Email is one of the most popular forms of communication between representatives of organizations, firms, companies, individuals on a variety of issues. Many letters are sent every day, but not everyone thinks: how to properly compose a letter for mailing? Does the content and design meet the expectations of the recipient? We often find it difficult to describe our thoughts. We seem to know what we want to write, but how to do it correctly - we do not quite understand.
10 rules for effective letter writing
Before composing a letter, decide on target audience who you want to write to. If you have any doubts about at least one of the candidates, do not include him in the mailing list. Think about your reputation and wasted time.
Be clear about the purpose of the submission:
- Decide on your target audience: will the newsletter be sent to the entire database or to a specific segment?
- What will be the mailing letter: advertising or informational?
- Highlight the main point that you want to convey in the text.
Let's take a closer look at 10 rules for composing letters.
1. The sender must be recognizable
Decide on the field "From whom", do not depersonalize it. It is much more pleasant to receive a letter from a person than from some organization, and even worse, just from an unknown address. Once you've chosen the sender's address once, don't change it often. Your address and name are the business card of the company! They should be consistent, easy to recognize and remember.
2. In the "Subject" field, clearly display the main idea of the letter
The reader must not be deceived. It influences the recipient's decision: to read the letter in full or delete it without even looking. Try to get the reader interested, but not reveal the whole idea of the letter at once. Of one short sentence quite enough - give up long phrases, advertising texts and stamps. Also, do not include the sender in the subject line.
The newsletter should not be monotonous, let alone constantly repetitive. If you have previously sent mailings - see which of the topics received the most reviews. Stick to a similar style, but avoid repetition. The subject should be such that out of ten received letters, the subscriber is interested in yours.
For example, the topics of mailings sent during the month:
3. Start your letter with a greeting
Write to the addressee as a friend: warmly, sincerely and respectfully, while avoiding familiarity. You need to contact by providing the information he needs. Address a specific client only as he himself wishes: by name, first name, patronymic, nickname ☺. Please review carefully before using it for automatic replacement. Surely, you will come across annoying typos, which are best corrected BEFORE sending.
Avoid messages like: Good day, Dear, Dear. Better to use the personalization lookup, which is available in the editor of any mailing service.
4. Convince the reader that the letter is addressed to him
Make up the letter so that it works out and everyone understands that it is he who is being addressed. Use the knowledge gained during the mailing process in your letter. Serving general information, try to take into account everything you know about the client, the experience of previous mailings.
5. Minimum water
Do not load the text with unnecessary details, descriptions. At the same time, make the text concise and interesting. It is better to create a beautiful one in order to interest the subscriber to go to the site and read more complete information there.
6. Monitor the integrity of the letter
Stick to one topic, don't lose the main point. If you want to add something - even if this text does not differ significantly, and it is even better to send a separate letter. Express your thoughts in sequence:
7. Get rid of terms
Do not use words and abbreviations that only you can understand. The text should be easy to read and understand.
For example, compare two texts:
- Shoes with metal toes will protect fingers from impacts with energy up to 200 J. A puncture-proof lining should protect against punctures and cuts, according to GOST 28507. The polyurethane sole has wear-resistant properties - GOST 12.4.137.
- The polyurethane sole will last a long time and will also protect your shoes from punctures and cuts.
Agree, although the information is important for the reader, the second text will be much easier to read.
8. Be sure to "say goodbye" in the footer
You can not use standard phrases, but simply indicate:
- from whom the letter is addressed,
- Contact details,
- links to social networks,
- store addresses, etc.
The client should know that he has the opportunity at any time to contact you or drop in to visit you, even if there is no such need now.
9. Format your letter correctly
Review, make corrections, make it so that you yourself want to get it. Check all links, view images, if there is any alternative text. Open the letter in different browsers, see if the structure of the letter has been preserved. The text of the letter should not contain technical and grammatical errors... Readers will respond more willingly to an attractive, competent, interesting letter.
