Emails your subscribers will actually click on – and read

  

 The “less is more” rule applies to many elements of online marketing, including email marketing.

Did you know that the average office worker receives 121 emails per day? When you send out a newsletter or a special offer you are competing for your reader’s attention, which now sits at an average of about eight seconds.

While there is no magic formula for how long your email subject line and body should be, there are some simple things you can do to increase your email’s readability.

Here are some tips:

·      Keep it simple. Don’t use complex words where simple ones will do. For example, instead of “utilize” try “use.”

·      Don’t use too many filler words. You’re not writing a novel, no need to get too descriptive and flowery.

·      Break up blocks of text into sections.

·      Organize information into bulleted lists.

·      Keep the subject line to six or seven words – anything longer won’t display on mobile.

·      Don’t use images that will interrupt the flow of the text.

Of course the design of the email makes a difference too. If you can, send a test of the email to yourself and check it on your mobile device. How does it look?  

Want to test your message before you send it? Try this FreeReadability Test Tool. You can simply copy and paste your text, then it will give you a readability score and tell you what that score means. For example, this message scores at an 8^th grade reading level.

If you want to get really technical the tool will also give you statistics such as how many complex words and average number of syllables are in your text.

So how readable is your content?

Use Google to increase organic traffic

Most small businesses have a tight budget. After paying for building maintenance, employee wages, supplies, etc. there is not much left over to pay for advertising.

There are countless services out there that offer to advertise your company online, such as Facebook and Google ads, but with a little bit of research you can reach people who are searching for your product or service by using the content on your web site.

Getting people to your web site without paying for advertising is called "organic traffic." It's a lot like word of mouth.

When adding content to your website, keep in mind the keywords that your ideal audience would type into a Google search to find your product. For example, people looking for digital marketing are searching for "digital marketing," "social media," "social media marketing," "online marketing," etc.

Make sure the content on your website is rich with keywords related to your product. Google "bots" routinely crawl the Internet and make a record of wording on websites. that's what fuels the search results.

Not sure what keywords to use? Google AdWords has a keyword tool that gives you a list of the most used keywords that relate to your product or service. Using AdWords is free, you just have to have a Google account. Using the keyword tool is free, you are not required to buy a Google ad.

Click here to learn more about organic traffic and writing quality content.