The Art of Persuasion: Email Marketing Messages That Inspire Action

Enjoy our fourth blog in the  From Subscribers to Success series, which is focused on creating impactful email marketing messages for a schools’ audience.  

Over the first hurdle 

I opened an email with a great subject line a few days ago. It was for an online event on marketing. A gathering of creative minds lay ahead of me. I was fascinated. And then I wasn’t. While the creators of the email clearly saw the value of a great subject line, things unravelled when I opened their content and read their email’s marketing messages. They told me the broad theme of the day. They noted the event dates. And they gave me a link to their prices. What I didn’t discover, was what I really needed to know – WHY I should attend. I hit delete. 

Writing email marketing messages that inspire action isn’t easy. Our audiences have many distractions, they’re busy and they don’t always know why they should care about our offer. But there are a number of things we can do to make sure we build messages that are strong and that connect with people in meaningful ways. 

Beyond the basics 

Getting the basics right, is the first step. When crafting emails to schools, marketers should: 

1. Start with strategy. Have a strong purpose, proposition, and offer in place. Know the audience, their needs and their pain points. 
2. Write brilliant subject lines. If our subject line isn’t attention-grabbing, nothing else matters. Subject lines must be compelling, concise, and relevant to the content of our emails.
3. Highlight benefits first. Always focus on the value your offer brings, rather than starting with a list of features. Help readers visualise how their lives will be better if they use your product or service. 
4. Begin with a strong hook. The hook is the opening to our content. It’s where the magic happens. Where hearts and minds are won over. We should create interest from our first line, using storytelling, curiosity or interesting facts that’ll appeal to our audience.
5. Be clear and concise. Readers are busy, so help them out. Use short paragraphs, bullet points and subheadings to break up the text. Highlight key information and make it easily scannable. Always ensure readers can quickly grasp the main points.
6. Be single-minded. Or as ‘minimally-minded’ as possible. Adding a quick line about an exciting new offer, or a reminder about your upcoming conference can dilute the main purpose of the email. Unless we’re sending a newsletter or general update, we should stick to our key messages.
7. Have CTAs that inspire action. Use clear and persuasive calls-to-action (CTAs) that tell readers what we want them to do. Make CTAs stand out visually and use action verbs.
8. Give value. Deliver content that educates, entertains or solves problems. Give away useful resources, exclusive offers and valuable insights. Our audience will be pleased they opened our email and they’ll look out for the next.

Benefits first 

Our offer’s benefits are what truly make our email marketing messages shine. That’s not to say features don’t matter – they really do – but benefits matter more (especially in initial interactions). Research in cognitive psychology shows that the brain is wired to seek rewards and positive outcomes. Benefit-led messaging taps into this, ensuring our audience understands how our offer will positively impact them – making them more likely to sign up.  Leading with benefits also shows a show a deep understanding of our customers’ needs and how we can meet them. This creates a sense of empathy, understanding and connection.  

Industry case studies and data analyses consistently show the effectiveness of benefit-led messaging in driving engagement, conversions, and sales. When A/B testing different messaging approaches in emails, in general, evidence shows that benefit-led messages consistently outperform those focused of features. We should be consistently testing our emails too to build a picture of what really works for our audiences – and what doesn’t. 

Seeing is believing 

Focussing on benefits requires a little more thinking. It means putting ourselves in our potential customer’s shoes and really understanding what matters to them. There are thousands of brands doing this brilliantly. Here are just two examples. 

1. The Apple iPod. Back in 2001 Apple started to really push their single-minded benefit messaging. The iPod’s launch was a shift in how marketers advertised new products. They could have listed the impressive features of the new (at the time) category of music player, after all it was a massive leap forward in technology. But they didn’t. They focussed on they key benefit – 1,000 songs in your pocket. And the results were astonishing.
2. This Girl Can. When Sport England rallied women to get moving, they didn’t focus on sharing a list of hints and tips. They didn’t even tell us the numerous health improvements we’d gain for getting fitter. They focussed on the benefits of how we could feel. And their campaign went viral (globally) smashing their expectations in the first year and resulting in many thousands of people getting healthier. They showed us that Sweating like a pig, feeling like a fox could be us. And that I’m slow but I’m lapping everyone on the couch was a fantastic place to start. 

Change the way you think 

Going back to the event email I deleted. I wish I’d had a chance to read about the insight I’d have discovered on the day, or about the connections I’d have made. It would have been great to know how the sessions would have built my confidence as a marketer. Or how I’d be one of the first to learn something new. If I’d known what was in it for me, I’d have found out more. And maybe I’d have signed up. Maybe I’ve missed out – I’ll never know.

Our schools’ audiences are time pressured, have tight budgets and a lot to deliver. They need to understand WHY our offer will make their lives easier, or better, too. Getting through to them in a meaningful way is about showing, through strong, benefit-led email marketing messages, how we can truly help them in a way that makes a real difference.  

This is the third in our From Subscribers to Success blog series focussed on email marketing. Make sure you also read our other posts: Is Email Still King When Marketing to Schools?, On Target: Segmenting Schools Email Audiences and Top of Inbox Top of Mind: Why Repetition Matters in Email Marketing.