The Four Must-Have Elements of a Truly Effective Marketing Email

The worst-case scenario for any email marketer is watching the majority of your messages go undelivered, or even worse, wind up in the spam folder.

Unfortunately, that’s what happens to marketing newbies who blindly send out emails without knowing what makes an effective marketing message There are common threads between the most popular email campaigns and messages that receive the most engagement; however, such elements are easy to overlook for first-timers.

So, if you’re sick of seeing a lack of engagement and want to avoid the spam folder once and for all, what do you need to do? For starters, make sure that your marketing emails include the following three elements without fail, regardless of the status of your list.

Successful Email Marketing Elements

Urgency Triggers

Don’t give your list an opportunity to sleep on your emails. Urgency is an incredibly powerful psychological trigger marketers should use to encourage opens now instead of later. After all, if your recipients don’t act upon receiving, chances are they’ll skip your messages entirely.

Some strategies to encourage urgency throughout your emails include…

• Time-sensitive messages: features such as calendar countdown clocks and body copy that stresses that time is running out are always a plus
• Color scheme: red or orange text can quite literally light a fire under your readers, as such colors psychologically drive recipients to take action
• Power words: including words such as “now,” “start,” and “free” in your CTA will drive your recipients to take action after they’ve read through your message

Snappy Subject Lines

Think of your subject line as the biggest barrier between you and your recipients. Remember, though: there is no one-size-fits-all approach to subject lines. After all, your message titles will often differ depending on whether or not you’re running a deal-based campaign.

However, there are some subject line tips all marketers can follow without fail:

• When in doubt, keep it short: longer subject lines tend to get cut off or even ignored by recipients
• If possible, try to include a number value (“7 Days Left…” or “70% Off,” for example) as numerical characters can be processed quicker than text by our brains
• Using your email marketing solution, also include the names of your recipient to create a sense of personalization (“Hey Bill, just checking in…”): if this isn’t possible, simply use the word “you” in your subject lines and copy

Well-Crafted Calls-to-Action

Speaking of your CTAs, each and every message you send encourages your recipients to take some sort of distinct action. That action could be clicking a link or replying to a question or comment: either way, providing directions for recipients to follow will increase your likelihood of engagement. If your email lacks a CTA, you’re failing to move your readers through your funnel.

Must-See Images

Imagery is certainly an important element to any marketing email. That said, you need to craft your messages in such a way that they’re still readable even if they had images turned off.

Likewise, avoid anything overly spammy, large, or salesly. Anything that comes of as spam could land you in hot water or potentially violate the CAN-SPAM Act. If you have the hunch that you’re something you’re going to send may not be on the up-and-up, don’t risk it.

Beefing up your email marketing campaigns doesn’t mean reinventing the wheel. Implementing these elements throughout your emails will put you on the right path toward more opens, more click-throughs and more subscribers.