When a well-crafted email arrives in your inbox, it grabs
your attention and without any effort you know if you want to act on it or not.
It is like you are sucked in, and can’t resist taking the next step.
These types of emails might look as if they are made in a
few minutes. That’s how natural they seem. Yes, achieving a balanced, clear and
persuasive message takes extra work on the marketer’s side, but it is worth it,
for the result is a more effective email.
Steps through an effective email marketing message
Now what main elements does an effective email consist of?
Think of it as is a stairway with logical (although often subconsciously taken)
steps.
Of course there is more to the anatomy of an effective
email, such as the footer. A footer can contain social, preference, unsubscribe
links, etc. But they are not important for the main click and conversion.
Second rate elements you might call them.
Remember that some elements in your mail have priority over
others:
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We are getting them to say yes and click on your main call
to action.
Logical steps
Now think of those elements as steps on a stairway. You need
to go from one to the other, in order to get up the stairs. So from name and
subject line should entice to open. (micro-yes). The header and headline should
explain what is in your email and entice to pay attention (micro yes nr 2).
Then we come to the body of the message: text and images to convince the reader
to click (micro-yes 3) and then the Call to Action to proceed to the landing
page (Yes number 4).
Make it more than a consistent message, make it a persuasive
message
Human nature defines we want to stay consistent. In all
areas of our life. Work, deeds, opinions, it’s a shortcut easily made. Once you
(sub)consciously decide on something it is easier to repeat that than it is to
reevaluate each and every time. Once a person takes a stand, or performs an
action, he strives to make all future behavior match this past behavior. It’s
hard wired into our brains. And one of cialdini‘s Principles of Persuasion
For persuasive emails, that are geared to elicit a sale, the
consistent thought pattern should be “yes”. E-mails that have all their
elements aligned to mirco-yes their readers towards the next step in their
purchase path, outperform their brothers and sisters that don’t. The message
should lead up to the action. Growing from small yesses to bigger yesses.
Clear email promotions get better results, is it that
simple? Explaining where necessary, but not overly informative or chatty. Or as
Mr. Myagi might say “Focus Email marketer-San, Focus”
Avoiding misalignment
Now what often happens is that a message is broken and the
yesses don’t add up. This is called email misalignment. The fastest way to lose
someone in your march to email results is to offer contradictory information.
An example:
In the subject line we present “great sales on dresses this
week”.
But the headline says “all products 30% off”. With a mixed
assortment of clothes being presented.
Is the email factually wrong? No. Does it feel disconnected?
Yes.
The first yes (open), isn’t confirmed in the email and
headline. Everytime we have to think to make the connection between elements,
we lose a part of our audience. So that is a big email marketing No-No.
Your message is much more powerful if “Click-killing”
obstacles are removed.
Making images say “yes” too
Your images play a big part your path to yes, too. Promising
an exclusive service and showing a stock image. It just doesn’t say yes. Make
sure your images reinforces the main message and keep them consistent and
reappear on to the landing page. That way people feel that they have landed on
the right page and can easily continue in their flow. More about the flow and
placement of ”yes enabled” images next time.
Sequential versus parallels or enforcing yesses
We mentioned yesses. And how they work together in guiding
your reader towards the action. There is one ever important factor to be very
aware of. Sequential versus parallels or enforcing yesses.
Sequential yesses would work like this:
First this yes -> then this yes -> then this yes!
-> Call to action
The problem with sequential yesses in email. Some people
might read your email, but most scan.
So the email elements, should ideally enforce each other but
also be approachable without sequential context.
In other words, Let your headline be understandable for
people who didn’t read the subject line.
Let your CTA be as self-explanatory as it can be. Keep in
mind that every time an element makes a reader go back, you are losing
conversions too.
If your email doesn’t deliver, go through the elements and
see if you are getting the right yesses and taken out all the no’s.
The product and the presentation layer
It’s not only about the product or service. Of course a
great deal and a great product help, but just a great product is not enough for
people to recognize it as such. Let alone grab their attention. You need to
have an inviting presentation layer to make your offers have *The Zing*.
Compare it to a shopping window, the more inviting the display,
the more people will enter the shop. Let’s see how you can improve the flow of
your email and let the Micro-yeses add up to your audience acting on that
email.
Article From: www.emailmonday.com
