Email best practices
How to create content when you’re feeling lazy
If you’re going through a creative dry spell, here are different ways and methods to reap the optimum benefit from each email message. We’ll run through how to modify existing content by using email to drive additional traffic and tweak content for email.
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As an email marketer, creating engaging content that drives conversions and helps your brand excel is a top priority. After all, email marketing campaigns are one of the most effective ways to create and build customer relationships, and finding ways to optimize yours is excellent for company growth.
But what about those days when you don't feel inspired or struggle to put your ideas into words? Maybe you were up late the night before, feel worn out, or just completed a draining project. Or, it could be the type of day where you simply lack your usual energy.
Maybe not often, but you can find yourself in such a situation and wonder how you can resume your day and make it productive. You can even experience a prolonged creative slump for many weeks. In such cases, what are some strategies to continue churning out excellent content marketing?
Increasing the efficiency of your digital marketing campaigns helps squeeze the most benefit from each piece, doing more with less every time you send something new. You can do that by repurposing your email designs and content across multiple channels, maximizing their effectiveness.
Here, we'll look at different ways you can deploy to reap the maximum benefit from each email message, even on days when finding inspiration is a challenge. We'll also explore methods to modify existing content (both by using email to drive additional traffic and tweaking content for email) during creative dry spells.
Table of contents
1. Work smarter, not harder
2. Revise annual goals
3. Get creative with free tools
4. Sign up for competitor newsletters for peer analysis
5. Check outstanding emails for inspiration
6. Revisit your client's customer journey
7. Make a marketing calendar that could interest your subscribers
Why email marketing content is important
Email marketing campaigns are one of the best ways to stay engaged with existing customers and add new ones, as well as turn subscribers into brand loyalists. In today's world where technology keeps advancing with each passing day, email might seem antiquated compared to other avenues like social media. But the truth is that well-designed emails achieve astounding metrics. For example, in 2020, emails:
Garnered a return on investment (ROI) of $44 for every $1 spent
Were 40 times more effective than using Facebook and Twitter combined
Drove customers’ purchasing power by 138%
Helped 18% of companies achieve an ROI of more than $70 for every $1 spent
Personalized email marketing campaigns nurture the relationship between your company and its email subscribers, increasing trust and click-through rates. The more your subscribers see your brand as an authority that gives them honest, straightforward information, the more likely they'll be to buy from you.
Get inspired again with these 7 tips
1. Work smarter, not harder
This doesn’t mean copy-pasting old content or even repeating the same idea. When you're looking to create content, draw inspiration from previous pieces and see if you can follow up on any of the earlier issues you've tackled in your blog posts.
You can take a point from an ebook or an interesting article and elaborate to create a piece or turn a presentation/infographic into a blog post, or vice versa. Regarding email content, consider checking your social media for specific phrases that worked well and test them out as an email subject line. This helps tap into sources proven effective in the past, giving you a good indication of how your content should perform.
One way to look at it is that previously written pieces can serve as a form of "research and development," and your pieces put those lessons learned into practice. This helps you create content with the best of both worlds, i.e., exciting subjects and phrases combined with your own ideas, designed to drive conversions and increase brand awareness.
2. Revise annual goals
Redefine your email goals: Put on your consumer hat and look through the holiday campaigns your competitors have sent. Which customer demographic is underserved? If you're sending time-sensitive emails, keep an eye on the competition and see how you can stand out. By capitalizing on consumer preferences and trends during specific periods, you can optimize what you send and to whom you send it. Customized graphics, fonts, and writing can tailor your messages around these times, resonating with recipients and helping drive higher conversion rates.
Suppose a particular demographic isn't receiving as much attention as the rest. In that case, seizing the moment and sending content their way provides an excellent opportunity for your company to make inroads and increase sales. It's also essential to reevaluate your goals regarding open rates and click rates as they can fluctuate throughout the year. This also depends on your target audience. For example, if your target audience is the 16-21 age group, you might see a rise in open rates as this group is highly active on their cell phones. If you're targeting B2B clients, you might see a drop during August, as this is when they take their family vacation.
3. Get creative with free tools
Is your design team off on holiday right now? Try using some simple and free tools to reuse graphics you already have. One of our favorites is Canva, where you can create new email headers, banners, and social media images in a couple of minutes or even revisit old images to create something fresh. You can also play with colors and visuals to gain further inspiration. Instead of producing something dull and uninspiring, you may discover a new and exciting design through basic experimentation and intuition.
So, you've created your content, but is your email marketer busy with something else? Don’t worry! Try Publicate, which enables you to curate your newsletters through an easy-to-use dashboard by dragging and dropping different links to populate your new piece. You can design messages that work seamlessly with Gmail and Outlook. Lastly, embed the HTML code into your email template, and you're good to go!
