Email newsletters are one of the best tools that you have for providing prospects with valuable resources and staying top of mind with them. And with more than half of U.S. consumers checking their email accounts over ten times a day, brands have plenty of opportunities to connect with interested leads. But it’s not enough to just check-in — you have to be sending newsletters that are worthy of your subscribers’ attention and inspire them to keep the connection going.
What’s more, newsletters can get stale fast, so continuously brainstorming ideas to keep your newsletters fresh is necessary. It’s your job as a marketer to ensure that the messages you’re sending out are always providing interest and value to your audience. If you don’t keep them engaging and fun to read, you run a significant risk of losing subscribers, which can be bad news for your inbound marketing strategy.
With so much riding on keeping your email newsletters from ending up straight in the trash folder, we thought we’d share some of our best ideas for keeping your prospects’ interest. Here are seven of them.
1. Play Around With Tone
Why so serious? Instilling brand authority doesn’t have to mean avoiding all colloquial language. I don’t know about you, but I love it when brands’ messaging is less buttoned up. Speaking to your audience as if you personally know them is one of the best ways to break down that wall and let them in. Prospects want to engage with brands in a more open and laid back manner.
When it comes to your email newsletters, work on finding a friendly, fun, and maybe even comical tone that will make readers feel more connected to you — and more excited to open your emails. Don’t be afraid to reference newsworthy events or things that are currently trending. All of this shows your readers that a real person is behind your messaging.
2. Pay Attention to the Subject Line
First impressions matter a lot when it comes to your email newsletters. In fact, 47% of email recipients open emails based solely on the subject line. It’s the first thing they see when your email hits their inbox, so it makes sense that it’s a high priority.
Get creative. Try using emojis in your subject lines, new greetings, or puns. Make sure to keep them short and sweet, as well as relevant to what the newsletter is about. Avoid known subject line spam trigger words like “free,” “act now,” and “don’t delete,” as those will just leave a bad taste in your subscribers’ mouths. If you’re really in need of inspiration, try some subject line templates to help you out.
3. Include GIFs and Videos
Incorporating video in your newsletters, as well as other animated content, is almost guaranteed to increase engagement. That’s because 20% of people will read text on a page, but 80% of people will watch a video. Videos and moving visual content is hard to resist because it takes very little effort to consume.
GIFs and videos allow you to break up your content and make it more exciting. To get started, create your own behind the scene videos that look at your office. Or, try interviewing a few employees so they can share what it is they do for the company, which can pull back the curtain a bit and show how you add value for your clients. Another idea is to create a video or GIF of your product in action. This can be used on your website as well as your email marketing.
4. Go For a Slow Reveal
Sometimes it’s not what you say but how you say it. If you have a new resource that you’re making available, roll it out with flair by incorporating a slow reveal in your email newsletters. Maybe hint at it four weeks out and add a bit of information. Build on it from there with additional hints and a relative stat thrown in three weeks out, and a vague but interesting video the next week.
By incorporating a slow reveal strategy for a special promotion or release, you build anticipation, which can inspire action once you reveal. This anticipation is not just for the new product, service, or resource that you’re going to be offering, but in your email newsletters and how you’re choosing to go about the slow reveal.
5. Swap Out Links for Buttons and Icons
There are a lot of email design tricks you can do in your newsletters that will add some life, but first, start with the obvious. Instead of going the easy route and hyperlinking your text, try adding more visual appeal with clickable elements like buttons and icons. These tend to help break up the monotony of emails and get more attention to your call to action. They’re also much more eye-grabbing for those subscribers who are just doing a cursory scan of your newsletter.
If you’re going the button route, make them a color that stands out and keep them consistent across your emails. If you’d rather go the icon route, then make sure the icon accurately represents the piece of content it’s linking to.
6. Get Your Audience Involved
Everyone loves a great mention. Incorporate user-generated content like reviews, and social media posts you’re company is tagged in. Your audience won’t just engage with your newsletter more — they’ll also engage with you on those channels more.
Peer-to-peer recommendations are a solid form of third-party credibility and one of the strongest drivers of consumer trust. Sharing them in your newsletters can be fairly easy, and it’s also a quick way to gain trust with your subscribers and thank your current customers with a friendly shout out.
7. Focus on Just One Call to Action
Ideally, it would be great if your email newsletters could lead to multiple conversions. But putting too many CTA irons in the fire can muddle your message, confuse your subscribers, and ultimately leave you burned. As an alternative, set your sights on just one call to action, with content that’s geared toward a singular (and thereby less confusing) purpose. This will allow you to focus all your effort on driving one key conversion, which, if all goes well, should be more beneficial.
Successful email newsletters have higher open rates, higher click-through rates, and higher rates of satisfaction among their recipients. Make it your goal to incorporate some, or all, of the tips above into your email marketing strategy. Your newsletters aren’t just getting where they need to be but making an impact once they get there. Not only will you avoid the spam box, but you’ll also start to see more prospects turning into customers.