You didn’t give up on email marketing, did you?
It’s still more important than most marketers and business owners assume. Although most of our promotional efforts are now directed towards social media and SEO, email still plays an important role.
B2B marketers, in particular, see great benefits of email newsletters. 70% of them said they used email marketing technology to manage content marketing efforts, and 93% of them used email as the main format of content distribution.
In last year’s report from Content Marketing Institute, email newsletters came on the third spot among the marketing tactics that B2B organisations use. This year, email wins the priority above social media and blogs.
That’s how important email marketing is; not only for B2B organisations but all businesses.
So yes; your brand needs an email marketing campaign, which will help you connect with potential and current users. Email enables you to make personalised offers and get insights on the purchasing behaviour of your users.
When you’re planning the perfect email campaign, you’re mostly focused on choosing email marketing and management tools. That’s okay, but are we forgetting something?
Content! It’s the real driving force of this method. It’s not just about sending messages. It’s all about the content you send to the recipients.
If you’re like most brand owners and marketing managers, you don’t have much time to write your own content. You’re probably relying on the members of your team, or you hire another member who will take care of this aspect.
Do you know what else you can do?
You can use the best writing tools that will drive you towards an effective email marketing campaign.
Instead of searching for the best design, distribution, and analytics tools, you should first focus on content development tools.
That’s what we’re here for today. We’ll list 10 really effective online tools that enable you to write great content for your email campaign.
#1 Hemingway Editor
The Hemingway Editor is available as a web app, but also as a desktop application
The attention span of online users is a big topic of debate. Some feel like the 8-second estimation is an exaggeration. Others feel like it correctly captures the essence of today’s audience.
Maybe the attention span of your audience is better than average. Even if that’s the case, you still don’t want to waste their time.
When people open an email, they want to get some value out of it. If they see a huge chunk of text with endless sentences they can hardly read, they won’t be happy. They won’t form a good impression of your brand. Your brand’s image may suffer because of inappropriate wording or lack of editing.
We don’t want complex content.
We want simple, easy-to-read sentences that convey the essence of the message within few seconds. If you skip the editing stage, you may not deliver such effectiveness.
That’s where Hemingway Editor gets into the picture. This is a simple proofreading tool designed to make your content easier to read. Think of Hemingway, who was known for expressing powerful messages with as few words as possible. That’s the effect this tool helps you achieve.
You’ll paste your text, and Hemingway Editor will warn you about adverbs, passive voice, complex phrases, and hard-to-read sentences.
#2 Just Not Sorry
Sometimes you need to send standard email messages. They are not well-designed newsletters. They are not pieces of content you’ve previously worked on. These are simple messages, which you send to communicate with your customers or business partners.
So how do you make sure these messages are written well?
You need Not Sorry – a Gmail plug-in that warns you about wording when writing email messages.
It’s not about grammar. It’s about words that make your message weaker, such as sorry, I think, I’m no expert, or just.
#3 Crystal
Personalized emails were the most effective email marketing strategy for 2017. It’s no wonder why so many marketing experts are focused on personalisation. Someone’s inbox is a very private space. They want to get messages from people and businesses they know. That’s why they need to feel like you know them.
How do you write personalised emails?
This tool helps you understand your co-workers and customers. You’ll get insights on people’s personality and online behaviour, so you’ll be able to make your message attractive to them. The free Chrome extension lets you look up contacts on LinkedIn, Gmail and Salesforce. Some of them, for example, make quick decisions. Crystal knows that because it analysed public data from LinkedIn accounts, user reviews, Facebook pages, Google, and blog posts.
Crystal will give you personality insights that enable effective personalisation. Maybe the tool is controversial in the eye of the recent Cambridge Analytica scandal. But it definitely gives your marketing campaign an edge, and that’s exactly what you need at this point.
The main thing to keep in mind is that Crystal analyzes publicly available information to help you know the people you’re messaging. So there’s nothing illegal about it.
#4 Calmly Writer
Do you know why many marketers and business owners don’t like writing emails? It’s not because they are not good at writing. Time might not be the biggest issue. They can do it and they can find the time for it. However, they get distracted.
These are busy people we’re talking about. They constantly get calls, messages, and social media notifications. They may start writing content for the email newsletter, but the distractions will kill their focus and enthusiasm.
How about a tool that forces you to stay focused? Calmly Writer is a distraction-free text editor. The simplistic interface will keep your mind focused on the task at hand. You’ll be seeing one paragraph at a time so that you won’t think about editing. You’ll get to that point later. For now, Calmly Writer pushes you to write.
#5 Assignment Masters
Okay, so maybe you don’t have the time or skills to write content for useful email newsletters. What do you do? Do you start sending emails of below-average quality? Of course not! This campaign has a critical branding purpose, so you can’t take such risks.
If you cannot delegate the writing tasks to members of your team for any reason, you don’t have to hire a full-time employee. You can simply rely on professional writers whenever you need content for your email campaign.
