by Wikus Engelbrecht
14. settembre 2010 22:20
Are you satisfied with the content of your email newsletters? It’s pretty easy, isn’t it? You just say what you have to say, keep it short and sweet, and send.
Sounds about right. But when is anything ever perfect? Here are three easy ways to optimize your newsletter content – just a few things I’ve noticed that our email marketers tend to forget!
Your pre-header
The pre-header is a short preview of your email, a snippet of text that informs the reader what the email is about. It functions in much the same way as your subject line, so make sure that it’s well-written. Your pre-header should be to the point, accurate, and enticing.
Your call-to-action
Subscribers are lost without a call to action! It seems so simple, but they really don’t know what to do with your email unless you tell them – and they definitely don’t want to have to search for it. Your call to action should be blatant, in your face instruction telling your readers exactly what is expected of them, e.g. “Click here to enter!”
The call to action should be short and contain power- or action-words. Make sure it stands out from the rest of your email. Place it somewhere in the layout where it’s easy to spot, format it so that there’s some empty space around it, use a bold font or design a button around it. If possible, repeat it more than once, so that the message sinks in with your recipients. You can even try to place the call to action in your preheader.
(Read more about how to write an effective call to action here.)
Your links
I’ve highlighted the importance of doing a test send of your newsletter in the past, and I know that many of our clients do conduct test sends, but do you actually test the links in your email? Make sure you test each link in your email before sending to ensure it works.
Keep in mind that your readers want to click through to valuable content, so make sure that you pay the same attention to the content of the link landing page that you did to the content of your newsletter. Also review the landing page to make sure that the content you’re linking to is correct – or even that it’s the correct link!
Your newsletter content might be sterling, but try checking these three elements – it’s simple, easy factors to change that can enhance the overall copy of your email.
