The world is obsessed with perfection.
Regardless of the time of year, you are bombarded with news of the latest fads (in the exercise and diet world) that will allegedly help you achieve the perfect body.
Despite the claims of it can be achieved with little effort on your part, you know it will be the complete opposite, your will power will desert you within a few days and you’ll feel a total failure.
Well, that’s all about to change.
This article will help you achieve the perfect body – for your emails.
Strive for email perfection
First up – HTML or plain text?
There are pros and cons for each, but I always prefer HTML because of one factor – the hyperlink.
Without that little fella your emails would become unwieldy.
You would be sending War and Peace every month rather than a short and engaging missive that captures the attention of your recipients.
Why?
With it you can include tempting nuggets of information that lure your reader into clicking the link for more information.
So?
So, your email then acts as a driver to get people to visit your website for further information or an opportunity to immediately buy or sign up to an offer.
Of course, the hyperlink can only work its magic if your email is interesting, so here are those six steps to email perfection that I promised you at the beginning:
- Be friendly
Write as you would a letter – use a greeting, if you can personalise it with the recipient’s name. This adds a personal touch and begins to build a relationship. Always remember to close it professionally too.
- Communicate in a glance
A solid wall of text isn’t going to be very appealing. Use headings and subheadings to allow the reader to see at a glance what information the email holds.
- Don’t make them wait until the end
You will want to include within your email a link to your offer, but don’t leave it until the end. Buy incorporating it within the email several times you are allowing your reader to click through to it as soon as they have made their buying decision.
- Short and sweet
There are times when you’ll want to communicate a lot of information to your reader, but sending an incredibly long email is a no-no. Give them a taste of what you want them to know and then ask them to click for more information. That link can them take them through to your website or blog where the full article is shown.
- Benefits and features
As in your website copy and sales letters, make sure you add in your features and benefits. You don’t have to list everything, just the most important ones about what you are writing.
- Don’t forget the opt-out
Always, always, always include your opt-out link in all your email communications.
Don’t forget, your emails don’t always have to sell. To enhance your relationship with your customers use them to also share information that might be useful to them. By giving away free hints and tips you’ll help build trust and credibility and strengthen your relationship.
Sally Ormond is an international copywriter. Working across all industries, she creates on-brand content for on and offline marketing as well as internal communications.