You wake up in the morning and like most people you check your social media and emails. Naturally, the emails in your inbox that get your attention right away are either from familiar people or work related.
You’ll likely skip over the promotional emails and maybe click on one of them that has a snazzy personalized headline.
In a world where we are constantly inundated with emails it’s even more challenging to get through to your audience.
So how do you get past the clutter and grab someone’s attention so they actually open your marketing email?
Here are three pro tips to help you win in your open rates.
Your subject line must be attention grabbing
Your subject line is the first copy your reader will see and if it’s spammy or doesn’t grab their attention you risk of losing a captive audience
With existing customers you want your subject line to be unique and offer value or an action that will benefit your customer. You want your customer to feel from the email headline the content inside is interesting and specific to their needs.
Also, email subject lines with too many exclamation points can feel spammy to the reader. It’s recommended you use action words and limit the headline to five words or less.
So the million dollar question is, how do you make your email subject line interesting so it stands out from the rest?
You’ll have to do some homework here and understand the persona and audience you’re reaching first. Ask yourself questions like what is a pain point or problem they are facing as it relates to the message I’m sending? How can the headline be worded and concise to be a teaser to want your reader to learn more?
One exercise is writing ten to fifteen headlines for your email and then choosing the top 5. You could even take pieces or a combination of your best headlines to come up with more creative copy.
There are also tools to help you automate this process. We’ve included a link at the end of this blog for Copysmith.
Your preview text should be personalized and enticing
One of the easiest ways to draw further attention to the email after the subject line is to write compelling copy in your email preview. The first sentences in most emails appear as your preview text, but others will allow you to create your own preview text. Make sure you use this copy as an opportunity to draw further interest outside of the subject line.
At first, you may not know enough about your reader to write targeted personalized emails. However, you can use the word “you” a lot. Using “you” rather than third person will speak directly to the reader and adds some personal touch.
Be clear on what action you want your reader to take
There’s nothing more frustrating to a reader than receiving an email with an unclear purpose. You only have a few seconds of your reader’s attention so you want to purposely call out the intended action of the email to your reader right away.
Be upfront with what action you want them to take and how it will benefit them. Also if there are links or calls to action make them intuitive and not cluttered up in the email. Remember to add enough white space in your calls to action.
Bottom line, your reader’s attention span is short so take out the extra words in your copy which do not offer value. Those are typically the fluff words or sentences which focus on small talk.
Remember less is more in email communications
For more information on how you can power up your email subject lines and other marketing content, sign up for your free trial of Copysmith; content crafted by AI, perfected by humans.