10. Experiment
Do not forget that even the smallest detail can affect the result. Change the content of emails, see what factors induce subscribers to read the letter and respond.
Test the effectiveness of your writing on the smallest detail. For example, by changing the color of the buy button from blue to red (or vice versa), you can influence sales. Also, you can try to change its position in the letter, color, font, size. and send them letters with different options using this button. Then compare the results and choose the best option.
Feel free to write letters! Don't be afraid to make mistakes. The one who does nothing is not mistaken. Send your first letter today and tomorrow you will receive a response from your readers.
P.S .: Complement your email campaign with push notifications or SMS messages. This will make your email campaigns even more effective.
Admittedly, email marketing is no longer as effective. There are too many mailings... Companies are complaining: every year Open Rate and Click Rate are falling in almost all topics. Users just can't handle the volume of emails that come to their mailboxes... And this despite the fact that they did not voluntarily subscribe to most of them.
Does this mean that email marketing is no longer effective? No. The tool can still be used with business benefits, it just got harder now. In order for your subscribers to read your newsletter, you must follow at least five rules.
The five most important rules in email marketing
- Your subscribers must agree to receive your newsletter. If you fraudulently sign them, you will end up in spam. If you buy ready-made databases, the result is the same. Users should know your company and expect emails from you.
- Submissions should not be too frequent. Even if you are sending out interesting content and making lucrative promotions, don't go too often with emails. One or two letters a week will be enough.
- The base should be split into segments. Sending one offer to all subscribers without exception is simple, but ineffective. If you want to achieve high performance indicators, segment your database (by gender, interests, place of residence, etc.).
- Your content should be interesting / useful. With the help of email newsletters, you form the core of a loyal audience. Without good content this is almost impossible to achieve.
- Your letters should be well-typed. Appearance your email newsletter is the face of your company. You don't go to meetings with clients in torn shorts and a dirty shirt, do you? It's the same with emails.
Selling email newsletter
There are several types of email campaigns. A seller is one in which subscribers are invited to buy something. Usually people subscribe to it for a specific purpose - to receive discounts on goods or services from the company, to follow the range of updates and promotions.
Examples of selling emails from our portfolio:
Newsletter email
Unlike selling emails, newsletters don't try to sell. It is needed to share useful (interesting, entertaining) information with subscribers, to inspire their trust and sympathy for your brand, and also to help make you look like an expert in your niche in their eyes.
Examples of newsletters from our portfolio:
Click on the picture to view the entire letter
Selling + informational
Very often these two types of mailings are combined. For example, one letter a week is informational, and the second is a sales letter. Or in one letter - and useful information, and calls to buy something.
Examples of mixed types newsletters from our portfolio:
Click on the picture to view the entire letter
What type of mailing is right for your business depends on your topic, budget and goals that you set for yourself. In any case, before choosing a particular type of mailing, it is necessary to dive deeply into the client's business and develop a personal email strategy. Email marketing without a strategy, like a traveler without a compass, is possible, but dangerous :)
How competent email marketers work
- Studying the features of the client's business.
- Development of an email strategy.
- Content plan creation.
- Working with an existing subscriber base, their segmentation.
- Design development.
- Create and send email messages.
- Collection of statistics.
- Alteration.
- In parallel, new subscribers are attracted.
Email Marketing at Texterre
Today, our agency employs professional email marketers whose main task is to immerse themselves in the client's business and create beautiful and engaging email newsletters. These people are experts in their field and know exactly what to write in an email to make you want to go to the site and delve deeper into the study of products.
We use several services to create email messages. We give preference to Mailchimp, Unisender and Mindbox. But at the request of the client, we are ready to take on any other - we are able to work with almost everyone that is on the market, since the functionality is approximately the same for everyone.