Whichever method you choose, you'll have emails with a professional, appealing look that stand out in your subscriber list's inboxes.
4. Sign up for competitor newsletters for peer analysis
Maybe you've brainstormed, tested, and revised your content, but you’re still seeking something more to put it over the top. Where can you go for that extra dose of inspiration before hitting the send button? When you subscribe to competitors’ newsletters, you can glean new insight on design elements you might have overlooked, helping you further optimize your emails. That can include the subject line, call-to-action (CTA) placement, colors and visuals, and message frequency.
5. Check outstanding emails for inspiration
Looking at great emails can help you up your game and create content that exceeds whatever you've done in the past. Successful emails have qualities that make them grab the reader, pique their curiosity, and inspire them to take action.When you research these messages, you might discover ideas or phrasing that could help your content take the next step and increase conversion rates.
6. Revisit your client's customer journey
Like the hero in an epic tale, the customer is at the center of your marketing universe. But different customers are at varying points in their brand journeys, so tailoring your content helps achieve optimum results.
For example, customer A, who just signed up to receive your marketing emails, has many different needs than customer B, a long-time brand loyalist. While the former could react positively to a series of welcome emails that explain your company's benefits and advantages, persuading them to make a purchase, the latter may appreciate special offers or anniversary emails that reward and commemorate their loyalty.
Wherever a unique customer is in their brand journey, using that to further refine content gives you another way to optimize what you send.
7. Make a marketing calendar that could interest your subscribers
The key to your marketing emails isn't only what you send but also when you send them. Paying close attention to relevant dates that click with email subscribers could increase your conversion rates and sales.For example, anniversaries, milestones, and birthdays.
Sending an anniversary email that makes light of a customer's relationship with your brand lets them know they matter. In an anniversary email, you can note how long a customer's been signed up for your newsletter or the time since their first purchase and provide statistics relating to each.
Birthday emails are an excellent way to personalize marketing communications, humanizing your company and letting a customer know you care. In a birthday email, you can include a special offer like a discount promo code or simply an uplifting message. Some brands even send out half-birthday promotions.
A milestone email shows appreciation for a customer's allegiance to your company, noting their past purchases and inviting them to continue looking up to your brand. It lets customers know your company is grateful for their loyalty and is an opportunity to provide something in return, like a discount promo code.
Other dates that may interest your email list include product launches, store openings, or a change in seasons. Either way, sending your marketing communications at specific times gives you another advantage in your email marketing strategy.
Now, power up that content!
Now that you know how to get your inspiration back, let's focus on creating effective email content. Here are some tried-and-tested methods for enticing email subscribers to read your message, take action, and keep coming back.
Use creative subject lines: An appealing subject line could be the element that decides whether a recipient reads your email or sends it to the trash folder. That's why writing copy that captures the reader's attention and causes them to read what you have to say is essential. Effective subject lines can use urgency, curiosity, personalization, and promotions to increase open rates.
Keep it clear and relevant: An average recipient receives more than 100 emails in a day, so keeping your email straightforward and pertinent to their needs can do a better job of capturing their attention. Messages with too much fluff or needless information might cause recipients to quickly delete them or unsubscribe.
Include incentives: Offering perks to subscribers can provide an extra nudge for them to take action. Whether a $5 gift card or a discount on a future purchase, giving subscribers something in return causes them to take the plunge and give your company a try.
Personalize: Sending personalized marketing emails adds a warm feeling to what could be otherwise cold and impersonal. Using the recipient's first name, hometown, or age puts a human face on your company and can further persuade email subscribers to bond with your brand.
Focus on benefits: At the heart of your company is its products and services, and your marketing emails are no different. Email subscribers want to know the unique benefits your brand offers, and your marketing communications create a prime opportunity to do so. You can use a conversational tone or tell a story, but no matter what, explaining what makes your company unique could be what converts a subscriber into a customer.
With Mailjet, never lose inspiration again!
Email marketing is a proven tool for increasing sales, website visits, and brand recognition. That’s why creating messages that look professional and convey vital information about your brand is so important. It may seem daunting, especially if you're low on inspiration or have other essential duties at your company, but with Mailjet, you'll never lose inspiration again!
Our professional newsletter templates give you a wide array of designs to choose from, and with their responsive design, they work on mobile devices, laptops, and desktop computers. Or, you can design your own email newsletter templates with our drag-and-drop Email Editor. With its intuitive interface, you can create templates that express your brand identity and save them for future use. In fact, you don't need to be a computer expert to use it, saving you precious time for other vital tasks.
