5. Content

Content is King!

Learning how to write good copy or having someone help you will make a big difference to your results.

For the main body of your email, there are some guidelines to follow that will make it more effective.

Clear calls to action
Think about what you want the customer to do. If they need to take action, make it obvious, i.e. Click here! Or Book now! Sometimes capitals in live text should be avoided, ie. ‘FREE’, due to spam concerns.

Use short sentences and paragraphs
You want your customer to keep reading, not fall asleep or skim the copy you spent hours writing.

White space
Use white space to make it easy to read and draw your eye to different content. You might also use spacing and horizontal lines to separate content areas.

Add hyperlinks
Have your articles / products / images link back to your website for more information wherever possible.

Text formatting
Use text formatting, such as bold text, bullet points and sub-headings for effect.

Use web-safe fonts only
Alternatively, you can use images to display text in a different font, but only use these where necessary as they add size to your email. You can use Google fonts, and less preferably, other custom fonts, but they will only display in roughly less than half of email clients. A fallback web-safe font must always be included.

Sharing
Use social sharing and Forward To A Friend links to increase open rates and grow your database.

Pro tip: Suggested minimum font sizes: Body text = 14px, Header text = 22px. Remember, in today’s mobile-first world your email will be read on a small screen.

Images
Images speak louder than words, so use them to emphasise your message.

There are some important points to note.

Alternative Text
Always use alternative (alt) text for images. By combining these with styles and background colours you can create an attractive “images off” email where your message is still visible. This is also very important for people with visual or other impairments, as there is software available to read the live text and alt tag contents of emails out loud.

Alt text is words or phrases used in HTML to tell the website viewers the content of an image. The alt text appears in a blank box which would normally contain the image and can be incredibly useful when an image link is not available or when an image is not supported in the recipient’s email client.

Background Images
These aren’t supported in all email clients so ensure the email is still “attractive” without them.

Image Size
Always resize and optimise your images with Photoshop or similar. Do not exceed the maximum width of the email and resize images to 72 dpi (dots per inch). The smaller in file size your images are, the quicker your email will load.

Protip: Photoshop has a “save for web” function which removes all the unnecessary data from image files.

Animated GIFs
They are okay in moderation and can add great visual impact to an otherwise static email.

Maintain a good Image to Text Ratio. Too much text is off-putting. Too many images might get the email flagged as spam and not seen. Strike a healthy balance between images and words.

Images Only Emails
Although sometimes necessary, we suggest keeping the preheader and footer as text elements, otherwise, the email could be seen as spam.

Action
Jot down 100 – 150 words to use as a body text. Divide this into sections such as introduction, main offer/information, and email sign-off…

OR,

Source 3 images which would be suitable for an email (small size, high quality, obvious subject matter).

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