Clients for whom we conduct (or have conducted) email newsletters
What results have we achieved by running an email newsletter for the "Fragrant World"
Aromatny Mir is a large wine supermarket chain. The difficulty of working with this client lies in the fact that he cannot sell alcohol on the Internet, since it is prohibited by law. How did we email him and get sales? You can read in detail in our case. For 5 months of work, we were able to do so that 9-10% of sales of the total number of conversions are made thanks to email newsletters. This is quite an impressive figure considering the traffic and the size of the company.
How much does an email campaign cost?
The cost of email marketing in our agency:
- from 90 thousand rubles in the first month for creating an email strategy and content plan (one-time payment),
- from 95 thousand rubles per month in the following months... This amount includes: creating and sending one letter per week (design, layout, text writing), collecting and segmentation of the subscriber base, analyzing statistics, conducting A / B tests, implementing changes.
The cost may be higher depending on: the complexity of the business, the number of emails, audience segments, the size of the email base, etc.
You can order from us separately the creation of an email strategy, and separately - sending mailing according to the strategy you already have.
In the office, colleagues have a game “Bring the designer to tears”. No, they do not criticize my work and do not swear for a missed error in the text. They send screenshots of all kinds of emails that come to their inboxes. And, unfortunately, the test in these letters cannot be read, the call-to-action button is not visible, and the letter is so "gouged out" that you want to not just close it and forget it, but at the same time unsubscribe, so that there will never be such horror again do not see it in your mail. Design isn't just about pictures and colors. This is about the correct arrangement of all the elements of the letter to help the subscriber understand what they want from him and what he is being asked to do. In 2018, there are many free online tools that will make the preparation of your newsletter not only faster, but also better. In the beginning, you will spend more than one hour preparing, but this is a good investment, because the output will be a letter that the subscriber wants to open and read again.
Choosing a template
Check out how mailing list creators adhere to these rules:
If you are still in doubt, take a look at the Mailigen template gallery, there are enough examples of templates for each type of email: 
Text
Working with text is one of the most important stages of working on a newsletter. Designers have been learning for years to turn text into layout masterpieces and show its best edges. But do not be afraid, it is not so long and difficult to understand the basics. Before you get started - read these small articles:
- The most basic rules, without them anywhere (in original in English).
- A few comments from Artemy Lebedev's Manpower.
- This one is from Ilyakhov's mailing list of Glavred, it tells about the importance of working with headers.
- can see specific example letters with specific comments from the designer (spoiler alert: there is still something to be improved in that letter)
There are several types of letters where working with text is extremely important:
- confirmation letters (order, booking, delivery), because the subscriber must quickly read the information and confirm or reject it. Good example- booking confirmation on airbnb.com
- content letters - you can find inspiration on news portals (meduza.io, lenta.ru)
Colour
Not everyone can choose the perfect color by eye, but, praise the programmers, we live in an age when robots can do a lot for us. Including picking up the color. From more than twenty resources on the selection of colors, I have chosen 3 of the most interesting:
- Adobe Color CC (color.adobe.com)
Useful when matching a palette to a specific color: enter a color value and the cooler will select the appropriate colors.
- Color Hunt (colorhunt.co)
If the question is about choosing a color palette, then this service has an almost endless number of combinations of various colors. The most the main problem is to stop at one thing 🙂
Not so long ago, an interesting site appeared, where you need to choose 50 colors that you like and, as a result, palettes, gradients, and options for decorating photos will be compiled. Try it, maybe this is what you have been looking for for a long time.
Examples of good newsletters where each color is in its place:
Photo
When studying information, the human brain first analyzes graphic information, and only then textual information. Therefore, it is important to pay sufficient attention to finding a suitable picture or graphics. Free photo stocks a good option with a limited budget (just remember that when using, you must indicate the author - this is a small fee for using high-quality photos):
Vector graphics can be found here, the usage is exactly the same as in stock photography - free use when mentioning the author:
Don't forget about icons:
Check the weight of the photo, for a letter it should be no more than 600 Kb! Otherwise, the letter will take a long time to load and, possibly, the potential client will not see your letter due to the low speed of the Internet.
