Hey, hold on! I see it in your eyes: you’re rushing to skim your way into the tips on elevating your email reader engagement with micro-content.
Show me the person who doesn’t gallop these days, whipped by busyness and overwhelmed by informational floods.
73%—that’s how many of us prefer to scan blog posts rather than fully read them, according to HubSpot’s research.
Just like you or any other busy and impatient article reader, email readers are also skimming enthusiasts with scarce attention spans. Rather than slowly soaking up information word by word, they crave brief and crisp “bites” to chew and digest as fast as possible, never losing a second. The same report states that 56% skim email content instead of consuming it thoroughly.
As you understand, brevity should become your best friend in email marketing. So, you need to befriend micro-content to snare and hold your audience’s attention (even for a few seconds) via email. What’s that, and how can you create engaging emails for your subscriber list with micro-content?
Sorry, this is not a pocket-size guide. But I’ll try to divert you from yawning with illustrative examples.
What Is micro-content in email marketing?
Email micro-content is any short-form piece of textual, audial, or visual information inserted into electronic messages with a consumption time no longer than half a minute (yep, only 30 seconds). It may also act like a pointer or a lead-in to a longer content piece or a teaser to pique the reader’s interest.
For example:
DotDigital often uses micro-content in emails to introduce its lengthy downloadables. In the screenshot below, the brand gives a sneak peek to encourage the email reader to interact with the long-form guide.
In most marketing emails, its major purpose, though, is not to draw audiences into interactions but to eventually drive their buying behaviors. First, convince, then convert into buyers.
Types and examples of captivating micro-content in emails
Ok, I’ll spill the truth from the very beginning:
Creative email marketers can use anything as engaging micro-content. It can be a short story, an image, or an audio file (only if it doesn’t take longer than 30 seconds to consume, remember?).
But let’s review the most powerful micro-content for emails and explore how different companies incorporate them successfully into their email marketing strategies.
Infographic
Infographics systematize and visualize large amounts of data in a graphic format. Such micro-content compressed into one image is highly understandable and digestible.
For example:
Look at this infographic shared by Cockpit with email subscribers.
Non-designers, don’t panic! You can turn to Canva, Visme, or Venngage to design infographics for emails.
One-click game
Again, show me the person who wouldn’t want to play and win (e.g., a discount, bonus, or ticket to the event). And all that with a single click!
So, how about boosting your email engagement rates with gamification and one-click games in particular?
Depending on what game type you choose, this engaging micro-content for emails may be accompanied with calls-to-action (CTAs) like these:
- Spin the wheel
- Play the game
- Scratch the card
- Guess the word
- Hit play and win
- Solve the puzzle, etc.
For example:
Below is a scratch-off-to-win game created by Bobbi Brown Cosmetics for a Mother’s Day email.
Customer review
For Sergey Taver, Marketing Manager at Precision Watches, customer reviews are “small yet efficient micro-content drops for higher email engagement.”
Now, let this fact marinate for a moment in your mind: 87% of consumers confess that online reviews drive their purchase decisions.
Taver notes, “The key here is to select shorter reviews consisting of a few lines so as not to make them too time-consuming to read. Another tactic we stick to is sending reviews in moderation (ideally, once every five emails).”
Here’s an example from Precision Watches.
Video clip
What can be more alluring and sticky than short videos? (I take this opportunity to give a sympathetic, I’m-just-like-you hug to all TikTok addicts like myself.)
Let alone when it’s snackable and delivers the needed information in seconds.
People are keener than ever on interactive video content. Eight out of ten (81%) want more interactive videos from brands. This sentiment is even higher among Gen Z (93%).
You can actually give your email audiences what they expect from you. Send a video through email by making it a clickable thumbnail image that redirects the reader to your YouTube channel or website, just like BumbleandBumble did while offering to see the scrub in action.
Alternatively, check out how Keyhole embedded an in-app screen recording as a video instruction for email subscribers.
Bullet list
Although mentioned last in this selection, bullet lists are perhaps the most widespread form of micro-content for engaging email audiences. This is thanks to their visual distinctness (typically formatted as bullet points), scannability, and conciseness.
Here are several ideas for bullet lists in your emails:
- Product/service benefits
- New features
- Key takeaways from a report or meeting
- Survey or poll results
- X steps to ____
- FAQs, etc.
For example:
Wizz Air enumerated a list of advantages of the MultiPass subscription in the following email.
Btw, have you noticed how Wizz Air stayed on-brand and enhanced its visual identity with tiny airplane icons instead of bullet points? A smart move, isn’t it?
How to increase email engagement with micro-content
Keep reading and grab some expert tips to help you effectively use micro-content in email marketing.
Convey brevity upfront in the subject line.
Let’s say you have already prepared short-form content for email. What next?
Your task now is to write a subject line that will get it opened first. How exactly? The reader should think, “This looks like a brief content piece. It won’t take much time,” and then open the email.
