Today, I want to dive EVEN DEEPER into email content creation. I hear you all saying it can be a big hurdle, so I am here to help! 

WHAT GOES WHERE?

When it comes to email content creation, it can be helpful to have a formula. In this case, it might even be considered a MAP. Where does each piece of information need to go in order for your email campaign to be useful and valuable to both your subscriber and to your business?

Email content creation first impressions

How does your email show up in the inbox? 

The way your business shows up in your customer’s inbox directly affects the engagement of your customers. There are three components to consider: your sender ID, your subject line, and your preheader or preview text.

Sender ID

When you get a piece of mail, you look to see who it is from. The SENDER ID on an email is similar. Do you recognize the business name? Does it make you want to open?

Some businesses choose to use their business name here. 

Others use a personality at their business. 

And still others have mascots to send from. Yes, mascots.

The route you choose to go is entirely up to you. Do you want to be forever tied to the brand you’ve built? Then send from yourself. If you wish to scale or sell at some point, or if your name isn’t easily associated with your business or service, then use your business name for your Sender ID. And if you aren’t sure? A/B test and see which gets the highest open rate.

Subject line

Oh man. There are a thousand things to consider when it comes to subject lines. I haven’t written a dedicated post on subject lines (yet) but I did cover some angles to consider in my “Ultimate Guide to A/B Testing” post here. 

Bottom line: Keep it short. Keep it snappy. And capture your subscriber’s attention leveraging intrigue and suspense if you can! 

Preheader Text

This is an often overlooked tool in the email marketer’s toolkit to help increase open rates and conversions. Preheader text is the text that shows up AFTER the subject line in many inbox providers, and helps build on whatever you’ve teed up with the subject line. 

I can’t tell you how many emails I’ve gotten where the preheader text section was clearly not filled out :/ 

OR was simply a reiteration of the headline. 

Depending on your email service provider, the Preheader Text might also be called “Preview Text” and you might have to poke around to find where you go to edit it. But don’t forget to use this space to increase interest in your content!

Give your customers a sneak peek of what’s inside, and support your subject line and content while you’re at it. 

Email sender ID, subject line, and preheader text helps get your email campaign opened. GREAT! But what do you do once people have decided to open your email?

Email Content Creation: OPTIMIZE ABOVE THE FOLD

“Above the fold” is a holdover from the golden olden days of the newspaper.

Publishers wanted the splashiest and most salient images and headlines “above the fold” in the newspaper. Why? Because that shit sells papers.

For email marketing terms, “above the fold” equates to “before the scroll.” You want to make it super clear what your email is about, and whenever possible, what you want your subscriber to do. Why? Because that shit sells your ideas.

Some hot tips:

• Reinforce your branding with prominent, consistent logo placement
• Write headlines that speak to your customer’s needs and wants, clearly sum up your email content, and inspire your subscribers to action
• Whenever possible, have a strong call to action above the fold to accommodate the compulsive clickers.

For those who DO scroll

Keep it easy to scan. Use a balanced mix of images and text to help your reader’s eyes follow your content. If you’re going letter-style, take advantage of the bold option in your editor to make key sentences and phrases stand out. Be liberal with paragraph breaks as grammar permits to help keep the “wall of text” overwhelm at bay.

Stay focused

If you have secondary stuff you want to include, put it in the junk drawer.

The junk drawer, you say?

This is a term I’m repurposing from my favorite dude in marketing, Donald Miller of StoryBrand. He calls the footer of your website the “junk drawer” and guess what? Emails have one, too!

What do you put in your junk drawer?
Less actionable, but still useful, messages or outbound links.

Want subscribers to be able to get to key parts of your website through your email campaigns? Add a simplified version of your site navigation to your email footer.

Want to continue engaging with your subscribers in more communal locales like social media? Include links to your active social media platforms as a part of your email “junk drawer”.

Interested in capturing additional data around profile and preference from your subscribers? A passive call to action to update information in your email footer can do this without distracting from your main goal. You can also include customer service information and opt-out verbiage. This is a flawless example of implementation to the junk drawer from my Email Marketing Darlings, Chubbies.

SUMMIN’ IT UP:

When it comes to email content creation, the “what goes where” debate can be so overwhelming as to stop many business owners from even starting. Now, you understand how to make a great impression that gets your email opened. You have some practical tips to optimize your email content and capitalize on that attention once a subscriber DOES open your email. And, you have some recommendations for how to keep your emails laser focused while also providing some helpful links to the readers and scrollers out there. 

I hope this overview has been helpful in simplifying the decision making process while also shining a light on some under-utilized content areas in your email marketing template. 

Want a cheat sheet to help you FURTHER optimize each section of your email content? Take a second and download my A/B Testing Cheat Sheet which is loaded with ideas to help you systematically get better with every email campaign you send.