7 Sources of Email Marketing Content

Email marketing can be a very effective marketing tool, and we have recently discussed the mistakes responsible for poor email marketing performance, how to create an effective email subject line, and even what annoying things to eliminate from your email newsletter, in an attempt to help you with your email marketing efforts. While these tips can really help improve your email marketing, what do you do if you are having trouble coming up with content? If your email marketing is starting to sound repetitive or if you are struggling to come up with fresh ideas we are going to help spark some simple creativity.

Often times you can find great content for your emails at the tips of your fingers. Before you just throw together content you need to step back and think about what your ultimate goal is. What do you want to accomplish through your email marketing? Are you looking to just build brand awareness and share success stories or are you trying to generate leads? If you are just trying to spread brand awareness then your content doesn’t necessarily need to link back to your site, but if you are trying to generate prospects you will want to link back to an offer that requires a form submission to access.

Here are eight sources of email marketing content that you can tap into for your next campaign.

1. Hot Industry Topics

You should be monitoring the news within your industry and be ready to react when breaking news hits. If there is big news that would be of interest to your targeted list then send out an email with the scoop. You can touch on the subject and also provide your own insight.

Your audience will want to hear the news and if you are the one to deliver it to them they will view you and your brand as a trusted source of information. This is a great way to build brand awareness and trust.

2. Social Media Activity

Take a look at your Facebook and Twitter pages and see what your followers and customers are asking. Do you notice a trend or a specific question that is being asked on a regular basis? If you see the same question asked multiple times there is a very good chance that a large percentage of your target audience will have the same questions. You will want to answer their questions on social media, but you can also address frequently asked questions in your email marketing newsletter as well.

3. Your Most Popular Website Content

You should already be tracking the success of your content, so identifying your most successful pieces shouldn’t take long at all. You need to determine what kind of content your website visitors respond the best to. What generates the most social shares? What kind of content keeps your visitors on your website for the longest period of time? Taking what works and transferring that over to your email marketing effort is a recipe for success.

If you aren’t actively tracking all of your content performance then jump into your analytics account and see what pages on your site have received the most traffic over a specific period of time. It is a good idea to use the traffic results over the past 30 days in order to really understand what your audience is responding well to at the current moment.

4. Blog Comment Discussion

Just like the second point above, your blog’s comment section can be a hotbed for email content suggestions. Now, not all blogs will enable the commenting option, but if you allow them you can usually quickly identify some great email marketing topics by reading through the comment discussion.

5. FAQ’s

Speak to your sales force and ask them to identify the most frequent questions they are asked by potential customers. Your sales team is in direct contact with your target audience. Identify the common questions they are asking and address them via your email marketing. If you can answer a consumers potential question without them having to ask it will greatly increase your conversion rate.

6. Top Content on Industry Blogs

You will want to mix in some emails that are not promotional, and just provide information that your audience will appreciate and enjoy. Identify the top blogs and websites within your industry and read them on a regular basis. If you see good pieces of content that you believe your audience would benefit from then take note of the URL. Keep a collection of great content pieces and when you are struggling to think of an email marketing topic to send out or if you need more content for an email you can link to these pieces. You can also add in one or two “recommended industry readings” to each email. This will help to dilute the email if it is overly promotional.

7. Happy Customers & Success Stories

Use your satisfied customers as examples and discuss their success that was a result of your product or service. A general explanation as well as some testimonial quotes from the individual can do a great job of helping you build trust with your audience. Make sure that they come across as genuine and don’t read like an advertisement.

Use these tips to make sure that you always have email marketing content ready to send and adhere to a schedule. If you slack off and even skip one week you can lose the interest of your audience.

Read more:

• Need Content for Your Emails? Repurposing to the Rescue
• Best Email Marketing Software – Best Email Marketing Services for your Business