If you read my article about “How To Get 10.000 Visitors To Your Website Or Blog” you know that its important to get your email letter started.
So now you gotta know something about emails. Your email must have one or two desired actions. Maybe its to click on a link to get to your website, or maybe its a retweet button.
Here in this article I am going to tell you something about
- How to get the email opened
- How to get your email read
- How to get the desired action
So are you ready? Go and get your coffee and put your favorite music on.
Getting the email opened
I have found 2 reasons why a recipient wanna open your email.
- If they know you already and they know that they will get some value using their time. Your email will be opened.
- Or if your subject line is so exciting and so compelling that they just can’t help opening it to listen to what you have to say. (OMG when I am going to make a email about this article I am going to work hard on the subject)
There is no magic formula, what you are going to write in the subject, but there is a methodology that you can use to test your subject lines before sending your email:
1 make a list of all the subjects which your reader may be thinking already. It could be aobut the economy, if he or she is completely stressed, maybe worried about how he is keeping his job.. and so on
2 Now you are going to write some positive and negative subject lines about it. So you can address what’s already on your readers mind.
3 Now speak out loud the subject line. Does it work you think?
Hopefully it will strikes a emotional chord like envy, greed, lust, fear, curiosity… If your reader doesn’t even open your mail .. well you will not get any desire action from him right?
How to get it read
Now the reader has hopefully opened your mail. So now the question is …. should you make the email long or short? Maybe the whole article or just a teaser.
I have found some different examples.
- Informational or How-To email. When you are writing informational or How-To related emails, I have found that you should keep it to about 500-700 words in length and include the entire article in your email.
- Offer emails. If you are offering something. Like I did when wrote about the free Complete SeoCustomer Guide 2011, you should keep it short. Like a teaser. The click should lead the reader directly to a longer sales page (landingpage).
- News updates. This could be a summery of what has happened on your blog or website the past week. Make sure your first text address the topic from your subject line.
How to get the desired action – Increasing Email Click Rates
Whatever you wanna tell in your email you gotta have a call to action. So let me tell use the 3 examples again.
- Informational or How-To emails. Here you are going to tell your reader something helpful, maybe a tip, trick or idea, suggestion or how-to something. You would like the reader to spread the word, so remember to include social link tags in your mail (I do that too.. please spread the word). Encourage your reader to Re-tweet your email, use Like or bookmark.
- Offer emails. Keep it short. Lure them to your landingpage, where you can show them more items. Don’t try to sell anything in your mail. Make them curious and sale whatever you are selling on your landingpage.
- News updates. Again you wanna tell your reader to go to your website or blog and read the whole article or articles. So keep it short and make it impossible for your readers not to hit the links to your website or blog.
Remember that more and more people are now using mobil devices. So be sure your website or blog can be read on a smart-phone. If you are using WordPress for your blog you can get a free plugin for this.
Remember to add me to your Google+ circles 🙂
Henrik
