Effective communication tools play a key role in building lasting relationships with customers. One of the most popular means of transmitting information and promoting offers are marketing e-mails. How long should a marketing email be to effectively reach your audience? In this article, we will analyze various aspects of the length of marketing emails, taking into account both recipient expectations and strategies for effective content transfer. Let’s discover together how to find the balance between a too long description, which can be discouraging, and a too short message, which can leave much to be desired.
What to write in an email?
When creating content for email marketing campaigns, it is crucial to consider two main categories: promotional emails and non-promotional emails. Promotional emails often highlight time-related offers, such as events or limited-time promotions, while non-promotional emails focus more on informational content, resembling a newsletter.
Regardless of the type of email campaign, it is important to follow a well-defined formula when creating email content and copy. Start by understanding your target audience: Who are they? What motivates them? What is important to them? To guide your content creation process, clearly imagine your potential email reader and then ask yourself three key questions:
1. What do you offer?
Does the email promote products and services, or do you offer a discount code to increase sales? Are you sharing valuable information about products or the industry, collecting opinions, or simply reminding you to renew your subscription? Once you’ve decided what exactly you’re offering your audience, make it clear in the header of your email.
2. Why should the recipient care about your email?
Now imagine that you are having a conversation with the recipient. Provide a little more detail about what you’re offering and clearly explain why they should be interested in it. Think about why it’s important to them. Explain why the offer is important to the reader and what kind of benefits they can expect – either tangible or emotional.
This is the main content. Four to five sentences are probably enough to get your point across. Otherwise, you can use short bullet points. In any case, keep your message clear and concise. Don’t include every feature or selling point – just focus on what is most important to your audience when sending emails.
3. What should the recipient do after reading your email?
The answer is call-to-action (CTA). Once you’ve created compelling body content that moves readers to take action, you need to tell them exactly what to do. Do you want them to “Buy Now”, “Register Now”?
Make sure your CTA is very simple and place it in a button that links to the appropriate website or landing page. Display the CTA button in a visible place in your email.
When you ask and answer these questions from the perspective of your target audience, you will know exactly what should be included in the email.
How long should the email be?
Emails that were 200 words or less generated higher click rates. Adding anything more reduced the effectiveness of the email.
Emails with three or fewer images performed better than those with no images or more than three.
Emails with multiple links, especially those placed at the top of the email, generated more clicks. People tended to click on links that appeared higher in the email content.
There is no universal email length – depending on the type of message, the length will vary. Newsletters will be longer, e-mails reminding about the event will be shorter.
Just remember that your email should be as long as necessary to convince the reader to take action, and no longer than that. Shorter emails have better click rates. When your email is too long, you run the risk of it being put aside or skimmed over, and important parts of your message being missed.
However, don’t be afraid to create emails with less text. Nowadays, not everyone has time to read long emails, and you may miss the opportunity to engage many subscribers.
If you want your readers to engage with your email campaigns, it’s important to carefully craft your content. Consider your recipient, their industry and what you want to achieve, and then ask yourself three specific questions: What do I offer? Why should the reader be interested in this? What should the reader do next?
Create a marketing email that is short but relevant and gets to the point quickly. Add a clear call to action and no more than a few specific links. Use images that complement the content of your email. Be clear and concise, and check that you haven’t added any unnecessary information that may distract the reader.
You know your industry and your audience, and your email should be long enough to get them to do what you want. This is the best length for your marketing email.
Summary
Writing valuable emails as part of your marketing strategy has numerous benefits, both for companies and their recipients. The value of email content helps build lasting relationships with customers, increases recipient engagement and can generate positive sales results.
Marketing automation, i.e. the automation of marketing activities, can be an invaluable tool in this process. Automation allows you to deliver personalized content at the right time, which in turn increases the effectiveness of communication. By segmenting recipients and adapting content to their needs, marketing automation allows you to reach different target groups more effectively.
Additionally, marketing automation allows you to track audience behavior, analyze campaign results and adjust your strategy based on data. This tool is also an effective support in maintaining regular communication with customers, which helps build loyalty and increases the chances of long-term business relationships.
To sum up, writing valuable e-mails is a key element of an effective marketing strategy, and the use of marketing automation can significantly improve communication processes, contributing to achieving better business results.
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