If you’re in the process of planning your EOFY campaign, you may be beginning to think about how you will design your emails and communicate your sales to your customers. How flashy, how grand and how exciting should you make your emails to ensure they cut through the inbox clutter? Will you include a GIF? Will you stick with your branding or do something different? There is a lot to consider.
But what if we told you that sometimes bigger is not always better? What if the secret is a good, plain-text email with no image elements?
We promise we have not lost the plot. Keep reading to find out more….
Plainer Equals More Personal
Plain-text campaigns feel like they come directly from the business owner or from someone within the company. They feel far less like a push to purchase and are a ‘gentle nudge’ that encourages people in the right direction.
You can use a range of tactics to communicate your sales in a plain-text email. For example, you could reach out as the founder and gently inform your database that something exciting is happening and that they should head online to take advantage of your offers. Alternatively, you can reach out to your database and make the ‘sale’ or ‘promotional’ elements less prominent. You can achieve this by speaking about some of your favourite products and then lightly mentioning that they are discounted and selling out fast.
Using hyperlinks and buttons in these plain-text emails will ensure customers can still land on the website where they need to.
Plainer Emails Are Less Likely To Become Spam
Large, image-heavy emails are more likely to end up in spam folders as they are challenging for email bots to read and understand. This is escalated if they have a minimal copy or if there is a lack of alt text throughout. When writing a plain-text email, there is nothing to hide behind. Everything you want to say to your customers is done so simply, making it easy for email bots to crawl the content. This allows them to better work out where to place your email in your customers' inboxes. As they don’t need to leave anything up to guesswork, this makes them less likely to end up in the spam folder. As an added benefit, it may also help you cut through the promotional box to land straight in front of your customers’ eyes.
Plainer Emails Allow Conversations To Flow More Freely
You may think your promotion is clear, but your email may cause confusion within your database. Not having the opportunity to reach out and ask questions may also mean customers neglect to purchase due to a sheer misunderstanding of what is on offer. When you write a plain-text email, you can clearly instruct your customers that they can reply if they have questions, meaning that those potential lost sales have a chance at recovery.
This can also strengthen the bond between your business and its customers, as it shows that they can always seek support from your team.
Plainer Emails Feel Less Pushy
We are all so accustomed to email marketing now that it’s natural to get annoyed with it, especially during peak promotional periods. More often than not, customers who have been over-emailed can become avoidant or even desensitised to offers when they are too flashy and overly designed. This is because they begin to feel pushy or forceful.
Following a more casual approach with a plain-text email can feel less forced and less obtrusive. Being met on their level with a conversational tone, customers are then more likely to purchase.
Ready to set up a high-performing EOFY campaign?
The team at Email By Design can support you with plain-text or designed email marketing campaigns that sell. Book a free 15-minute consultation to get started.
