Every e-mail communication you send to a preferred group of your shoppers, subscribers, or content readers is an outreach by your organization to take an action that should result in more awareness of a campaign or a specific task your customers will be rewarded for. Each e-mail you send should have a basic structure that both interests the reader and entices them to respond. A great e-mail message will include these three components:

1) Personalization

Nothing says “give me your money and don’t ask questions” like a fake generic e-mail. Messages that start with “Dear User” or the like have little chance of being taken seriously by an end user that sees it as a generic junk mail. Personalization can come in the forms of customized salutations, messages sent based on a specific initiative (segmentation), or even just the tone of the message itself.

2) Branding

Every message must incorporate your brand in some way. Why? Branding is the result of a visual indexing of the priority, value and importance of the message. Adding your brand is like a signature on every message, showing the customer who they are dealing with.

3) Call-to-action

Every message, no matter its purpose, must guide users toward a specific action. If you are sending a product announcement , provide a link to a pre-populated shopping cart and an FAQ. Get the customer informed and ready to buy in as few clicks as possible. Custom landing pages are a great way to continue the message on your website, where the sale can be made. Drawing in a customer is the goal of e-mail marketing, and you want to do it early and often. If the reader finds value in what you are offering, they will follow. Write your e-mail marketing from the customer’s standpoint, and ask, “What’s in it for me?” Effectively communicate this, and your customers will line up at the door.

I am an SEO Consultant and Web Marketing Expert living in the Triad, NC region. Please visit my SEO consulting website for more information about my services. I offer the above information based on my experiences alone and they do not constitute a legal opinion.