Marketing is one of the most important aspects of any business, and in today’s world, the classic marketing methods of the past simply won’t cut it.
You can’t rely on print ads and local newsletters to get the word out about your business; you have to go digital instead, with the likes of social media marketing and email marketing being the cornerstone of any 21st-century campaign.
Email marketing is a particularly effective way to reach your customers and generate new leads, as well as keeping loyal customers around and updated on your latest products and services.
However, with literally billions of spam emails being sent, received, and deleted every single day, trying to ensure that your messages even get read in the first place can feel like a real challenge.
This is why it’s vital to understand every part of the email marketing process, especially in terms of the copy you use in your messages.
From eye-catching subject lines to grab the reader’s attention to effective call-to-actions that will actually generate calls and clicks, this guide will cover some top tips for writing the very best email copy you possibly can.
01. Subject Lines Are So Important
There’s no point in having an incredible copy in the body of your email if you don’t have a good subject line. Even the best-written CTAs will be useless if people’s eyes aren’t being drawn to the header of your email and given a reason to actually open them up and take a look inside.
This is why all email marketing campaigns need to begin with effective subject lines. You only get a few words to grab the reader’s attention here, so they need to be effective. Proven strategies include making use of ‘fear of missing out’ (FOMO) headlines and straightforward headlines.
02. Perfect Your Preview Text
As well as getting the right subject line, you also need to make sure that the preview text – the brief section of text that shows up in a person’s inbox as a preview of your email – is also just as enticing and interesting, giving them the desire to read on.
This basically means that the first line of your email needs to be effective, crafted with a lot of care by experienced copywriters and marketing experts. Remember that preview text maxes out at about 140 characters, so each one must be used with care. Starting off with a question or personal message is a good method.
03. Strike the Right Tone
Tone is absolutely key for email marketing. As email marketing specialists Ardent Growth explains, “Your tone can make or break your campaign.
You have to know who you’re talking to when you write to them. Your tone should change depending on the recipient’s role and current engagement with your brand.”
So, when it comes to writing your email marketing copy, you’ll need to take some time to really think about who you’re talking to. Are you writing messages for loyal customers who have been around for a long time? A warm and friendly tone may play well in this case.
If you’re trying to attract new lines, something more upbeat and focused can be effective.
04. Follow Web Standards
When you’re writing email copy, you can mostly follow the same basic standards you would use when writing content for the web, such as blog posts and articles. So if you’re experienced in this kind of writing, you can simply use your usual techniques.
Examples of these techniques include keeping paragraphs short and snappy, making use of bullets and subheadings to break up your text, and following a simple, logical structure from start to finish, with a CTA at the bottom of the page. Essentially, your text needs to be easily scannable for a busy reader.
05. Avoid Spam Traps
Ultimately, when you’re writing marketing emails, you have to acknowledge the fact that many readers might simply see them as spam at first.
After all, as stated above, billions of spam emails get sent out daily and countless marketing emails fall right into the spam folder, with all those messages blending together and often getting mass deleted by frustrated users. “To avoid this, lots of companies have integrated DMARC setup strategies which help verify emails.
In order to help your emails stand out, try to avoid falling into the typical ‘spam traps‘ like writing the subject line in all caps or adding lots of exclamation marks into your emails. Nobody wants to feel like they’re being shouted at in their inbox, after all, and it will make your emails more likely to get reported.
06. Be Unique and Emotive
The average person will receive a long list of marketing emails on a daily basis, and they’ll usually have neither the time nor the inclination to read through all of them.
They’ll be even less likely to read the ones that feel like they were written by robots, without any emotion or any kind of unique story to the text whatsoever.
If you want your emails to get read and engaged with, write them on a personal level, as though your recipient is sitting at the table across from you and you want to tell them something to captivate their attention. Make use of conversational text, share witty stories, and maybe add in a little humor to make your emails seem more relatable.
07. Personalize Your Messages
Another great way to connect with readers and avoid the trap of making your emails sound too robotic and automated is to make them personal. This means actually using customer names, as long as you know them, and even adding in your own name too, rather than just using the brand or business name.
This approach can help readers feel more connected to you, and as they start to feel more connected, they’ll also be more likely to take an interest in whatever you happen to be selling. In the end, it can help to generate a lot more leads.
Final Word
Email marketing can be very effective, but without the right copy and proper preparation, your campaigns can struggle to have any kind of impact. Follow these tips to get the best emails out to your followers.
