3 Tricks To Writing Amazing Email Headlines That Get Opened
Getting your emails opened is the first step in any email campaign. The more people that open your emails, the more people that are likely to take action. There are many ways to improve your open-rate, however, writing great email headlines is one of the best ways.
So, here are some amazing tricks you can use to write those email headlines that will encourage audiences to engage with your content.
1. Use Numbers In The Headlines
One of the typical ways you can entice people to open emails is to include a number, often written in numerical form, within the subject. For instance, “7 Secrets To Have A Great Christmas” sounds better than “Secrets To Have A Great Christmas”.
Numbers offer several things to audiences. Firstly, it sets an expectation that they can measure against for satisfaction. Secondly, it is because a number is very attractive to the human eye. Therefore, when your email is listed among loads of others, yours with a number in it is more likely to be opened.
You don’t need to have a large number of tips or tricks for your audience to digest in an email, just one is better than none. An example of this could be: “What is the 1 secret your teachers didn’t tell you about school?” compared to “What’s the secret teachers didn’t tell you about school”. The second one has less authority and is not as attractive, that little number adds a lot of value to your readers, even though the topic is the same.
2. Be Controversial
Sometimes being a little controversial can add an attraction to audiences. For instance: “What is the one secret your teachers didn’t tell you about school?” adds a little controversy because it is talking about what teachers have kept from students.
Other writers have used controversial headlines to get people to open emails. However, that doesn’t always work. You’ve got to create a controversial headline that doesn’t impede your message. In fact, your controversial subject line shouldn’t be against the main message. For instance, don’t write a subject line that says: “You don’t want to come to my event” and then have an email that suggests what they’ll miss out on and eventually say “unless you want to come”. The whole subject line is wasted and trust in your content undone.
However, you could follow the example of Ian Brodie who wrote an email about why networking didn’t work for him. His headline was why networking didn’t work (for him). He got high praise for that email and the controversial headline worked.
3. Offer Secrets
Humans love to be in the know. We like to know something that others don’t. This is why offering information that is ‘secret’ in emails is such a good way to get people to open them. Secrets seem to imply that the reader is going to get information that they’ve not seen or read from before. This is a great way to get them to open it because so many emails include the same information.
For instance, if you had a subject line: “Five ways to grow your business” people have probably read articles and emails about this a lot. They might think your email is a rewrite of many of those content pieces. However, if you change it to “Five secrets that will grow your business” audiences will think that that new information is included within the article. This makes it more likely to be opened.
Conclusion
The three tricks that we’ve mentioned above are the ones that you’re going to need in order to build a successful email marketing campaign. They are three tricks that will help get your emails noticed in crowded mailboxes with busy audiences. When more people read your content, you can immediately see more returns on your investment.
What tricks do you have for your headlines? Have you tried any of the above?
Let us know in the comments below.
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How To Write An Email That Gets Attention
How to get your subscribers to take notice of your emails
Email marketing is one of the best ways to sell online. For the past decade it has been the digital marketing platform that has offered the best return on investment. However, while it offers good returns, its success is only as good as the emails that are sent.
When writing an email marketing campaign you need to have several elements that combine to psychologically compel your audience to take action.
Here are several ways you can get the attention of your audience with tips to make them more successful.
1. Personalisation
Email marketing success is all about personalisation. A few years ago this meant using mail merge tags to insert the name of the receiver into the email’s subject line and content. This is no longer the case, audiences have gotten wise to mail merges and a name is no longer considered personal.
Instead, you need to look at different ways you can personalise emails. This might include any of the following options:
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Base emails on behaviours on your website or your customers’ previous purchases.
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Use birthdays, anniversaries and other important dates that are important to the audience.
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Use other details from your audience to personalise your emails such as address, telephone numbers, etc.
2. Create A Catchy Subject Line
Before anyone can make a purchase based on your emails, you need to get them to read your content. They aren’t going to do that if you don’t send a great email with a catchy subject line that intrigues the audience.
There are many ways you can create a catchy subject line. Here are some ideas for creating great subject lines:
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Keep the subject line short.
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Create some urgency in your subject line.
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Make the audience curious about what is contained in the email.
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Give audiences an offer they can’t refuse.
3. Use Images
Images can tell a story in much less space and time than words. Emails that contain images will ensure that audiences take action and don’t get confused about the message contained in the email. Images can also serve as a purchase push. If you’re selling clothes, then images of happy people wearing your clothes can often tell the audiences that they’ll look great while wearing them.
Images are hard to get right in emails though. Here are some tips to help you:
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Keep the image size small so servers don’t block it.
