How Long Should Marketing Emails Be

Email is a huge part of any marketing strategy. If you do it correctly, your email marketing campaign will reach the right audiences and encourage them to buy your products or services. However, it’s even more essential that you learn how to create messages that convert and engage as email marketing gets more popular. Your copy has to have all of the information you want to share, but you have to present it correctly too.

One of the easiest ways you can go about this is by trimming your email’s length. If you’re not sure how long your marketing email should be, this is for you. We’re going to outline it for you below.

What’s the Ideal Email Length for Digital Marketing Purposes?

A large amount of people don’t read their emails like they do traditional print media. Instead of reading from left to right and reading every word, they scan the text. The readers’ eyes go over the images and copy following an “F” pattern. They are drawn to brightly colored calls to action or any parts of the email they find to be interesting. A lot of people will skip over any introductory sentences.

Once they open the email, a lot of people only spend a maximum of 60 seconds looking at the content. In turn, you only get a few seconds to capture their attention and get a click-through.

Subject Line Length – 28 to 50 Characters

Take a look at your email list before you write your subject line. Do most of them use smartphones? How many use a desktop or laptop device to open the emails? If you’re catering to a mobile audience, you should try to go for a shorter subject line. The title should be between 28 and 39 characters. Having a narrower range can increase your open rates.

Preheader Text – 40 and 100 Characters

If you’re not using preheaders, it’s a good idea to start. It allows you to pack in a lot of smaller details without taking up a huge amount of space. Some people keep them shorter at 40 to 50 characters, and they shouldn’t conflict with your main layout. Your preheaders can extend to 85 or 100 characters.

Email Text – 50 and 125 Words

You may believe that 125 words aren’t nearly enough to get your full marketing message across, and this could be the case once in a while. However, the fact is, having a brief copy will help you perform better. Generally speaking, email copy with 50 and 125 words can increase your response rates by a decent amount. If you want a list in your email, you can add bullet points. This will help you organize and separate your thoughts while preventing you from getting lost by adding too much detail.

Call to Action – 2 to 5 Words

The call to action should be the easiest thing for your readers to pick out in the email. You should try to make it short and sweet, and it should be action-oriented. This part of the email is usually formatted to be brighter, larger, and they use eye-catching fonts. You want the design to speak more than the words do, and having a two to five-word call to action is usually more than enough to get your point across while ensuring your readers don’t lose focus. Anything larger than this can look confusing or messy.

Contact Six Degrees Digital Media

Email readers are usually scanners, and some of your subscribers won’t read a word of any marketing email you send out. Instead, they’ll disregard the message if you fail to draw their attention, or they’ll skip to whatever part they’re interested in. You can adapt your strategy to fit low attention spans. This includes writing more impactful but shorter messages and incorporating eye-catching design elements.

So, try to keep your subject line between 28 to 50 characters, the preheader between 40 and 100 characters, the email copy between 50 and 120 works, and your call to action between 2 and 5 words. Doing so can help improve your click-through rate, and Six Degrees Digital Media is ready to set up a strategy session and help you flesh out the perfect email for your next marketing campaign. Contact us today, and our professional and experienced staff will be more than happy to help.

Published On: September 29th, 2021 / Categories: Email Marketing /