Assignment Masters connects you with expert writers and editors. They hold degrees in various fields of study, so the company can pair you with a writer who’s knowledgeable about your industry.
You’ll provide specific instructions to guide the writer as they compose the content. If you don’t like it, Assignment Masters will provide revisions for free. The prices are very affordable, so there’s really nothing to lose.
#6 Benchmark
When you’re developing content for your email marketing campaign, you’ll inevitably need an email marketing tool that lets you achieve the perfect design.
Design is part of the process. Remember: a huge chunk of text doesn’t look attractive to an email recipient. If that same text is provided in an easy-to-follow format, however, the effect will be much better.
Benchmark is one of the simplest email newsletter design tools to use. With the drag-and-drop feature and customizable email templates, you can create a beautiful message in minutes. You need your content. From there on, you can play with some design feature to make it more attractive to the eye.
In addition to its design functionalities, Benchmark also offers email marketing automation features. Plus, it provides a neat signup form for your website or blog, so you’ll attract more subscribers in your campaign.
#7 Ideaflip
So how do you get ideas for weekly email newsletters?
Let’s say you run an online jewellery store. You’ll probably include special offers in your campaigns, but you won’t deliver them on a weekly basis. You want to provide something fresh and unique for your subscribers, so they will get more value through the messages they read. That something fresh and unique is content.
This week, you’ll write about diamonds. Next week, you’ll write an email about semi-precious stones, and you’ll suggest unique pieces of jewellery from your collection. Sooner or later, you might run out of ideas on what to write.
If you don’t keep track of the ideas when you get them, you’ll lose them. You’ll sit in front of your computer with the intention to write that newsletter, and you’ll be blocked even though you had a great idea yesterday. Ideaflip won’t allow that to happen.
This tool lets you keep track of all ideas. It’s a collaborative tool, so all members of the marketing team can contribute with their own creativity. Keep collecting ideas, so you can plan a harmonious and continuous email marketing campaign!
#8 Quetext
Plagiarism is a huge issue in content development. We see it all over the place. If you send an email message with content people have already seen elsewhere, you’ll ruin the reputation of your brand. Clearly, you don’t want that to happen.
Needless to say, you constantly get inspired by the content you read online. Maybe you noticed a question on Quora and a great answer that inspired you to write a piece for your email newsletter. What if you got a bit too inspired? What if you unintentionally copied parts of the sentences and made your text look too similar?
What if you hired a writer or you delegated the task of writing to a team member, but you’re not sure if their content is unique?
Quetext will help you stay away from plagiarism. It’s a simple tool that compares your content to online resources and warns you about any sign of plagiarism.
Plus, you get a Citation Assistant feature. When the tool identifies plagiarism, it shows you how to reference the specific source.
#9 BuzzSumo
What if you can’t get any ideas for the weekly email newsletter? If you’ve been focused on the campaign for quite some time, you’ll inevitably come down to the point of a writer’s block. No matter how hard you try to think of something, you won’t be able to formulate a good topic.
Type any keyword in its search engine, and the tool will give you a list of trending online content. When you see what your target audience is interested in reading, it will be easier for you to come up with something.
It’s important not to copy the sources! Find a new angle to the same topic, so you can always make your content unique.
#10 Canva
If content is the king, then design has to be the queen. Without good design, even the best content will fail to deliver good results for your email marketing campaign.
Think about it: people receive dozens of email messages per day. If they know you and they find the subject line attractive, they will open the email. If they fail to see something good, they won’t take the action you recommend.
People rely on vision more than they rely on other senses when processing information. When reading, the mind sees the words as tiny pictures, and it takes time and effort to identify the message. When you add a nice picture, the memory will be more effective in determining and remembering that message.
Clearly, original graphics perform the best. You’re not simply going to write your content and add a stock photo in the email. You need to work on a memorable design. You want people to recognise your messages.
There’s a tool that helps with that: Canva.
It helps you design eCards, posters, infographics, newsletters, and other types of graphics that can accompany a great message. You don’t need advanced design skills to start using it, and that’s a huge bonus.
Start Writing Impressive Emails!
Email marketing campaigns are a waste of time only when you’re not doing things right. With the right approach and the right tools by your side, the emails will start attracting more subscriptions, website traffic, and conversions. Isn’t that what all businesses strive for?
The problem is: it’s not that easy to develop a great email marketing campaign. You have to start with a plan and keep delivering valuable content. The content, in particular, is what gives marketers the most trouble.
Good news: you can always use a tool to make the content development part easier. We listed only 10 of the best ones, but there are many more to test.
Are you using any tools and platforms that help you write better emails? Are they delivering good results? Are you investing enough in your email marketing campaign to make it successful?
Share your insights with us!
This is a guest post by Patricia Wilson, in her articles, Patricia gives great insights into social media marketing, digital marketing, and content writing. She provides in-depth and useful information based on her previous work experience in the areas of social media and marketing. You can follow her on Twitter.
