You will be able to write a marketing email with a clear subject line, one message and one call to action.
Open your inbox and look at the promotional emails from the last week. You probably deleted most of them without opening, and you did it based on two things: who sent it and what the subject line said. A few you opened because you recognised the sender and the subject told you something you wanted. Fewer still you read to the end. Your customers treat your emails the same way.
This lesson is about the words in a marketing email: the sender name, the subject line, the body and the one link. Email marketing and automation, another course in this track, covers building a list, setting up sequences, and getting emails delivered. Here we deal only with what the reader sees.
Before anyone reads your email, they see two things in the inbox: who it is from and what it is about. Both need work.
The sender name should be one the reader recognises at a glance. For a small business that is often a person's name with the business name, such as "Priya at" followed by the centre's name, rather than a generic "Newsletter" or "noreply". People open email from people they know. If your customers know you by your first name, use it.
The subject line should be specific. It tells the reader what is inside and why it matters to them. "Our March newsletter" tells them nothing. "Saturday trial slots for P5 maths, three left this week" tells a parent exactly what is inside and lets her decide in a second. It also has to be true: if you say three slots left, there must be three.
Good subject lines use the same patterns as headlines from lesson 2.2. A how-to ("How to check her maths working in two minutes"), a problem ("When he knows it but goes blank"), an outcome, a question the reader would answer yes to, a specific number. Your rejected headlines from lesson 2.4 are a ready supply.
Write three subject line options for every email and pick one. If your email tool lets you test two subject lines on part of your list, use it, and keep a note of which kind tends to win.
Every email should have one message. Not an update on everything that happened this month, but one thing you want the reader to know or do. If you have three things to say, that is usually three emails.
The reason is the same as for calls to action in lesson 4.3. A reader who finishes an email with three equal messages remembers none of them clearly and does nothing. A reader who finishes an email with one message knows what to do next.
The four-part structure from lesson 4.1 fits an email well. Start with the reader's situation, show what you offer, add one piece of proof, and end with the action. In a short email each part might be a single paragraph or less.
Pick the one link that matters and make it obvious. Put it as a clear button or a plain link with words that say what happens, following lesson 4.3. You can repeat the same link twice in a longer email, once near the top and once at the end, but it should be the same destination.
Footer links, such as your address and an unsubscribe link, are expected and do not compete. What competes is a body full of different links: the blog, the shop, Instagram, a survey and the offer. Each one draws some clicks away from the one you wanted.
Marketing email reads best when it sounds like one person writing to another. Use "you" and "I" or "we". Write the way you would write to a customer you know, not the way a brochure talks.
Most of your readers will open it on a phone. Keep paragraphs short, two or three sentences, so the email does not become a wall of text on a narrow screen. Put the main point in the first two lines, because that may be all some people read. Make the button large enough to tap with a thumb.
Here is a short email Priya sent to parents who had enquired but not booked.
Subject: "One Saturday class, no payment, to see if it fits"
"Hi, it's Priya from the centre. A few weeks ago you asked about P5 maths. Many parents tell us their child knows the work at home but goes blank in the test, and that's what our Saturday classes of six are built around: the tutor checks every child's working as they go, so mistakes are caught early.
If you'd like to see how it works, you're welcome to bring your child for one free trial class this Saturday or next. No payment, and no commitment to a term.
Book a free trial class
If now isn't the right time, no problem. You can reply to this email with any question and I'll answer it myself."
It has one message, one link and a reply option. It is written by a named person to one parent and reads easily on a phone.
The activity asks you to write one promotional email for your own business. Before you write the body, decide the single message and the single link, then write the three subject lines last, when you know exactly what the email says.
Write one promotional email for your business with three subject line options, a single message and one call to action.
Junxiong-WFG Organisation is an authorised representative of AIA Financial Advisers Private Limited (Reg. No. 201715016G).