How to Write a Marketing Email That Converts

Today, we’ll share all the secrets to writing a highly effective marketing email that will get your target audience to take action.

1. Create a compelling email subject first

If you want better results regarding your email marketing copy, then the email subject line is the best place to start. Getting the subject line right can make all the difference between the recipients opening your email and engaging with it, ignoring it, deleting it, or even reporting it as spam. Learn more about email open rates.

People usually only open emails if they feel they will benefit from what’s inside. When writing your subject line, consider including compelling evidence as to why email subscribers should open your email in the first place. While it’s a lot to ask from a short subject line, it can be done by keeping it short, to the point, and in line with what’s in the email. 

2. Create the preview text

In most modern email clients and apps today, it isn’t just the subject line that recipients see before deciding whether your email will be worth opening. The preview text also plays an important part in email campaigns. This is a piece of text to tell recipients more about the email content.

The preview text will often show part of the first line of the email, so bear this in mind when you start writing and ensure that the first line is carefully crafted. The email preview text ranges from 35 to 140 characters depending on the email client used and whether it is viewed on desktop or mobile in some cases.

A great preview text can shoot your click-through rate to the moon and compel your email recipients to take action. Discover 10 great tips for an effective email marketing campaign. 

3. Write the marketing emails like you’re writing web copy

Writing email marketing copy is very similar to copywriting for the web. Just as you would if you were writing a website copy or a blog post, you must follow a logical structure, use short and easy-to-read paragraphs, and include one main idea per paragraph.

Large blocks of text are always best avoided, whether you are copywriting for the web or an email message. Consider using bullet lists and subheadings to make the email more scannable and easier for your email list to read.

If you’re looking for inspiration for your next email newsletters, subscribe to the biggest names in your industry for some catchy email ideas. Find out what to include in an outreach email. 

4. Get familiar with your audience

Before you start copywriting for email marketing, don’t skip the crucial step of getting to know your audience. When you know your audience well, you are in a better position to write email marketing copy that meets their needs and ultimately improves conversions.

When starting with email copywriting, it is a good idea to use the information that you have from web and social media analytics, along with interactions with your customers, to build buyer personas and get a better idea of the kind of email marketing copy that they are going to want to read. Learn about the main types of email accounts and how to verify email addresses.

5. Avoid spammy language

You might be excited about whatever you offer, but it’s best to make sure that you avoid using all caps or multiple exclamation marks in both the subject line and the body of your email. Not only is it pretty much the same as shouting at your customers, but it’s also a technique often used by spammers that might put some recipients right off opening the email altogether.

Not to mention, if you’re using all caps and lots of exclamation marks a lot, this could increase subscribers thinking your messages are spam and reporting it as such, which could harm your sender score and deliverability.

There are better ways to send blanket emails and there is one ultimate test that never fails. Once the email is finished, ask yourself if that’s the kind of email you’d open if it landed right in your inbox. While you can’t be sure this guarantees amazing results, it’s a good sanity check for your email strategy. 

6. Write for your readers

If your main aim with your email marketing is to write copy that readers will quickly engage with, then the best thing you can do is write like you’re a natural person. Be as conversational as possible and write from the perspective that you’re sitting across a room chatting with the recipient rather than using marketing speak and other jargon.

Even though you’re sending emails from a business, there’s no need to be boring. The best email marketing copywriters know this and use the emails they write and send to inspire emotions and imagination in their customers. Including interesting, relatable content will encourage subscribers to start building a relationship with your brand, ultimately leading to more conversions.

7. Use the right words

One thing will stand out more when you take the time to look at some of the best examples of email copywriting. The words you choose are very important to ensure that subscribers who open and read your emails have a good experience. Since you want to keep your marketing emails short and to the point, every word you use will count.

If you want to stir the imagination of your readers, invoke an emotional response in them and encourage them to take action after they read your email, there are a few key things you can do.

