10+ Email Copywriting Tips to Make You Write Like a Pro
By: Maiza Razzaq
Tags: Email Marketing Tips, Copywriting, Email Copywriting, Writing Emails, Copywriting Tips

Do you know with every $1 spent on the email marketing, you could generate $42?Moreover, as per stats, active email users are expected to reach 4.3 billion in 2023. Such a huge potential, indeed.

However, the following stats are telling another side of the story!

Source: Giphy.com

According to the latest research, the average open rate of email is only 18%. Yet, the click-through rate is as low as 2.6%!

It means to fully leverage this promising line of communication email marketers have to put special attention to email copywriting best practices.

After all, it is…

The backbone of email marketing - primarily focused to persuade potential customers.

Hence, to set sales on fire, an email copywriter should be skilled enough to optimize each email component, that are:

Subject line

Preview text

Body

Call to action — CTA

Well, before you start to think — Do I have to be a wordsmith?

No way! In fact, a simple writing style, and implementing tested and proven email copywriting strategies, would make you skilled enough to perform up to the mark.

I guess, it is time to end the suspense and get straight into leveling up the email copywriting game. But wait, in addition to optimizing the 4 email components, we would discuss the research part first.

Ultimately,

Research is to see what everybody else has seen, and to think that nobody else has thought. (Albert Szent)

1. Extensive Research — Foundation Of Effective Email Copy

Before starting to write an email, you must be clear in your mind for whom you are going to write it? Because every subscriber would not be at the same point in the buyer’s journey.

Here, a marketing funnel becomes handy to categorize the audience.

Source: X-cart.com

The email marketing funnel works in the same way. Buyers residing at:

Awareness stage need valuable information.

Consideration stage need compelling points to consider your products/services.

Conversion stage need an irresistible offer to choose your business over the competitors.

No, it doesn’t stop there. After making a purchase, your emails must be engaging enough to maintain higher retention rates.

Remember, gaining a new customer could cost you 5x more than retaining an existing one. Thankfully, in-depth research saves that cost.

The bottom line: Come up with a precise buyer persona to address their pain point effectively. The more deeper you will go, the better results you will get.

2. Email Copywriting Tips to Craft Enticing Subject Lines

Email subject lines work more or less in the same way as blog headlines. The whole purpose of them is to convince a reader to click.

Provide Bird Eye View of An Email

What is the first thing you read when buying a book? Needless to say, “its title.” The same is the case with subscribers. They judge what is in the email by reading the subject line.

Write Clear and Short Subject Line

So, summarize the whole email story in the short subject line as they tend to work better. To make them fully visible, confine them between 6–10 words.

By clear and simple summarization, your email body and the subject line would be aligned. Hence, readers will set the right expectations at first sight.

Mention Subscriber’s Name and Location

In addition to sending emails as per potential buyers’ interests, you could personalize them more by using the subscriber’s names. Likewise, making emails location-centric also works better.

Tip: Sometimes, playing with humorous subject lines serves the purpose better. It mostly happens in case of cold email copywriting. Because such headlines offer sufficient intrigue to read further.

Play With Psychological Tricks

Curiosity

What makes you keep going through novels, or movies? One emotion — “curiosity.” So, use this trick. Make the email headline simple and clear but with the spice of suspense. In this regard, asking a question could be helpful.

Source: Gifer.com

Fear & Pleasure

Fear and pleasure are among the most powerful emotions that drive human actions. Hence, experienced email copywriters often use them by creating a sense of urgency or providing an irresistible incentive, etc.

3. Email Copywriting Tips to Write Alluring Preview Text

For simplicity, you could relate email preview text to meta-descriptions. Being the extension of subject lines, they give us room to describe more about an email.

Have you ever noticed?

Multiple SERPs appear; but, the ones with compelling headlines and meta descriptions win the competition. The same is the case here.

Thus, you should treat preview text as a call to action for opening emails.

