Content is the heart of your email. Sounds great, right? But in order to make that heart work in harmony with your subscribers, you should know the basics, learn certain tricks, and stay up to date on all the latest trends.
We are here to help you master the nuances of email content and choose the most appropriate type to create your own content strategy.
What is email Email Content Overview: Why content?
The term “email content” refers to everything you send to someone’s mailbox in a message. It can be any information sent to unknown recipients, existing subscribers, or potential customers, either in person or through an email template builder or automation platform.
Type of email content
Fortunately, there are many types of content you can use to enrich your email marketing campaigns and achieve your goals. Every business needs its email marketing content plan, special format, and each message should be personalized for the specific audience it’s being sent to.
The following are the most common types of content:
Plain text: This could be a text message, article excerpt, blog post, medical, technical, financial, contact or other information that carries data that can be transmitted in plain text without attachments and formatting.
HTML: Using HTML code to craft emails allows you to use different colors, fonts, styles, images, and various multimedia to create visually appealing, interactive content.
Images: Graphic elements in various formats (the most commonly accepted email file types are JPEG, PNG, and GIF) used to add visual interest, egypt email list 1.7 million contact leads showcase products, and generally communicate information more effectively.
Links: Direct links, hyperlinks in text, or various CTA buttons that point to another web resource.
Video: Emails containing embedded videos are considered one of the latest trends to attract subscribers, promote services, or showcase products.
Audio: Voice messages, audiobooks, music, podcasts,
Attachments: Various documents, spreadsheets, educational materials, guides, other PDFs, and anything else that can add value to your message.
However, we would like to point out
That in most cases, embedding audio and video in the body of an email is not a good idea. Spam filters can flag such content, which can affect your email deliverability. Therefore, if you decide to add some new content sections, it’s always a good idea to do a spam test before sending emails to your subscribers.
So, we have covered the main types of content by format. In addition, emails are divided by text volume, as this is also an important factor in the success of a campaign.
Based on copy length, emails are usually categorized as:
- Short form – 50 words maximum;
- Standard – 100-125 words maximum;
- Long form – more than 150 words.
What is the optimal length of email content? Experienced email marketers say that for best results, the email body should improve your battery life . If you think that 125 words aren’t enough to express everything you need to say, you’ll be surprised to find that if you write more, you risk losing your readers’ attention at some point. Shorter texts perform better, show higher response rates, and are generally easier and quicker to read. Divide your content into paragraphs, add bullet points to structure your content, and if you want to provide additional information, it’s a good idea to add a “learn more” link so your subscribers can read it easily.
The next criterion for email content classification is probably the most popular – based on the type of information they contain . For example:
- Welcome Letter
- trade
- Newsletter
- Sales/Partnership Offers
- Promotion or advertising
- Reminders
- Event Announcement
- Thank you for your email
- Various trigger emails
We’ve explored each type of email marketing in depth in our blog posts, so be sure to check them out.
Why Email Marketing Content Matters
Content is key. Its importance and value in adb directory marketing cannot be summed up enough, as what your emails contain directly impacts your bottom line. This is not only about sales and financial returns, but also about brand awareness, informing customers, and most importantly, building your company’s reputation.
Our statistics prove that businesses actively use email on a daily basis, so almost all of us receive emails on a regular basis. Is that right? Of course it is, because our inboxes are so crowded with content that it is hard to imagine life without it.
So, when you create emails, build them using modern templates and fill them with different buttons, images, fonts, links and attachments, always think about the other side of the process – spam filters and what they think of your content.
Email Marketing Content Best Practices
There are a few tips you should know so that email spam filters can identify your content well and get recipients to open and interact with your content more often. Here are a few things to keep in mind when creating effective content for your email marketing campaigns:
To successfully avoid modern spam filters, create emails that your subscribers will interact with, as the behavioral factor is crucial.
Content should be short and to the point. Always remember that people are busy and simply don’t have time to read long and irrelevant texts.
Focus on specific and valuable content – don’t confuse your readers with tons of offers, news, or any other information.
Do not add too many links in Email Content Overview: Why your emails and check the sources you are citing.
Use 1 call to action. There are different strategies for providing a call to action in an email, but generally speaking, it’s recommended to have 1 primary button and keep a healthy balance by placing the rest as hyperlinks in text or images.
Add graphic elements wisely, keeping in mind the right ratio with text — 60/40 — and add alternative text to them. Also, make sure all images are properly optimized for the web so they load quickly.
