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Hi there friend,

Over the past 2 weeks we’ve been breaking down emails sent by major league baseball teams to their massive audiences using an email analysis tool we’re building.

First, we looked at lessons in writing effective subject lines. Then last week we broke down the good and bad of the actual email content.

This week, I’m going to take all of those lessons to create my ideal email. Although I’m still going to be using a baseball team as the example, the principles apply to basically any type of newsletter, and the goals are universal:

1. Be personal and relevant.
2. Be easy to read.
3. Goodness gracious, be interesting.

Here’s the final product:

Section-by-Section Breakdown

Personalization

I start right off the bat by writing to someone using their name. We’ve written in the past about the impact of personalization on engagement, so this is a no-brainer.

Thankfully, this is really easy to do in AWeber, as long as you’re getting your subscriber’s name when they sign up.

If you don’t have first names for all of your subscribers, you can use a simple dynamic content snippet to fallback to another word.

In this example, if you have a subscriber’s first name, it will be used. But if you don’t, it will use the word “friend” instead.

Lead with Your Best Story

In basically every email we’ve ever sent, the most clicked links were the ones that appear first in the email. So front load your email with the links you most want people to click - and make sure the content is relevant and interesting to your readers.

In this case, I pulled the most interesting snippet I had, paired it with a striking image, and linked to more information so folks who were interested had somewhere to go next.

Leave No Dead Ends

Not everyone is going to engage with even your most interesting first content, so it’s a good idea to include links to other content your readers might like so your fans have something to latch on to in every email.

This takes almost no time at all to add if you’re publishing a blog, YouTube channel, or anything else that produces an RSS feed. You can automatically pull in your most recent posts or videos, including the main image and description copy, using the feed element in AWeber.

Include Hyper-Relevant Content where Possible

If you segment your readers based on tags (like whether they’re customers or not), location, or some other attribute, consider tailoring parts of your message using dynamic content.

Dynamic content lets you show more relevant content that feels like it was made for one specific reader.

I have a section that shows one bullet that only season ticket holders see (people with the tag “seasonticketholder”), and another item for non-ticket holders promoting the benefits of becoming one.

You can use this snippet to try out tag-based dynamic content with your own tags:

Pepper In Snackable Information

I mentioned before that you want to give your readers at least one thing to latch on to in every email you send. Sprinkling in “snackable” content - useful little pieces of information that can be consumed at a glance - is a great way to increase your chances that people will think your email was worth the read.

In my example, the snack is scores and scheduling info for upcoming games. In your email, it could be a quick tip, fun historical fact, or even something like local weather if you write about something that requires people to go outdoors.

Invite Readers into the Conversation

Email is meant to be a conversation. An email you send to your entire audience can result in all sorts of one-on-one conversations with readers and potential customers.

But you don’t get what you don’t ask for. To start as many conversations as possible, you have to explicitly ask for people to actually respond.

In this email, I open up two potential paths for conversation. First, I point people to a social post, so they can engage with me or other fans.

Then, in the “What Do You Think?” section, I ask a specific question to open the door and give people a reason to respond.

Now I want to hear from you. What do you think is missing from this email? What do you think I did right? Just respond and let me know.

What did you think of this email?

❤️❤️❤️ Loved it. Can't wait to get the next one.

💔 I didn't really care for it.

Fill Your Email with the Content You’re Already Publishing

If you have a blog, YouTube channel, or podcast you’re already creating all sorts of interesting content that you should absolutely be re-using in your email.

And don’t worry, it’s not going to take a bunch of copy, pasting, and recreating something you’ve already created somewhere else.

All you have to do is drag a feed element into your message, paste in a link to your blog, YouTube channel, or podcast, and… bingo. You’re done.

Holiday Marketing Tip:

Make sure your emails look just as good on a phone as they do on a larger screen. Many busy shoppers will be looking to buy from their phones and tablets.

No worries if you’re using AWeber to send your emails. Our templates are optimized for mobile devices.

Get our latest expert advice and helpful tips 

As always, thanks for reading!

- Chris V. and the rest of the AWeber team