Mar 14, 2018

3 Keys To A High Converting Email

By: Josh Dougherty

Inbound Marketing

Effective inbound marketing focuses on 3 different tasks:

  1. Attracting people with relevant content
  2. Capturing leads by offering valuable resources,
  3. Converting these leads into clients, customers or donors.

Today we're going to focus on the final task, conversion (or lead qualification if your goal is to hand off qualified leads to a sales team).

Email typically does the heavy lifting on the conversion side of things. Leads are sent through nurture pathways designed to provide value to users and convince them to take action. Typically we recommend 5-7 emails per pathway.

A couple of the emails in each pathway should focus on making a hard ask. This is the email that pushes the reader to take the final action at the bottom of your inbound marketing funnel. This action is different for every organization because it's tied to the organization's goals.

For nonprofits, it's usually donations. If you're selling high value products or services it's typically info requests. An eCommerce business will measure success in terms of sales.

Here's the 3 keys we always emphasize when writing a conversion email.

Read Now: Generate The Right Leads. Build Trust. Achieve Breakthrough Growth.

Key 1: Ask Your Reader To Only Do 1 Thing

It's tempting to throw in four or five different actions that a reader could take as they read through the email. Only problem is, this will will only result in less people taking the vital action. Years of testing and actual results demonstrate that emails with a single specific action will perform the best.

Distill your email down to what you're asking people to do, then build the case around this offer. Only include what's necessary to convince people to take action. Amazing results will follow.

One more thing; resist the urge to add too much context. By keeping your argument tight and succinct, you'll drive more users to take the final action in marketing funnel.

Key 2: Communicate Your Offer In Terms Of Benefits

The biggest mistake people often make in a conversion-focused email is highlighting the functional elements of what you're asking the reader to do, not the benefits of taking action.

In other words, tell your reader how they will benefit by taking action, not just what the outcome of the action will be. This will psychologically tap into their emotions, which is where every buying decision is actually made. Here's a quick example:

You might be tempted to say: Fill out this form to get in touch with us.

This call-to-action is technically accurate, but it likely won't be as effective as a call-to-action that shares the benefits someone will receive by getting in touch. We would suggest revising the language to read as follows: Schedule your free 1-hour consultation to start growing your business with inbound marketing.

Do you see the subtle difference? They both drive the read to take the same action but only one communicates the value proposition behind the action.

Key 3: Include Numerous Calls-To-Action

Many emails only ask the reader to take action at the bottom of the email. It's tempting, but its also the wrong approach.

So, what should you do?

  1. Add numerous calls to action (5-6 is usually the right number).
  2. Use two different types of calls to action, both a button and text links.
  3. Vary the language in the calls-to-action so readers with different motivations will see one that resonates with them.

Ideally you should summarize the entire case for taking an action and include your first call-to-action in the first paragraph.

Try out these 3 keys in your next conversion email. Then let us know what the results are. We'd love to hear.

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