Think of your email marketing blast like it’s one book in a series

You don’t need to tell your audience everything you have to say about something in a single email blast. In fact, when you try to cram too much into a single piece of communication, it can overwhelm the reader. Some of your points can get lost.

Instead, you want to lead your followers on a journey, telling them a story over the course of an email campaign, getting them to take action at the end or along the way.

Think of the marketing emails you send as part of something larger, the way one book fits into a series.

Plan the full campaign and map out the series

Let’s say you’re marketing a business event. Send your audience an email that announces it, giving them a high-level overview along with information on how to register.

A week later, send them an email highlighting the main event, like the panel discussion or keynote speaker, and the value it will deliver to attendees.

The email after that could focus on new, just-announced speakers, content related to the event or a post-event reception and the power of networking.

Later, you can sell people on the destination or booking their hotel, if that’s involved. You can work in testimonials from past event attendees and other happy customers and/or create one email with these as the main focus.

You can also recap previous emails in your series, provide links to them, or borrow copy from them for summary blurbs in other emails. Think of this as your “Previously on [insert you favorite show here]” strategy, just like what’s used to catch people up on anything they missed in a TV series.

Map out all of this. Sketch it. Bullet it in a document. Get it all down and think about how you want it all to flow from start to finish. It’s fine to shift along the way and alter your plan—that happens to me all the time. But, look at the end goals and when you need to get there on a calendar.

Stack your email campaign up alongside everything else you’re doing: social media, advertising, the content on your website. Think it all through as best you can, with what you know at the beginning.

The key components of a good email

Just like with a novel, your email needs a great title. This is your subject line. You want it to grab the reader, so they open your book. You can A/B test and constantly study your data, experimenting with subject line tactics to?drive up your open rates.

Then, you need to focus on the plot and the characters. This is the body of your email. It’s the clear, concise copy that will lead your readers somewhere.

That somewhere is ideally through all the copy and to the end of your email, but with checkpoints along the way that accomplish something in case they don’t read the whole thing. For example, you can use bulletin points, bold copy, imagery and links to draw attention to key information and to-dos.

A call-to-action is your ending. You’ve laid everything out in your well-written communication and now you need ask the reader to do something you’ve spent the short, effective email selling them on.

Ask for the sale. It can be a button for them to click, a video for them to watch, something for them to share with a friend. And if your email has done its job, some readers will take action. Or, you’ve moved readers along in a sales journey and left them anticipating that next novel in your series—the email you’re going to send them soon that will convert another batch of leads.

Becoming a better author of emails

There are many ways to get better at crafting emails. Repetition often works, both by drafting and re-drafting, and by producing email-after-email, learning what works along the way.

Sometimes it helps to save all your drafts in one place, like in a set of Google Docs, so you can leverage them throughout a campaign or in future campaigns. A great way to start a new email is to copy and paste in an old email that worked well, using it as a template to get started.

You’ll also get feedback from your audience over time, either directly or in the stats you’ll have to study, such as open rates and click-throughs. You’ll start to find your brand voice and figure out what works best.

There are plenty of people to study too. Watch the way other brands email you, and pay attention to the tactics that got you to respond to their calls-to-action. Sign up to get emails from a few people who’ve built a business around selling online courses or teaching people how to build an online business. You’ll likely be thrown into a sales funnel and can study their approach.

You should also do what great authors do—sit down and start writing. That email isn’t going to put itself together. Start it, get stuck, power through.

When you think your email might be done or you’ve hit a stopping point, read it all again, looking for opportunities slim down the copy or improve it. Seek the opinions and proofreading of others.

Then, send something you’re happy with, learn from it and do it again.