. However, there are certain situations where a simple text email with personalization is more impactful. An example is sending a reminder to take action. It's quick, to the point and helps develop a personal connection with your client, while still including a strong CTA.

Personalization goes a long way. Say your subscribers are segmented as lawyers, doctors, and parents. If you have a blog post that helps all 3, have your CTA match the identity of the indivdual reader. The default: "Read More about this here." Personalized: "Check out what other (lawyers/doctors/parents) are learning."