The biggest conception about email marketing is that you should be sending a newsletter to your list.
Newsletters are the critical foundation of any email strategy. I’ve harped on them pretty hard in the past.
Here’s why: the way we think of newsletters is really outdated.
One of the top complaints I get about newsletters is that all of this hard work goes into them and then they get sent out, off into the ether with hopes they’ll convert.
It’s usually with newsletters that pack a TON of content into them: articles, thoughts, resources. You name it, it’s in the email.
Here’s where it goes wrong.
Email newsletters aren’t like paper newsletters. I know what you’re thinking, Duh!
But some folks have yet to catch up to how the digital world actually shapes how we consume content.
With digital marketing, attention spans are short.
Look, the days of sending a paper newsletter that someone sits down and reads from front to back are over. But people still seem to think that’s what email newsletters are supposed to look like.
Asking someone to read your best five resources in one go is asking A LOT of people who are used to scrolling through feeds, reading headlines and not the articles, and needing information in meme form.
Here’s what to do instead.
Hook with Headlines
Headlines are important for hooking people into your content, so you can lead them to your offer.
They have to be short, engaging, personable, and emotional.
What’s the biggest takeaway from your email?
Why should someone care?
What belief are you helping your subscribers overcome?
What are you trying to help people achieve?
This idea can also be applied to subject lines. They require the same effort.
You need to give people the why-they-should-care-factor right away or they’re attention is gone.
Focus Your Subscribers
Instead of splitting your subscribers attention between five different topics and ideas, keep them focused on ONE.
That helps you focus too.
Go for ONE idea or theme in your email and offer supporting resources to supplement your theme.
Those resources could be:
- Content
- Guides
- Offers
- Incentives
Try to avoid overwhelming your subscribers with too much content. Again, short attention spans are at stake here.
Help Your Subscribers Convert
If you’re wishing and praying your subscribers will just KNOW how to hand over their hard-earned cash, you’re asking them to additional work to figure it out.
That’s not helpful.
If your ultimate goal is to get your subscribers to purchase, you have to GUIDE them to where to purchase.
If your goal is to get someone to fill out a form on your site, you have to GUIDE them to that form.
If your goal is to have people schedule a call with you, you have to GUIDE them on where to do that.
You have to make it really easy for them to take the next action you want them to take.
That looks like clear calls-to-action that click through DIRECTLY where you want them to go.
Friendly Follow-Ups
Short attention spans are your biggest challenge with email marketing.
Just because someone opened your email doesn’t mean they:
- Read the email.
- Remember every single detail of the email they just read.
- Took an action they intended to take when they read it.
That means you have to keep following up.
That can look like:
- Reminders about an offer that is time-sensitive.
- Targeted email sequences that follow up when someone browses on your website.
- Including details about how to access your offer in every. single. Email.
They don’t have to be pushy or icky.
They have to be helpful, and that’s it.
TL;DR:
One of your primary challenges in email marketing (and digital marketing in general) is short attention spans.
People are inundated with digital distractions all day every day. That’s what you’re up against.
In order to see newsletters that convert, try these four steps:
- Hook with Headlines
- Focus Your Subscribers
- Help Your Subscribers Convert
- Friendly Follow Ups