Optimizing email content you provide your subscribers and customers with every day is such an important part of email marketing.

Maximizing your profits and effectively communicating to your audience is a huge part of being successful in business. Without quality content, email marketing would be dead. There would be no reason to email as you would have nothing to engage, educate and persuade your audience with. Without it, you can’t convert them into paying or loyal customers.

Here are 3 key points to consider when optimizing email content:

Key #1 – Your Content Must Be Value-Driven

The point of emails is always to find ways to educate and add value to your subscribers’ life. Education is the best way to persuade or direct your audience to make a purchase. You don’t need to and shouldn’t constantly be selling to them. Often, if the title looks like an obvious sales pitch, they are unlikely to open.

Statistics show that only about one out of every four sales emails gets opened. And I know that personally, I very rarely open sales pitch emails unless they’re from my friends and I want to see what they’re up to.  

However, if your readers know that they will gain value every single time they open your email, they won’t want to leave. They understand that you need to sell products or services at the end of the day to see a return on investment. If they find value in your content, products, and services, it will come around. In other words, don’t make sales your only point of focus.

It’s the main reason I put the articles first in my newsletters. You get the information I have to share, before the deals. And if the format is always the same, then you know exactly what you’re going to get when you open my daily emails.

So, that’s the first thing I do when optimizing email content. I put the value content first, and (almost) always use the same format.

Key #2 – Your Email Must Be Engaging and Personable

All of your content should be engaging and personable. This means your readers feel like they are talking to a human and are forming a connection with you. It inspires or drives them to take action and makes them feel more involved or important while reading your email. The more interactive and humanized the content, the more trust, and credibility you establish that grows your audience and conversions.

I will tell you from experience, this takes practice. Unless you’re already a skilled copywriter, creating engaging content and putting yourself out there doesn’t come easy. But the more you do it, the easier it gets and your audience will appreciate knowing that you’re not perfect right out of the gate too!

Key #3 – There Must Be Some Personalization in Your Emails

You may feel like you can’t write. But here’s the thing… if you write as if you are talking to a friend or loved one, you’ll do better. Write how you speak and edit later. This really works. I used to think it was a crock of s**t, but the more you do it, the easier it gets (yes I’m repeating myself) and it gives your audience the one thing they can’t get anywhere else… YOU!

This is really the ultimate in optimizing email content for your readers. Giving them a piece of you and your energy in your emails is what is going to build the relationship between you and them.

Aside: My friend Angela Wills is really good at the writing to your friends thing, and she shows you how to do it in her Email Practice Club*.

Some email marketers say too that the automated personalized features in your autoresponder like adding their name goes a long way. I’m not so sure I agree with that. Most people know that they’re getting an automated newsletter, and not a one-off email written to them personally.

My personal preference is to not use automation, so that when I do start your email with a personalized greeting, you know I’m writing to you and no one else.

Final Thoughts

Think about these three keys when you’re creating and optimizing email content. Even if you’re using PLR as the base of your content, there are ways to add value, be engaging and put some of yourself into the content. The bottom line is you want your audience to read the content you’re creating, so they click on your links and buy what you’re selling.  

*Note: This post includes affiliate links, for which I will receive a small commission should you make a purchase.