Great emails suck! (Effective email marketing pt. 2)
Welcome to the second of a three-part series on email marketing! If you’re looking to grow your list with lead magnets or build a new prospect funnel, that’s a different conversation. This series is all about long-term email list management. In Part 1, we talked about the importance of nurturing a long-term relationship with your readers. In the final installment, we’ll dive into strategies to boost open rates.
provide value. every time.
You have a hard-earned email list. Respect and nurture your relationship with your readers by providing value every single time they open one of your emails. The problem? Your audience is made of different types of people who want different things. The super-secret-one-little-trick-brain-hack solution: offer a delicious buffet of content in every email, and let each reader choose what they're hungry for.
THE GOAL OF YOUR EMAIL IS A CLICK
ANY click.
Really.
If your reader opens your email, scans it, and finds nothing interesting enough to compel an action, you have FAILED. They delete your email and move on to the next message in their inbox. (And your next email looks a little less worth opening.)
You need that click. The click is validation that you gave your reader something they like. Something valuable to them. The click is proof that your reader values their relationship with your brand.
A great email pulls the reader in. It sucks them right off the inbox and into your world, like a vacuum cleaner with good branding.
This is why we say "Great emails suck."
the “THREE STRIKES” method of writing great emails that suck
Every email you send should be built around three separate pieces of content. They can be thematically related (three new products, three ways customers are using your gear this summer, three takes on a single idea) or completely unrelated (a sale, a story from a customer, a spotlight on one feature). It doesn't matter. What matters is that you're giving three different doors into your brand, and you only need the reader to walk through one.
The structure is simple:
Image, headline, CTA
Image, headline, CTA
Image, headline, CTA
That's it.
Each strike is the same simple shape. An image to catch the eye as the reader scans. A headline that makes a promise in a handful of words. A call to action that tells them exactly what to do next. That's one complete unit, repeated three times.
Brevity is the soul of wit, so keep each piece short. Just enough of a taste to earn the click. When they click through, they get the whole meal.
A great email gives readers multiple chances to get pulled into something they care about. Multiple types of content for different readers, for the maximum chance to suck in EVERY reader.
A few rules of thumb:
One email with three things beats three emails with one thing. Every send is a withdrawal from your reader's attention bank. Make each one count.
If you have two SUPER important things, give them each their own email. But support each of them with appropriate secondary content. (Strikes two and three still apply.)
Mix your content types. Remember the VALIDATION, EDUCATION, and ENTERTAINMENT rotation from Part 1? This is where it goes to work. Different readers bite on different bait.
What if you fail to get the click?
REINFORCE.
Not every email is going to land with every reader and that's fine. The relationship is bigger than any single send. So when nothing earns the click, close strong anyway. Finish every email with a subscriber discount, an exclusive offer, or some other reminder that even if nothing was click-worthy this time, the reader is a valued member of your community. They should close your email feeling like opening it was still worth their time.
TIP: From time to time, offer a subscriber-exclusive product. This shows your audience you value them. They are more than customers. They are part of your tribe. (Great for retention, too.)
Remember, you just want a click. Three pieces of content gives you three chances to provide value to each reader. Different readers will be interested in different things, but EVERY reader should walk away feeling like your email earned its place in their inbox.
In Part 3, we'll tackle the metric everyone obsesses over: open rates, and how to actually move the needle.