Look at several examples of subject lines hinting at micro-content inside:
- Summer garden hosting checklist (an infographic from Serena & Lily)
- Quick tip: Pause trackers when not in use (a short video from Keyhole)
- A short guide to Jedi mind tricks (a list of sales hacks from NetHunt)
At this point, Jonathan Feniak, General Counsel at LLC Attorney, cautions against untruthful subject lines tricking your subscribers into opening emails. “For instance,” he says, “when you use phrases like ‘quick checklist’ or ‘bite-sized guide’ in your email subject lines, make sure you give what you promise. Don’t deceive the reader with a promising subject line for the email that doesn’t provide corresponding content.” He says it may be interpreted as an unethical and, in some cases, illegal marketing practice.
Animate your visuals.
A GIF a day keeps your email engagement headache away.
This tweaked an-apple-a-day proverb explains it best.
Let it be an animated image for a welcome email, like in Zoom’s greeting below.
Or for a holiday newsletter campaign, just like this 4th of July email animation from Postable.
Thanks to dynamism, animated GIFs in emails are super-active catalysts of interactivity, breathing life into visual micro-content. They uplift click-through rates by 42% and conversions by 103%.
Yet, there’s something more animations and motion graphics can offer your email audience.
In the words of Reyansh Mestry, Head of Marketing at TopSource Worldwide, “A positive emotion evoked by a GIF goes a long way in email marketing. Take a viral meme or humorous episode from a well-known movie or cartoon, customize it, and bingo—you have an entertaining and unforgettable animation to captivate your email reader.”
Look at this one from Column Five, which was taken from the Friends series.
Shorten your lists to five (seven at most) items.
Back to the lists, shall we?
When it comes to formatted lists, bulleted or any other format, Gary Hemming, Owner & Finance Director at ABC Finance, believes, “The shorter the list—the better.” He explains, “People’s ability to process information depends on three psychological principles related to attention, cognition, and memory. Based on those, keeping lists up to 5 to 7 items increases the likelihood that the email recipient will actually read them till the end and makes this type of micro-content in emails more engaging and effective overall.”
Let’s break down the three psychological tricks Hemming refers to.
- Attention → The shrinking attention span: the median is 40 seconds.
- Cognition → The “chunking” theory: to reduce the cognitive load, our brain chunks data into manageable units (typically 5 to 9 chunks).
- Memory → The rule of seven or Muller’s Law: the average person can hold around 7 items in their working memory at a time.
For example:
Here’s a newsletter from Bonobos, sharing a list of “The 5 Items You Can’t Live Without.”
Go from micro to nano and substitute words with emojis.
Have you ever thought of using nano-content in emails? And how about making your email language more emoji-ful?
Brooke Webber, Head of Marketing at Ninja Patches, suggests paying extra attention to the tiniest elements she calls “nano-content” to improve your email engagement rate:
- Preheaders
- CTA buttons
- Pictograms
- Symbols
- Emoticons, etc.
Webber shares how emojis are prioritized in their emails. “Tiny icons like emojis often render more meaning than words, so we use them whenever possible to replace the text in email.”
For example:
Instead of time-consuming survey questions, the Ninja Patches team uses a smiley face rating scale to ask for customer feedback by email.
Add micro-content to your signature or sign-off.
Singing off and leaving your email signature without compelling micro-content?
Tut-tut…
Chris Aubeeluck, Head of Sales and Marketing at Osbornes Law, remarks, “Your signature is your last chance to engage your email subscribers if the prior content failed. I’d recommend filling it with a branded image containing your corporate logo and contact details to make your company more memorable and reachable.”
Here’s an example from one of the Osbornes Law solicitors.
Alternatively, consider other micro-content for your signatures or sign-offs.
For example:
After closing the email with “Big Love,” Ruby Raut, CEO of WUKA, leaves clickable circle-shaped images linking to WUKA’s product categories, such as Pregnancy, Periods, Sports, etc.
Carry out A/B tests regularly.
What are those for, you may ask?
A/B testing for email marketing implies creating two versions of an e-letter that differ in one element (in our case, it’s a micro-content type) and determining which version performs better.
Let’s assume you aim to promote your SaaS product via email and A/B test your micro-content like this.
- Email A highlights the key benefits of the new software feature in the bullet list format.
And
- Email B includes a 20-second demo of the new software feature in action in the video format.
The greatest part about running A/B tests in the era of digital transformation?
For Erin Acheson, VP of Business Intelligence at ZeroEyes, it’s automation powered by AI. “Years ago, email marketers were bare-handed and had to run A/B tests manually. Today, AI tools automate and optimize the whole process, from segmenting email subscribers to analyzing results to predicting what will be more engaging in future campaigns.”
And guess what?
AI-driven A/B tests are coming soon to GetResponse, an all-in-one email automation platform!
While you’re waiting:
Don’t snooze—Let GetResponse help you engage your email audience
GetResponse offers an AI subject line generator and email templates for every need, with customization features for any micro-content!
Wanna test those right now? Try them all free and keep your email subscribers engaged with GetResponse, watching over your emails’ performance.