The ABC of writing email content

Email marketing holds readers with content worth reading, and out of that builds a long-term relationship of trust. Writing one is far from simple — it takes real preparation to achieve the goal (send the right message to the right person, at the right time). There is a straightforward set of steps that will guide you to an email readers want: the ABC rule.

A is for Audience:

Before you write a word, you have to know clearly who the audience is. What do they need, what are they paying attention to, what interests them, what problems do they have in their lives, how do they prefer to communicate? This work takes time. For how to segment your audience, see How to segment your market.

B is for Benefit:

Against that audience’s needs, spell out what benefit your product or service brings them — the principle of helping the reader reduce pain or increase pleasure. A story works well here, because stories create resonance. A usable story structure:

Why? Why did the customer come to you? What? What did you give them? How? How did it work? What if? What was the result? (a positive one, naturally)

Expressing the story as Why, What, How and What if makes it more complete, and satisfies the different ways people prefer to understand things.

C is for Call to Action:

Once readers resonate with your content, they are primed and need an action to respond with. So your email content must ask readers to respond. Through their participation you learn more about how they react — and understanding those reactions is what lets you build a long-term relationship effectively. For more on the call to action, see They are waiting for a chance to respond.

Follow the ABC rule and writing email stops being difficult. All that is left is laying out the facts. For the AIDA framework, see What kind of email content inspires readers and keeps them coming back?.