The 5 Best Email Copywriting Tips
Do you find yourself making less and less of an effort on emails as the day goes by? Yeah, me too. By noon you’ve skipped out on a signature or two, two hours later you’ve given up on any proofreading whatsoever, and by the end of the day your emails look like this:
Hey, we can all do better than that. Every time you send an email, you’re using your brand’s voice to communicate a piece of information – and that is not to be taken lightly. Investing in your marketing, no matter how small the effort, is guaranteed to give you a return on investment.
So when it comes to writing emails, what can you do to improve? How can you grab your reader’s attention, make sure people open your emails and answer them? How do you create truly effective emails that do exactly what they’re supposed to? Let’s explore.
Nail your subject line or you won’t stand a chance
You know how if a headline looks weird on a blog post you’ll just click off immediately? The same applies to emails. Your subject lines have the power to entice someone to click or encourage them to ignore. Here is what I recommend if you don’t want your leads and clients to press ‘delete’ even before they’ve had a chance to read your emails.
Keep subject lines under 6 to 10 words long
Be honest about what the email contains. Remember that anything that looks too exuberant might come across as spammy, and end up in the dreaded spam folder, which is where all email dreams go to die.
Create a hook that calls for curiosity, through a question or a bold claim
Use action verbs
Focus your efforts on the CTA (Call to Action)
An email without a CTA is devoid of all purpose. It’s like gathering a crowd of people somewhere and then not telling them why. Don’t do that. Your call to action will be the most important part of your email.
However, I would advise you not to just think about what you want your prospect to do. Think about what they want to achieve instead, and keep that in mind throughout the email. Before you write, make sure you have a clear picture in your mind of exactly who you’re writing to. Envision their needs, desires, goals, problems, plans and obstacles. That is who you’re writing to. Get that right, and you’ll be crafting an arrow in the form of an email, which will go right through your prospect’s heart and get them utterly hooked.
When writing your CTA, make sure you use active words. Be specific, so instead of saying: “Find out more”, say, “See how I got 10x more leads last week”. If it’s too vague, your prospects won’t know what they’re getting into, and won’t want to click.
Keep things short and sweet
We receive 120 emails per day on average, so no one’s got time for long-winded novels in their inbox. Remember that you’re battling against a huge influx of information and your goal is to stand out, not bore your prospects with endless paragraphs. The shorter the better – get your point across and nothing more. If you need a little help with that, this is the structure I usually follow:
A brief, friendly introduction that answers ‘who’ and ‘what’
Get right to the point and answer the ‘why’. Make it short
Add a few bits about the benefits, remember to think about your prospect’s needs and wants
Close with a strong CTA
Clarity first, relevancy second, catchiness third
“Lose 5 Lbs With This Revolutionary Method in Only Three Days I Promise It Works These Women Have Tested It And Want To Share Their Wisdom”
Erm, okay, that subject line went straight to spam. With quite a few years of emailing behind us, we’ve all learnt to spot the spam from a mile away. That’s why my recipe for being identified as a real person and not a bot is this:
Clarity first, relevancy second, and catchiness third.
Always prioritise clarity with email copywriting. You’ve got so little time to get your point across, make sure every single word has a use. I also think that when you’re taking the liberty of showing up in someone’s inbox, which is their private space, you should be clear on what your intentions are. I hate it when emails are sneaky.
Some of my best quick tips for email copywriting
Don’t put down your competitors, it’s not fair play, and there are so many better ways of exposing your features and benefits
Write what you know, that’s what will be the most believable
Use a question, it’s great for engagement
Make sure your email is harmonious with enough white space, short sentences, and polite introductions
Support your claims with facts and examples
Speak of realistic benefits
Include social proof by mentioning real success stories and use cases if applicable
Use bold statements with measurable milestones
Swap out negative words with positive ones (premium instead of expensive, different instead of wrong)
Keep things personal – I always prefer plain text instead of HTML. Make it feel like it was sent by a real human instead of a bot, it will skyrocket your conversion rates
Personalise your emails as much as you can
Don’t forget a good email signature with a photo of you if possible and social links
To finish things off and be absolutely sure you’ve written one hell of a winning email, make sure you can answer these questions:
Does your audience need your offering?
What needs does your audience have that need satisfying by your offering?
Do you clearly describe how your offering can help in this email?
Are your claims realistic to your audience?
Have you clearly explained your offering’s benefits and are they relevant to your audience?
Are there any words throughout your email that can be spared?
Is everything in your email absolutely true?
Have you prioritised clarity over catchiness?
Have you shown your audience that there’s no risk to clicking on the CTA?
Have you written a clear call to action that shows your audience why they should click?
Is your email easy and pleasant to read?
That’s it, folks. If you need any more copywriting help, reach out to me – I’m your next favourite copywriter and I craft winning emails on the daily. Book a free consultation with me to get the ball rolling.
