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I'll keep this brief because I know you won't stick around for long! In fact, if this was an email you might have already left. Did you know only 50% of viewers who click on your email won't scroll, let alone read your content? Of the 50% who stayed, viewers on average will spend 11.1 seconds skimming your email. Obviously time is not on your side. You need to entice your audience in under 8 seconds before they decide to stay or leave. Here are 10 ways to do just that!

Opportunities to Convert Leads

Subject line

Don’t let your subject line be an afterthought - I know it may seem like a no-brainer, but this is a common mistake. Subject lines should direct and short, while also enticing your reader to open your email for more information.

Personalize

Make your readers feel special and keep the email on a first name basis, addressing your recipient, “Dear, … (insert name)”.

Proper Headings

Use headers, sub headers, and bullets to quickly communicate your message. This helps keep your message quick and to the point, and most importantly, easy to scan. Your recipients are looking for information but they won't stick around to dissect and analyse a thesis.

Please Don’t Yell

Avoid excessive punctuation and capital letters. Yelling at people isn’t nice, and it can also land you in your recipients spam folder.

Call To Action

Have a clear Call To Action (CTA) that relates to your subject line prompts an immediate response or encourages an immediate sale or click-through. The CTA is probably the reason you are sending this eblast, and most likely what your reader is looking for so make it the focus of your email.

Make It Easy

Don’t make your readers scroll back to the top. Repeat your CTA at the bottom of your eblast, especially if you have more content than you should (you know who you are).

Important Content First

Keep most important content above the fold (or really close to it.) What is a fold you ask? It’s first visible content on your user's screen, usually the first 500 pixels.

Don’t Leave Anyone Out

Make sure to enter alt text (Alternative Text) for each image you use. Alt text is a brief description of the image and appears in place of images that don’t show up. Many email providers, like Outlook, will hide your images by default. This is also one of the first principles of web accessibility. Don’t make your reader wonder what goes in the blank space left behind. Have good web practice & set yourself up for success. Alt text is good for everyone.

Timing... is Everything

Majority of mobile consumers open their email within 15 minutes of waking up. According to mailchimp & google, peek email open is at 10AM in the recipient's own time zones. Sending emails before 5am could be risky, the recommended send time is between 7am-8am Tuesday-Thursday.

Measure your results: How will you improve if you don’t collect your campaign results? See how many times your email was opened, what links generated the most clicks were, and keep tabs on your most successful subject lines. Your readers provide you with answers on how to improve your content if you take the time to listen.

I’ll leave you with this. We are creatures of habit. If you consistently deliver quality email content that is easy to navigate, you will build trust with your readers and your leads will grow. Good Luck!

Sources:

The Enhanced Art of Writing Headlines:
http://blog.chartbeat.com/2017/11/17/enhanced-art-writing-headlines/

Above The Fold:
https://www.optimizely.com/optimization-glossary/above-the-fold/

Email Attention Spans Increasing:
https://litmus.com/blog/email-attention-spans-increasing-infographic