Need to find collections of graphics from business card layouts to spreadsheets and posters? There is a great service with templates. What's useful - there are pictures specifically for email newsletters! Most of the layouts are free to download after editing:
Service for creating different graphics. Not so long ago, animations appeared there, which, of course, pleases. There are free pictures, there are paid ones, but the price is symbolic - $ 0.99:
Need to crop your photo? Change its contrast, but you still didn't have time to master Photoshop? This service is an order of magnitude easier than Photoshop, but a set of basic tools should be enough:
Inspiration
If you are already familiar with all the tools, but you do not have enough ideas and some new solutions, then you should go to the resources with databases of email templates. An endless stream of inspiration is provided (part of the examples for this article are taken from there):
- EmailsFresh (emailsfresh.com)
- Really Good Emails (reallygoodemails.com)
- Email Gallery (email-gallery.com)
And, of course, you need to be aware of what your competitors are doing. Subscribe to the maximum number of mailings in your industry and see what others are doing.
Use it! And don't make designers cry when they see your newsletters. If time does not allow for learning or there is simply no desire to “design”, then hire someone who knows his job. Price per ready-made template with layout costs on average 8-12 thousand (you can change the text and photos in it depending on the purpose of the letter). You will get rid of the need to do not your own job every mailing list, and customers will feel that you care.
A portion of fresh news from the world email marketing always in your mail.
Ahead of the Email Marketing Conference MailCon, we want to talk about trends in the design of letters and newsletters. We bring to your attention a translation of the article on the best email designs, which, due to the large volume, we have divided into 5 parts (10 cases each) and will be published with an interval of 2 days. I think we have something to discuss, comparing the observations and advice of foreign experts with our own experience in creating mailing lists. The first 10 cases focus on the role of color in writing. We are waiting for your comments!
The number of registered email inboxes worldwide is expected to surpass 4.3 billion by the end of next year. Whether we like it or not, we live in a world where people prefer to use by e-mail... It is fast, convenient, and most importantly - effective.
As McKinsey & Company has found, emails are 40 times more effective than Facebook or Twitter in attracting new customers - and this is just one of the curious facts about the success of email marketing.
If your company or startup wants to capitalize on this success, then it becomes critical good design letters. With so much competition for user attention, a great design must immediately grab attention to avoid the risk of being sent to the trash without being read.
Engage your customers, create newsletters to reach a massive audience. This is how the pros do it - and we hope this article inspires you to create your own outstanding letter designs!
01. experiment with color
The disclaimer of color in the photograph and the color tint in this example from The Stylish City is striking and impressive. muted colors and a combination of pink and black create a modern and sophisticated design. The layout looks attractive and unique, looking like a newsletter and a fashion magazine at the same time, but the focus is still on the text in the center and above the image.02. use color to attract attention
In this example from IS Design + Digital, the neon color grabs the reader's attention very quickly and it is very difficult to resist and not read the headline. The rectangular outline around the type enhances this effect so much that the name of the festival is likely to be remembered by even the most uninterested readers. Strong imagery, standout calls to action, and stark contrast are all effective elements within this design.
She studied analyst research and the opinions of email marketers and wrote a column for the website with trends in email marketing design in 2017.
With 215 billion emails sent daily, it is an effective and popular channel of communication, no matter what people say about it. Email marketing has its own trends, the most notable of which are in the design of letters. Check how your mailings correspond to them.
2016 trends that will live on in 2017
1. Responsive design
Smartphones have beaten the desktop. According to Litmus research, 55% of emails are opened on mobile devices... The trend will continue in 2017, so it's time to test your emails for responsiveness. Be guided by the basic principles:
Versatility... Develop a responsive layout so that the letter appears correctly on all devices.
Telephony... Use the power of smartphones: add a call to action "call" or "order a call".
