Easy Email Marketing: 10 Simple Steps For Creating And Sending Marketing Email Your Customers Will Love
Step 4: Keep Your Message Simple
Welcome to Step 4. By now I hope you feel confident with the idea you came up with for your email, and that you’re signed up for an email marketing service.
You’ve come a long way in a short time, and we’ve covered a lot. It’s okay if you need to pause and review things before reading this step. Feel free to review the previous steps if you need to.
Ready to continue? Great ― let’s talk about the message of your email.
Simple Is Better
You have so many things to offer your customers. Should you put them all in one big email? You could, but there is a better way. You’re about to learn the secret of simple messages.
Simple Parts: Subject, Message And Action
There are three simple parts to a good marketing email: the Subject line, the Message and the Action you want readers to take.
The Subject line of your email is a promise of what’s inside. It teases the contents of the email in a way that is both honest and interesting and motivates readers to open the email and learn more.
Subject example: “20% Off Just For You”
The Message readers see inside your email once they open and read it makes good on the promise you made in the Subject line. It’s the answer to the question why should I open this email? The Message is the reason, the thing you offer.
Message example: “Hi, Laura, We think you’re awesome for buying our product and wanted to thank you with a special 20% off code for your next purchase. Happy shopping!”
The Action is the thing you want readers to do: click, buy, download or share. Do this to get our offer.
Action example: A link or button that says “Get your 20% off discount.”
By thinking of your email as having these three distinct parts, you can ensure that your message is consistent and effective and that your Action is one readers will want to take.
Easy To Read Means Easy To Buy
Fancy colors and formatting aren’t worth the time and effort because they make your email harder to read and will take away from the focus of your message, which is buy this great thing we offer. Making your email easy to read means we can quickly decide to buy what you’re offering in between the texts, notifications and other emails we’re getting.
Here’s how: Use these bulletproof fonts that work in almost all email software.
Sans-serif fonts: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, Trebuchet MS
Serif fonts (with the little decorative lines): Georgia, Times New Roman, Courier
Here's what they look like.
It really comes down to personal preference, but when in doubt, use one of the sans- serif fonts your email marketing service provides. They always look good on electronic screens.
As for the size of the words in your email, larger is better. Keep your fonts no smaller than 16 pixels, and up to 20 pixels in size. This ensures your email is readable on a variety of screens. And that’s the point, right?
Oh, and the background color? White. Always white. (More on that in a bit.)
Leave Them Wanting More
Another benefit of sending email with a single Action is that, hopefully, readers will look forward to the next ones because your emails are short and easy to understand and look great. And because you’re not cramming everything into one email, you’ll have a running list of ideas for upcoming emails.
Next Is Step 5
You’ve learned a lot in this step. You’re amazing! Take a walk outside, treat yourself to your favorite snack, catch up with a friend.
Next we’ll talk about the one and only type of image to use in your email: the Hero Image. No superpowers required.