A reoccurring issue I have with clients when it comes to Email Marketing is the length of their emails. They feel the need to write Lord of the Rings type trilogies with their emails. It’s filled with unnecessary bloat and honestly no one is going to or has the time to read all of that. That is why reducing your email size is imperative.
Leave the Novels to Stephen King
One of the main reasons emails fail to convert is because of the size of an email. Users are not going to sit there and scroll through your email soliloquy because you think they’re interested in reading everything you have to write. It’s not like they don’t have hundreds of other emails sitting in their inbox vying for their attention as well. Leave the novels to the people trying to sell books.
Emails Need to be like an Oompa Loompa – Short and Impactful
The emails that get the most clicks are the ones that are short, sweet and to the point. They have the attention grabbing headline, the have the little blurb of a text, an accompanying image and then the CTA. Those emails aren’t trying to dazzle you with their comprehensive of the English vernacular, they know that they have a brief window to make an impact and they’re not trying to squander it. The average person spends about 5 hour a day on email between business and personal email. That is why you need to reduce your email size; people spend enough time on email and they don’t want to spend any more time than they have to.
Bigger is Great for Some Things Not Email
Some things are great big; emails are not one of them. When planning an email design, it’s imperative to focus on the above the fold line. Most users don’t scroll all the way to the bottom of an email. If what they see initially catches their attention then they’re more likely to scroll a bit more to see what else is there. If all they see is paragraphs and paragraphs of text then your email is going in the trash folder next to those “You Won an iPhone” emails. And with emails being looked at mostly on mobile devices you really don’t have a lot of real estate to work with if you want to make an impact.
Best Way to Reduce Your Email Size
Again you don’t need a novel to get users to click the CTA in your email. All you need is a few compelling lines of text with your CTA right after. Think of an email as inverted triangle. The widest part is the image, then copy and the point of the triangle is the CTA. You have to funnel people down to the CTA. Even your image can have the CTA button in there.
The one caveat with only sending image based emails is that some email providers think that image only emails are spam and will put your email in the spam folder. It’s always a good idea to add some lines of live text to help balance the image to text ratio.
Exceptions to the Rule
There are certain emails that require a lot of copy; for instance monthly newsletters. They have a whole month’s worth of updates that need to be shared. Do you need to write everything out? Of course not.
The best way to attach a monthly newsletter design is have a small blurb of text and a link for the user to read more. The whole point on the email is to get people to click and by not overwhelming them, they’re more likely to click the link if it’s something they find interesting or interested in learning more about.
Design is Your Friend and Your Enemy
In everything you do email wise, design is the most important factor. Poor design and you can kiss those CTRs goodbye. When designing your email you have to remember that your email as to function like a funnel because that is what it is. You’re driving your user down to the CTA so they can click to either learn more, sign up for something or make a purchase.
If your email is scatterbrained then don’t expect your users to not be. You have to hold their digital hand. Lead them to where you want them to go which is the CTA. Trying to get cute is only going to backfire.
Reduce your email size and grow your sales or CTRs.