What's the Perfect Length for My Campaign Emails?

Introduction

Keeping connected with your customers through regular email newsletters provides a significant way to establish customer relationships, building loyalty to your brand. This complements your social media and website presence.

In writing your message, perhaps announcing a special promotion, the right header and length are important to encourage optimum open rates and click-through rates. Otherwise, your readers are less likely to respond to any call-to-action and perhaps even unsubscribe.

Typical Framework and Length

The formula for marketing emails consists of one to three images, text, and a call-to-action (CTA).

A typical framework for composing an email is:

• Subject line, of ~28 to 50 characters, giving a brief summary of your offer
• Preheader or snippet, of ~10 to 100 characters, stating your offer
• Body or email copy, of ~50 to 125 words, explaining the value of your offer to the reader
• Call-to-Action (CTA), of ~two to five words, showing how the reader should respond.

A previous study by ConstantContact determined that, for most industries, the highest click-through rate is from emails having approximately 200 words, which is about 20 lines of text.

The Variables

However, there's more to this which may result in a larger or smaller window of text. At times more information may be required to get your message across. If so, focus on the main points with intriguing information. Then direct your reader to your CTA, such as a button to learn more at your website.

Another factor in determining the length is what you intend the reader to do. If more information is necessary for your reader to arrive at a decision for action, your email needs more text. Or, if your message contains words that don't assist in persuading the reader to take action, remove that text.

Over the years, the average attention span has been decreasing, while we're being barraged on all sides with information overload. Advertisers battle among themselves to attract our few seconds of attention. So as soon as your reader opens your email, those seconds of attention are ticking away.

Most people read an email by skimming over it. So not everyone will be reading the entire content of your emails. They'll only target sections of their interest. Or, if nothing interests them, they'll dismiss your entire message.

However, you can adapt your marketing technique to compensate for readers with a lower attention span. Such as tailoring your layout and design to make it easier for glancing over and by making your text more concise yet effective.

Conclusion

Remember, your email message should always reflect your brand and bring value to your readers. Anything of less has the potential to lose subscribers. If too brief, your message won't give subscribers enough details to make a decision to become customers. If too long, your subscribers will become disinterested.

Through A/B testing, you can see which length has more successful results with your readers. A perfect balance will have an impact on your rates of response and click-through. This, in turn, will influence your campaign's entire return on investment (ROI), allowing you to reap the beneficial results.