Stay consistent and make the content fit in with your brand and overall marketing strategy. Customers are used to good service and emails, so maintain the quality, tone, and style of your choice.
Keep your email content fresh and relevant. Newsletters should contain updated information, don’t send the same letters week after week. You can create content templates only for specific types of emails – triggered emails, welcome series emails, follow-up emails, etc., but other formats should spark interest every time it is opened and read.
Don’t overuse interactive elements, such as media files, JavaScript, large attachments, and forms. Instead, place them on the web page and link them in the email.
Create dynamic content with personalized messages based on
The specific needs of the recipient. For example, a brand with branches across the country can use dynamic links to redirect users to the right website based on their geographical data. It can also be a letter created based on the customer’s behavior or a certain stage in their life cycle. Such messages generate good results because people feel the personal value in them.
You may often come across advice to avoid spam in your email. Today, this practice is considered a bit outdated due to the continuous improvement of spam filters, but it is still not worth overdoing this spam method.
You can’t change the content of an email once it’s sent, which is why it’s important to test it thoroughly ahead of time to make sure everything works and that spam filters are accepting your message well.
Email Content Analysis: Why It Is Crucial in Spam Testing
Obviously, basic theories of how to create good email content are not enough to achieve strong results. Therefore, we have reached the most important step in creating an email content strategy – spam testing. Inbox Insight test by GlockApps allows you to test your content in different sending environments and get your spam score, HTML support level and email placement across different global providers. By running our spam test, on their effectiveness as well as useful tips to resolve issues.
Let’s take a closer look at the content analysis report from the GlockApps spam test :
1. In the Content Analysis tab you can find information about message size, images and URLs used in your emails.
2. Email message chunks include the size of the plain text portion, the HTML portion, and the total message size.
The total message size includes email headers and embedded content.
Image Size – The size of all external images associated with the message, excluding embedded images.
Image Count – The total number of images used in the email content (embedded and linked).
Link Count – The number of URLs added to your email content.
3. In the Image section, you will find the following information:
Preview – Displays the image used.
Status – Indicates whether the image loaded correctly.
URL – The link used to insert the image into your content.
Redirects – The number of redirects for the image link.
Alt – Alternative text for the image when available in HTML.
Size – The image size.
Response Time – The response time of the image URL.
4. In the Links section of the Content Analysis report , you will see the following information:
Anchor Text – The anchor text Email Content Overview: Why of the link, if any.
Status – Indicates whether the URL opened correctly.
URL – The link used in the email.
Redirects – The number of redirects for the URL.
Size – The size of the web page that the URL refers to.
Response Time – How long it takes for a web page to respond.
5. The HTML Inspector section displays a calculation of your email’s overall support for different platforms and devices, providing a detailed view of the compatibility of marketing email content created using HTML code.
The test generates a detailed list of warnings indicating which clients fully support, partially support, or do not support the relevant HTML elements, along with specific comments.
What platforms does GlockApps HTML Email Content Overview: Why Inspector cover?
Our HTML checker calculates compatibility percentages for the following platforms:
Android: AOL, 1&1, Gmail, LaPoste.net, Orange, Outlook, ProtonMail, Samsung Email, SFR, WEB.DE, Yahoo! Mail
Desktop webmail: 1&1, AOL, Fastmail, Free.fr, GMX, Gmail, HEY, LaPoste.net, Mail.ru, Orange, ProtonMail, RainLoop, SFR, T-online.de, WEB.DE, WP.pl, Yahoo! Mail
iOS: AOL, Apple Mail, GMX, Gmail, LaPoste.net, Orange, Outlook, ProtonMail, SFR, WEB.DE, Yahoo! mail
macOS: Apple Mail, Mozilla Thunderbird, Outlook
Mobile Webmail: Gmail
Outlook.com: Outlook
Windows: Mozilla Thunderbird, Outlook
Windows Mail: Outlook
You can view compatibility percentages for all platforms at once, or select one or more platforms for specific analysis.
The information you get from the report containing detected warnings can let you understand how it affects the performance of your email marketing campaigns. After changing the HTML code and fixing the errors, you will easily improve the results, as the recipients will see your messages correctly.
6. The “Action Steps” tab also provides tips on how to fix your email marketing content.
Our spam test reveals issues with your deliverability, sending infrastructure, and email content, and provides you with helpful suggestions for improving your results. Be sure to read this tab carefully and follow the recommended steps to help improve your email performance.