Give Subscribers a Strong Reason — Why

Give your potential customers a solid reason to open your email.

Stating the email importance makes it clear why they should open this specific email “now”.

Likewise, highlighting your major offering — a discount or free valuable resource, could do wonders.

4. Email Copywriting Tips to Write Engaging Email Body

Now, the subscriber has clicked the email. The next part is to hold on their attention till the last word.

Hone Personalization

Make the reader feel like this email isn’t for the crowd but them specifically.

Relevant Stuff

Good email copywriters keep the email highly relevant to the subject. Therefore, whatever you add — story or stats, keep them aligned with the core purpose.

Use Subscribers Name

Apart from using the subscriber’s name in the subject line, you could also sprinkle it one or more times in longer emails. It creates a strong emotion of 1-to-1 conversation.

Likewise, applying a second-person style of writing makes email reader-centric. In return, this conversational tone grasps their attention for longer.

Pro Tip: Trigger-based emails are highly personalized thus creates better results. For instance, if the website visitor has abandoned the cart then sending an email right away could make them complete the shopping. So, don’t forget to make these emails thoroughly compelling.

Address Benefits & Objections

As a copywriter, you must convert features into benefits. Readers don’t care even if your XYZ product/ service has hundreds of features. All they care about is — what can they “get” by using it. Hence, make it clear.

Just like stating benefits, pay special attention to objections as well. Because leaving your readers with “but” would lead your business nowhere.

Get into your potential buyer’s shoes to analyze their potential pain points. It creates a deeper connection and makes them feel — this business understands me.

However, if you feel like the email is running longer, placing a link would be beneficial to cover this part.

Easy Readability

Unlike reading print, in digital reading, readers want to get as much information as possible in a shorter period. Therefore, make your email easily readable.

Easy to Understand Language

Keep your language simple. Be creative, but don’t make readers bang head against a wall.

Source: MakeAGIF.com

However, while writing for a B2B audience the use of industry jordans is fine.

Short Paragraphs

Short paragraphs composed of 2–3 sentences work well in digital content. It doesn’t make the reader feel overwhelmed and also conveys the point properly.

Conciseness

In this fast-paced era, no one is interested to read fluff. Thus, cover the whole theme of your email concisely.

Evoke the Reader's Senses

In the writing world, it is common advice, “show not tell.” Why so? Because it helps to create a scene in the readers’ minds. This tactic makes the writing exceptionally engaging. Hence, use sensory words to evoke readers’ senses.

Some examples are,

Messy hair, cackling laughter, flowery smell …

Have you noticed how these words have embed imagery, make you hear the sound, and smell a flower? Well, it is the power of words!

Source: Giphy.com

However, if you want to level up this game, Google the VAK learning model.

VAK Learning Model

What the hell is that? Relax, it simply divides people into three major categories of learners:

Visual learners — their primary source of absorbing information is the sight

Auditory learners — absorb information by sound mainly

Kinaesthetic learners — they absorb information through touch largely

So, sprinkling the sensory vocabulary listing of all of these categories could make email copy engaging for more or less every reader.

Moreover, you could also use videos, audio, and sensational words to cater to all these categories.

5. Email Copywriting Tips to Make Your CTA Irresistible

Finally, it is time to work on the masterpiece of email copywriting — CTA. Make it stand out from the rest of the copy.

Decent Button

To make your CTA effortlessly noticeable you could place a decent button.

Color Psychology

Mastering color psychology would help you to win higher click-through rates.

For instance, purple is more attractive for female audiences. Contrarily, for men black works better. Moreover, they also trigger different emotions.

Persuasive Text

Text written for the CTA is also of much importance.

For example,

Well-known gurus’ CTA stating “get my samples” has more power than simply stating “get samples.”

Conclusion:

By now, you have built a strong foundation to evolve your email copywriting skills. If implemented, they would definitely increase email open and click-through rates for your or your clients’ business. All the way leading to higher ROI and a huge success.

Good luck!