10 Jul Write Email Copy Like a Marketing Genius

There’s always a new study to fuel marketing strategy talk, but lately, most businesses are looking for email marketing help. The Listrak study revealed that in 2012, 41% of US adults made purchases in response to email, and the numbers continue to grow. That number has jumped even higher with the expansion of the mobile market. While having a powerful email hosting also benefits your campaign, you also want to make sure that your customers aren’t being spammed and will trust your email copy. Now 48% of emails on mobile are opened, and 52% of emails are opened on desktop computers.

82% of consumers open emails from companies.

Those numbers make businesses stand up and pay attention because it translates to visitors and eventual customers who want to purchase directly from your site. However, there are many uses for email marketing even if you don’t have an online store. You may want sign-ups for a new charity or you want to gain attention for a new event at a physical store location. Email marketing is great for a variety of a different scenarios.

Follow these tips to write amazing email copy that even your worst skeptic would click.

1. Write A Subject Line You Can Be Proud Of

Examples:

Give Me Five Seconds, and I’ll Give You Free Stuff

Want 50% Off On SSD This Saturday? Just Say Yes

How to Travel the World with No Money

The key to any email subject line is be quirky but clear. This means that your subject line must grab attention while also making sure that your audience understands what will be in the email copy. You can also add humorous note to the text of the email copy to intrigue readers further.

The above headlines are for a mixture of niches and target audiences. People like to open emails that have gifts. It can be any kind of gift. For instance, a joke is sometimes just as good of a gift as a 50% sale on women’s shoes. The gift should be clear from the subject line. In the first example, the gift is free stuff for little effort. The second example offers an amazing deal for this summer. The last is a guide on how to go around the world, which is something that most people think about daily, but for very little or no money.

When you write the email, make sure that you include the benefit or interest in the subject line. They will want to click on the subject line to find out more. You can use your own judgment of what’s a bad subject line. What emails would you never open? Likely, you wouldn’t really care about subject lines that are just too vague. For example, a subject line of “Don’t Miss Out” doesn’t really give the reader enough juicy details to bite into. It’s also an overused subject line. Unique subject lines that are personalized or interesting will invite attention from readers.

2. Short and Sweet is Quite Neat
When was the last time you opened your email and expected a novel? Let’s keep the novels to Kindle and write simple email copy. Your ideas and message must be short and focused. It should keep the attention of your target audience while also limiting the amount of time that they spend reading through your email copy. In general, you should keep your email copy to 200 words or less whenever possible. You should use bold or larger text for links and make sure that valuable information is prominent. Images and call-to-actions will help you more with your campaign.

If you have written an email, you can give it to a friend to do the three second test. The friend reads your email copy and tells you what it’s about in three seconds. If they can’t tell you what the email is about in three seconds, then you need to simplify it even more. Summarize the main message that you want to tell your reader and link to the bigger message so that they go to your blog or online store.

Bullet points, headings and bold fonts for key parts of your email copy will break up the text and make it easier to read. Also, make sure that your email copy is viewable on mobile devices since you know, 48% of emails are opened on mobile phones and tablets.

3. How to Personalize Emails
Unless it’s clear that you’re offering a major sale, no one likes to hear about a “special offer that’s just for you” has been sent to thousands of people. You can insert the name of the email recipient and also include a sentence about the person you’re reaching out to. For example, “We Know You Like Email Hosting, So Get Next Month On Us, Dave.” When you personalize an email, you might be using a template that automatically fills in the information for your contact, so it’s important that this information is pertinent and filled in for all fields. The most important aspect of this is that you spell the name correctly for the recipient.

4. Can You Read Your Own Email
Email copy should be kept simple, and it’s up to you whether you want to include images and formatting. While images allow you to break up text, many email clients block pictures for recipients as default, which means you need a mixture of images and text to promote whatever you are selling. You also want your recipient to be able to read and download the email quickly whether they are browsing on a desktop computer or mobile device. Emails that don’t load quickly or seem spammy will go to the trash folder. If you keep your email minimal with a simple header, logo and creative signature, you are likely going to attract more readers and click-throughs.

5. One Minute Proofread
Most customers are very picky about spelling and grammar. Email copy with mistakes in spelling, punctuation, syntax and grammar stand out as a red flag that you might not be an English speaker or that the email might be spam. Overall, it just confuses the message that you want to send to your readers. If writing is not a big part of what you do, you still need to be able to create quality copy for a successful email promotion. One way to get amazing email copy is through a freelance contract writer.

6. Do This Now…Please
You should create a sense of urgency with every email copy, but you don’t want to drown out the message with spam and call-to-actions. Even though you are tempted to throw all of your pitches into a single email, you should focus on a clear call-to-action. One amazing deal is better than a hundred pennies, so to speak. You also don’t want to ask too much of the reader as they won’t want to participate. You can create a new call-to-action and sense of urgency with the next email campaign. One way to create urgency would be through a limited time offer or a final notice email.

7. State Benefits of Products You Are Selling
While you probably want to focus on the highlights of the product, you should make it clear what all the benefits are for the reader. Most customers want to do know what they are going to get out of the deal. You can share how much time they’ll save with your product, how much better they will be or how much money they can save with a single call-to-action, but after that, you should include a bullet list with solid benefits in your email copy. Most readers skim emails for the juicy bits, so you should place emphasis on the top three concrete benefits of the product or service.

Writing email copy takes some skill to develop, but it’s easier when you know where to start. If you are using a dedicated email hosting service, then you can set up dynamic email campaigns and ensure that your message gets across to customers without looking like spam.