It is a common fear among marketers that our attention span may be shortening just too much, and too quickly. But luckily, email marketing still finds ways to grab and even hold the attention of your target customers and should be part of every small business marketing plan.
Did you know that email marketing has been around for nearly 40 years? Entrepreneur reports that the first marketing email was sent in 1978. Since then, technology has continued to grow and expand, leading email marketing to evolve and improve, constantly!
Over the years, marketing emails have become more user-friendly and have been modified to appear less “spammy”. These improvements have helped prolong your viewers’ attention to these marketing emails. In fact, HubSpot reports that in just the last 6 years, the average time spent reading an email has increased by 7 percent. And with your viewers reading emails more closely, this percentage is only expected to increase in the coming years.
One of the most important factors when it comes to email marketing is making sure that your emails are optimized for mobile phones. Around 20 to 55 percent of all emails are opened on mobile devices and the importance of mobile-friendly emails is crucial for the success of your marketing emails.
But not only do marketing emails need to be mobile-friendly, they need to also look good! Including headers and bullets in your marketing emails are appealing to the eye, plus they give the information quickly, which is what your audience is looking for.
Compelling images are just as important as great content. It might even be beneficial to your small business to include a call-to-action in your email, depending on the subject. If you are including links in your marketing emails, then always make sure that the link works. We all hate a broken link! Another thing that annoys your audience are emails that have long load times! When it comes to email marketing, you want things to be as efficient as possible. So, pay close attention to the load times of your emails.
Keep in mind that the length of your marketing email depends on the subject and your target audience. As long as your marketing emails are relevant, it is ok for them to be long! Your goal with email marketing is to interest your audience and bring them in to become potential customers!
