Know Your Audience
All lead nurturing campaigns will promote your business, but the primary function is to push your leads through the funnel. The primary function is not to sell, unless it is your final call-to-action email. You want to make a connection with your audience through your content to help keep them interested in your information/service/product.
What to include to catch attention
Catching the attention of the reader of your email is very important to help convey your message. Info graphics can be great at explaining topics. Readers are more willing to review an illustration about a topic instead of a long paragraph. You can also catch reader’s attention with different tables, just make sure the text is visible clearly and has the right background colors. Having pictures in these emails can also help with catching the eyes of your potential customers. Plain text emails can work with readers because it gives a more personal feel to the message, but we would also recommend involving images.
Layout Design
First you need to put the most important content in the top left hand side of the email. Since we read left to right, our eyes are conditioned to start in the upper left hand corner. So to make sure your most important content is seen, you need to place it in this area. Also since your email will be viewed in the preview pane of an inbox, you need to make sure you don’t design it for wider than 600 px.
Keep It Simple
Some of the best designs are not always the most extravagant ones. Complexity can complicate things and scare readers away from reviewing your content. An effective email is not a court document; it’s just a little piece of insight. You want to give a tip or concept that the readers can take away from the email. You don’t want to give them too much information because most readers will not get around to it.
Make it Useful
It is very difficult to get any traction with readers if you don’t give them some kind of actionable content. Look at your own email box, we are slammed with random emails all day that we constantly delete. So you have to create content that will make them pause and create interest. Useful information will also gain attention with a good subject line. Make sure you set your subscribers’ expectation and clearly state what’s inside the email. So you are TELLING what’s inside the emails, not SELLING what’s inside the email.
Make it Interesting
Depending on the topic, this can sometimes be very difficult. Most eNewsletters just try to keep it completely business related and as professional as possible, so why just blend into the crowd? Anecdotes, conversational language and the occasional joke can help keep the reading light and keep the readers involved. This is just to keep them around for the real content you want them to read. Don’t be afraid to show the personality of your company. This can help create a personal touch while also making the email interesting.
Avoid Rich Media
You might have a great video or animation that’s perfect for getting the message across but putting this in your newsletter does not create great layouts. If you embed any video into your email, it will increase the size which means people accessing it with their mobile phones will have difficultly viewing them. Sometimes rich media may not pass through spam filters also. The best practice for getting readers to view your video is by creating a link to your page that carries this content.
Last Tips
Make sure you always include your contact information for people to reach you in case you have finally sold them on your product. Request comments from readers about your articles and stories. This will help you receive their thoughts so they feel appreciated while also helping you create better newsletters.
Photo Credit: Sean MacEntee via Flickr
After you capture leads you need to make sure you have put together a solid email with all the necessary components in order to nurture those leads. Not every person that comes to your site will convert the first time, but that doesn’t mean they won’t convert some time down the road. So how do you keep that connection to push this process along? Newsletters and Lead Nurturing Emails of course! You can’t just send out any email, you must create emails with great layouts to engage readers. Take a look at these tips to find out how to do that.