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Ensure there’s plenty of lighting in your image to highlight the product/service.
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Try to minimise distractions in vital images.
4. Use Videos
While images are great, videos are even better and should be used where possible. The rate at which audiences are consuming video online is growing exponentially. Nearly 5 billion videos are watched every day on YouTube and with sites like Instagram, Facebook, Netflix and others now offering streamed video, there is a strong video streaming trend happening.
Videos are compelling to the audience because the human brain can connect to the sounds and moving images better than with static images or just words. Here are some quick video tips:
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Keep videos short.
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Upload your video on a website like YouTube and use the video streaming service’s technology to embed it in your email.
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Ensure there is music added to your video to add emotion.
5. Forget Jargon
When using text or speaking in a video, drop the industry jargon. This should be reserved for the office and when speaking to others in the industry. Instead, use plain English in your emails so you don’t confuse the audience with terminology they won’t understand.
It isn’t just jargon you can improve in your email writing. Here are some other writing tips:
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Give the reader possession by using words like you, your and you’re.
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Keep email content down to below 250 words.
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Tell a story that finishes with them clicking on a call to action.
Conclusion
Email marketing is an effective way to sell online. However, that doesn’t mean that it’s easy. You need to create the right emails to generate interest and grab the attention of the audience. Use the tips above to boost your campaigns’ success and generate sales.
How do you generate interest in your emails? Do you have any more tips than the ones above?
Let us know in the comments below.
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How To Write Marketing Emails That Convert
How do you write email marketing copy that will convert?
Email marketing provides the best return on any digital marketing, but it is only effective if you produce content your audience wants to interact with. Everything from the tone, to the language and specific words used, can make a significant difference to your results.
Isn’t Email Design Important?
While the look of an email is important it will only offer you so much reward. Email subscribers are more interested in the content of the email, where the value of your message is. Each member of your marketing list will have questions when they receive your email, such as:
- Who is sending this email?
- What do they want me to do?
- How will taking action benefit me?
The answers to these questions should form part of your email copy. If your audience can’t find the answers, they won’t take action. When statistics show that click-through rates can be as low as 1.3% to 5.41% – any small action that helps you get interaction is necessary.
How To Write Better Marketing Emails
If you want to be successful in business, being able to convert prospects is important. So learning how to write great marketing emails is a must. Here are some tips to help you:
1. Write Emails For Email Segments
If you haven’t segmented your email list yet, then you need to start today. A segmented list allows you to identify trends among groups of similar individuals on your marketing list, and then send them offers they are likely to be interested in. For example, a business offering software to students could split their email list into segments for different courses, software needs or the university they attend.
Once you’ve segmented your list, you can write your emails targeted to that specific group, and when they read content that is relevant to them, they’ll be more likely to follow up on requested actions.
2. Remove Unnecessary Words
There are certain words, known as ‘stop words’, which can be removed from your writing most of the time. One such example is ‘that’. A stop word slows down the reading and disrupts the flow of a message, so the message becomes less powerful.
When deciding to remove certain words or not, read the sentence out loud, with and without the word. Here is an example:
“There are a lot of words that you can remove from your email copy.”
“There are a lot of words you can remove from your email copy.”
3. Personalisation
At least 70% of business emails sent do not include any personalised information. How can you expect to build trust with an audience without being on first name basis? At the very least you should include the first names of both you and the recipient in the body of the email.
In addition, you can include their business name, actions they’ve taken on your website or orders they’ve recently made. The more personal you get, the more interest you’ll gain.
4. Be Personal
Don’t write in a neutral tone. Instead use the second person perspective in your emails by including “you”, “your”, “our” and “us” in the copy. It creates a more inviting and personal touch to your emails that will make people think there is a person writing the messages and not just an automated system.
5. Speak Plainly
Corporate talk is not going to sell you anything. Plain speaking is going to get you much further with your audience. It also proves that you know what you are talking about, that you understand the subject more than your competitors who only speak industry lingo – which can lead to mistrust.
If you don’t build trust with your audience early, you won’t have a chance to sell.
6. Keep Your Emails Short
People are always pressed for time and if your email is too long, they will not read your email all the way to the call to action. If you have a small email, with a noticeable call to action, more people will click-through.
Therefore, try to keep email messages below 100 words.
Write Your Email Copy
While the design of your email is important, especially in today’s increasingly mobile world – words still count. Writing effective emails requires skill, patience and time. Use the tips above to help you get the most from your email campaigns and start selling more online.
How do you write your emails? What are your click-through rates like?
Let us know in the comments below.
Read post Post a Comment. Tagged in: converting leads, copywriting, email writing, writing copy