Whether you’re a master penman(/woman/person) or struggle to sling a coherent sentence together, you know the importance of effective communication – and nowhere is this more evident than in business.
You’ve already tried all different types of digital marketing, from building a flashy new website to setting up social media accounts on multiple different platforms, but you’ve likely been unable to escape the allure of email marketing. The numbers are clear: with over 4 billion daily email users worldwide, that’s a pretty big pool of reachable customers.
Although email marketing might seem simple on the surface, just like any digital marketing service, it’s tricky to do it well. Here, fancy graphics and cute layouts aren’t all that matter: you need to reach out to your audience with your words, and truly speak to them.
So, without further ado, let’s take a look at 6 tips for writing email marketing copy that works – end of story.
Tip # 1: Don’t underestimate the subject line
The subject line is the first place you can really grab your audience’s attention, so it’s extremely important not to squander it. First off, make sure it isn’t too long – yup, people’s attention spans are that short these days. On average, stick to 6-10 words per subject line, and really make them count.
Some email marketers like to use clickbait-y subject lines that might draw a subscriber in, but using them regularly can come across as disingenuous and gimmicky. The trick here is to put yourself in your audience’s shoes: what really makes them tick? What would motivate them to click on your email out of all the emails in their inbox? It may sound like over-thinking, but the subject line is quite possibly the most important part of your email – after all, if it’s not convincing or intriguing, no one will actually be reading the highly valuable, engaging email you’ve so lovingly crafted!
If all else fails, decide on your subject line after you’ve written the rest of your email. This means you’ll end up with a subject line that actually fits what you’ve written, and you won’t feel any stress about making your email fit the subject line.
Tip #2: Don’t forget who your audience is
As mentioned above, it’s extremely important to put yourself in your audience’s shoes when crafting an email campaign. This might sound basic, but you’d be surprised how often it gets forgotten. In fact, sometimes this goes beyond simply forgetting who an audience is: many business owners actually struggle with knowing who their audience is, to begin with!
So, without a doubt, one of the most important tasks before starting an email campaign, before you even write that first word of your first email, is to determine who your audience is, what their pain points are, and why they would be subscribed to your email list.
Keep in mind, your email marketing audience might only be a small subsection of your potential customers: yes, even in 2022 some demographics aren’t using email, or are unlikely to subscribe to marketing lists. Whenever you pivot your marketing to different platforms it’s extremely important to consider who generally engages with this platform, and how you can best cater it to serve their needs. Email marketing is no different, and it reflects in your copy. Make sure to write directly to your email marketing audience, and tailor your message to the platform. This type of customization takes time, but it’s certainly worth it when email marketing is such a valuable tool.
Tip #3: Keep it short and sweet
No one likes a rambler, and the same thing goes for B2C or B2B marketing. Think about it: how many times have you clicked away from an article or newsletter that has simply gone on and on without even showing a hint that it’s getting to the point? This is a marketer’s worst nightmare – and is, frankly, easily avoidable.
First, it’s important to know what you want to say. Don’t start writing an email without a clear picture of the main message in your head. More often than not, this is what leads to rambling, and, eventually, a massive loss of email subscribers. On the other hand, no one likes to sign up for an email campaign and simply be sold to all the time. Thus, it’s important to strike a balance between keeping your email copy succinct and valuable to your subscribers, while also serving a purpose for you and your wider marketing strategy.
A 70/30 balance is generally the best way to approach writing email copy: 70% of the email can be more conversational and/or “fluffy,” 30% should speak directly to the service or item you are selling. At the end of the day, use your best judgement when it comes to word count; after all, there is no magic number that instantly results in conversions.
Once again, put yourself in your audience’s shoes. They’re probably busy, with little time to spend on long emails. In fact, they might be more likely to open your emails again and again if they know they won’t take up too much of their time. So, use your words wisely, and make them serve a purpose to both you and your customers.
Tip #4: Edit, edit, edit!
It can be difficult to kill your darlings, but nothing can be more detrimental to an email marketing strategy than a poorly-edited, sloppy email.
Why waste all your time and effort on writing an email, and give little attention to editing? The fact of the matter is, it can be difficult to edit your own writing, particularly if you’ve spent a lot of time working on it. To avoid this, having someone else proofread and edit your work can be highly beneficial. In addition, it never hurts to have another set of eyes on your work, as they might spot something outside of grammar and vocabulary that you might have missed. Two heads truly are greater than one when it comes to writing, so it’s important not to skimp on this valuable step.
Tools like Grammarly can also catch basic grammar or syntax errors, but they shouldn’t be relied on solely. Nothing is quite the same as having another human take a look at your work and evaluate it from a potential customer’s perspective. In time you’re likely to become more comfortable crafting your email campaigns, but this tip is unskippable especially when you’re first starting out with email marketing.
Tip #5: Don't forget to personalize
Why not use technology to your advantage and speak directly to each and every member of your audience? Email marketing personalization includes weaving your subscriber’s first name into your copy or segmenting your subscribers into different lists depending on their interests.
Unsurprisingly, this type of personalization leads to subscriber retention as your audience feels spoken to and as if their time isn’t being wasted on parts of your email campaign that they aren’t interested in. It’s a no-brainer: more sophisticated marketing like this is more effective and more likely to lead to conversions.
Far beyond simply including subscribers’ first names in your text, personalization extends to your copy, too: use your email campaigns as a place to speak directly to your audience. An email inbox is much more personal than a website, which is open to anyone. You have to earn your right to be in your subscribers’ inbox, and a key way to do this is to know who they are and write directly to them.
It isn’t easy to understand your audience, but once you do, why not show it off a bit by letting them know you are aware of exactly who they are? These days, consumers don’t just want to be sold to, they want to identify directly with the brands they spend their money with – and what better way to make this happen than by telling them a thing or two they might not know about themselves?
Tip #6: Don’t waste your CTA
Just like the subject line is the first place you can really grab your audience’s attention, the CTA (or ‘Call to Action’) is the last place you can convert your audience.
Sure, you might have written a beautiful, persuasive, useful email, but if you don’t get your reader to potentially click away to your website or make a purchase, what have you really accomplished?
When using an email marketing platform like Mailchimp, it can be tempting to flood your audience with cute and catchy calls to action just because you can – but don’t fall into that trap!
Ultimately, it’s better to keep it simple with your CTAs, as they can often take your email from useful and interesting to pure sales mode pretty quickly.
Don’t clutter your emails with CTAs; instead, give your readers a clear button to click on at the end of your email. Ideally, your copy will have brought them almost to the precipice of conversion, and the CTA is only the cherry on top. Use your CTA to show your audience how your product or service can help or benefit them. Unfortunately, a simple “Buy Now” or “Download” no longer suffices – we’re now in the era of “Yes, I want to make my life easier” or “Sign me up for this free sample that will change my life!” This might seem cheesy on the surface, but it’s absolutely worth more than just a shot.
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There you have it, 6 tips that will simply revolutionize your email campaign copy! Think of it this way: with great power comes great responsibility, and reaching someone in their personal or work inbox can be extremely powerful.
That being said, how you use that power determines how effective your efforts will be. If you need a little bit of help with your email marketing strategy, or have some great ideas you just don’t know how to get off the ground, why not contact the digital marketing experts at TechWyse? You’re so close to email greatness, it’s time to take the leap!
