You may have heard the term Earned Media Value (EMV) and wondered what exactly it was and how it pertained to your business. Earned Media is essentially any type of exposure for your business earned by word-of-mouth, recommendations, or conversations about your business. You cannot pay for earned media, but instead, you have to earn (imagine that!) this type of media through marketing strategies and public relations efforts.
Earned Media can take many forms but the most popular include: press, interviews, product reviews, influencer mentions and email marketing. Creating effective emails with engaging content could, in turn, get people talking about your business. In your personal and professional career you have probably drafted hundreds, thousands, or even millions of emails (maybe you email for a living). So, drafting an email can often get mundane and repetitive.
Creating an engaging email can seem like a daunting task or maybe it is not seen as high of priority, because it is something that we partake in every single day. But creating an email that people want to open, read, and remember could be an asset to your marketing strategy. But what goes into an engaging email that can create EMV? Well, let’s chat about that.
Nail That Subject Line
When you are going through your inbox what makes you want to open an email? Do you want to open emails that say “Read for information regarding x business?” Probably not. Would you instead open an email that says “5 Tips and Tricks for Doubling Your Business in 2020”? Probably so. Your subject line could also:
- Prompt an emotional response
- Create a curiosity
- Ask a compelling question
- Offer how-to’s or tips and tricks
- Include relevant words associated with your business
While it’s the smallest chunk of words in your email, it is the most important. If you don’t create an engaging subject, then people won’t even see the hard work you put into the email itself.
Create Content With Value
Whatever the bulk of your email is should provide value to the reader. This is why it’s important to think about the audience that you are trying to connect with before sending out the email. If you are a fitness center, you would want to think about what your audience would want to read. With it being the first of the year they would most likely enjoy an email about resolutions, weight loss solutions, or healthy gym habits. However, on the other hand, they probably would not be so happy to read a review about your favorite bakeries in the area.
Be Honest
Going hand-in-hand with creating content with value is creating content that is honest. Your ultimate goal with your business and EMV should be building trust with your customer. Make sure you do not just see your email subscribers as a sales opportunity, but instead people that could learn and benefit from knowledge you could provide them. They subscribed to your email list for a reason, so make sure you are following up with providing content that they subscribed to, and exceeding their expectations.
Create Engaging Graphics
Like any social post your email should also include an engaging graphic. The graphic needs to pertain to your email, be clean and clear, and provide some focal interest. Using appropriate colors that pertain to your business, and fonts that are easy to read, is also a must. It should be engaging enough to draw people to want to read your email but not so busy that it deters them from delving into the email at all.
End With a Call to Action
What are you trying to gain from people reading your email? Hopefully, after learning about EMV, that is your ultimate goal. Ending with a call to action gives people the idea to engage with a certain blog post, social media post, your website, or even tell their friends about the email they just read. Their word-of-mouth, recommendations, or conversations about your business could, in turn, generate buzz in an organic way, creating earned media value.
While you might see drafting emails to your subscriber list as just another task in your day, it could actually be a vital asset to your businesses marketing strategy. Getting people to open your emails, read them, remember them, and then in turn engage with them creates earned media value for your business.
If the world of email marketing seems vast and scary to you, we’ve got your back. Schedule a call with us today to talk about how creating an engaging email could be the missing link in your marketing strategy.