Different CTAs for mobile and desktop
Usability... Don't be too small: users will not be able to see small headings, for example, in the top menu. Make the horizontal menu vertical and increase the font. You will get a menu that is convenient to use on a small screen:
Responsive menu
What to look for
Critical important point- test layouts for email clients used by the recipients of your mailings.
2. Interactivity
There is no static content in interactive emails: lists unfold, elements move, pictures rotate. This allows you to turn an endless landing page letter into a compact layout that is easy to navigate.
Interactive elements work in CSS3, and can be designed, for example, in Adobe Experience Design or Sparkbox. The purpose of these tools is to help you focus on the content, not the layout.
What to look for
Today there are many email clients - desktop applications (for example, Microsoft Outlook, AOL, Thunderbird), web services (Gmail, Mail.Ru Group), mobile clients. Depending on which technology they use, your CSS animation design research will or may not work in different clients. It is worthwhile to provide for simplified versions of individual blocks and write them in media queries.
By the way, in September 2016, Gmail finally announced that the client is starting to support responsive email layout. This is a big step for the email client industry as a whole - the shift to responsive mailing will become even more widespread.
3. GIF animation
Animated images are another way to spice up your newsletters. They have one important advantage - ease of production. At the same time, GIFs are able to visually demonstrate the product in action - therefore, despite the fact that CSS fans predict the imminent death of GIF-animation, it will live and prosper for a long time.
What to look for
GIF animations should be used with care; they should not overtake users' attention and overload the processing power of the device. This tutorial has instructions on how to create and optimize animations for newsletters, and this collection contains many good examples.
Another one important detail- if the animation does not load from the user (for example, due to a slow connection), he will see only its first frame. Therefore, the starting frame should be as informative as possible. For the same reason, you should not make too "heavy" GIFs.
4. Vector images
Bitmap animation is almost always a loss in quality. Vector images help to avoid this. They scale without modification, are lightweight, and load quickly.
What to look for
A couple of useful JS libraries for working with SVG animation are SnapSVG and GreenSock GSAP.
5. Purchase by letter
Email - main tool retargeting. Stores know which pair of shoes the user looked at in the catalog, put it in the basket, but never made a purchase. Emails as a retargeting tool will continue to evolve - moving away from text messages in favor of fully interactive product cards (right inside the letter).
2017 email newsletter trends
1. Video
The future of content marketing is video, writes The Guardian. According to Cisco forecasts, to next year video will cover 69% of all internet traffic. It will go beyond YouTube and be used heavily in email marketing.
- The click-through rate increases by 55%.
- Users spend 44% more time viewing emails than usual.
- Sharing and posting on social networks increased by 41%.
- Conversion increases by 24%, ROI - by 20%.
- The average check increases by 14%.
Despite these advantages, videos are rarely embedded in emails (they usually prefer to link to video hosting).
In fact, it is not difficult to insert a video into a mailing list - most services support inserting videos by link (the same Mailchimp). Video can also be a background for individual elements or for the entire layout at once. There is an online editor for this, Mailigen.
2. Image galleries
Images can be combined into a slider or gallery rather than being scattered across the layout as brands do in most cases. The "gallery" approach saves space and allows better control of the user's attention.
3. Hybrid layout of mailings
Rich colors help to better structure your content.
5. Typography and navigation
Even great-looking emails sometimes don't work the way the business wants them to. The reason is in the content. It deserves the same close attention as the layout. It's about typography.
And if the letter turns out to be voluminous, include the content at the beginning. It can be formatted with a table with anchor links to individual elements. This will improve navigation and allow readers to explore exactly the content that interests them the most.
What to look for
Text is the main tool in mailing lists. According to research, 43% of users do not use image viewing in email programs. To highlight key messages, apply text styles - color, type and size. Type the text itself with web fonts or load the ones you need from Google Web Fonts.
How do I make the plain-text layout dynamic? Use indentation. They make the text easier to read, so users study such letters more thoroughly - this is confirmed by research on psychology.
6. Integration with social networks