• Use literary techniques such as analogies to make the message more relatable for your potential customers.
• Use sensory words and adjectives throughout your email marketing to help readers see and feel the picture you’re painting with the message.
• Use powerful words throughout your entire email, from the subject line to the calls to action.
• Avoid making false promises and using other questionable marketing techniques.

8. Know your goals

Before you write your email marketing copy, it’s important to have a single goal in mind for each email. Doing this will make it easier for you to be more focused on your marketing copy. One goal is usually better than having several, as it gives you something to focus on and build your email copy around.

Remember that selling something might not be your primary goal for every marketing email. Some emails might aim to increase engagement, for example, or encourage visitors to click through to your social media profiles or blog.

Moreover, there are plenty of emails that really need to go out but don’t move the needle for sales at all. For example:

 – transactional emails

– confirmation emails

– newsletter emails

– promotional emails for future product launches

– and others.

Make sure to create relevant content based on the purpose of the email. If an email is meant to remind someone that their order is shipped, don’t try to sneak in some limited time discounts or special offers. One email purpose at a time.

9. Use psychology

Human brains tend to react in predictable ways, which is why the best email marketing copywriters will keep psychology in mind when creating successful email marketing campaigns with a high conversion rate. Some psychology-related factors to keep in mind when writing your marketing emails include:

• Colour choices: Different colours can convey different feelings and elicit different reactions, which you can use in call-to-action buttons and other elements of your marketing emails.
• Social proof: This can be used to let your readers know that people like them are interested in your brand and think it’s excellent, which can encourage them to read your emails.
• Fear of missing out: Nobody likes the idea of missing out or losing out on something they could have had, which is why this is often such a popular tactic for email marketers. Time-limited discounts, for example, tend to work quite well when it comes to getting people to act.
• Pictures: Photos or even drawings of faces can be an ideal addition to your marketing email copy, as they can elicit emotions or even direct the reader’s gaze to where you want it to be focused, such as on a call-to-action button. 

10. Ensure relevancy

When copywriting for email marketing, you must be relevant and targeted rather than writing something generic. You can use your buyer personas to develop different segments that you can focus on, but don’t stop there. Within segments, you’ll also often find smaller segments, which you can use to target the copy you write even further.

Ultimately, writing targeted copy will lead to further personalisation for readers, resulting in improved open and clickthrough rates. One of the best copywriting tips is to try and write for a single reader rather than an entire audience list.

This is an easy way to write convincing emails as you’ll stay away from cookie-cutter email templates used for mass campaigns. 

11. Align everything

The best email marketing copy will ensure that everything is aligned well. The copy within the message should be aligned with whatever is promised in the subject line, and the email will deliver on what the reader has already seen on the landing page or opt-in form where they signed up.

When the copy aligns, and everything is delivered as promised, this is one of the simplest ways to build trust with readers. Ultimately, they know what they are getting and what to expect. Over time, this leads to an increase in clickthrough and open rates.

Your email marketing copy can be the difference between readers deleting or bouncing off your emails and taking the time to read, engage, and perform the actions you’re hoping for. 

Wrapping up

Creating a captivating marketing email can be a lot more complicated than it seems. With all the different email elements, email marketing software to choose from, calls to action, split testing… It’s understandable why some marketers neglect email as a channel entirely.

However, email still has the highest return on investment out of all the marketing channels out there and is definitely worth your time and effort.

To do it right though, you have to know one thing – email deliverability matters. To make sure yours is through the roof, use Bouncer!

With our app, you can clean up and validate your lists so that you’re only sending emails to real people. No more hard bounces and all of your email metrics will look spotless.

Sign up now to get started!

Frequently asked questions

Is email marketing really all that effective?
Depending on the source, each dollar spent on email should yield about $40 and more in return. However, this is just a blanket statement and depends on how good your email marketing content is, what your product offerings are and more. In essence though, the ROI is pretty good compared to channels such as Facebook ads. 

What is the best way to get started with email marketing?
Start building a list of your own and sending out emails a few times per month. Create a lead generation form and find ways to get new leads from your website. Once you have a sizeable list, you can get email marketing software for market segmentation, split testing and more.