Email marketing remains one of the powerful digital marketing mediums, offering businesses an open channel to communicate with their audience. Yet, as the average person receives hundreds of emails every day, creating email copy that stands out and drives engagement and conversion is not always easy. In this article, we’ll discuss best practices for email copywriting that entices, engages and changes the reader.
Attracting Attention
When creating effective email content, the first step is to engage the recipient. It’s crucial to use a compelling subject line, as it’s often the first thing the reader sees and often determines whether or not the email is opened. Here are some tips for writing an effective subject line:
Keep it simple: Your subject line should be a minimum of 50 characters (excluding spaces). This helps make it easier to read and not get interrupted when using a mobile device.
Give details: If the subject line is too vague or generic, it will not grab the reader’s attention. Rather, use targeted language that reflects the offer or announcement.
Adopt action words: Verbs and action words convey urgency and can inspire the reader to read the email.
Personalize: Subject lines customized (e.g.
Once the subject line is created, the body of the email should start with a compelling headline that encourages the reader to keep reading.
Engaging the Reader
After a reader has opened the email, the challenge becomes to retain their attention. To achieve this, the email body should read:
Straight to the point: Use easy words and sentences. Keep the reader out of the knot of technical jargon.
Attuned to the reader: Language should reflect the interests and needs of the reader, not the business or product. Be “you” and “your” more often to build a more intimate relationship.
Sightly: Use images, subheadings, and bullet points to separate the content within the email. Keep it simple and uncomplicated with an easily readable font.
Useful: Offer the reader something useful or new that they cannot find elsewhere. This may be a coupon, a freebie, or something special.
Converting the Reader
Email marketing ultimately aims to convert the recipient into a client or lead. To accomplish this, the email body should contain:
A Clear Call to Action (CTA)
Call to action is an essential part of any email marketing campaign. The CTA should be visible and easily accessed, in many cases near the end of the email. In the CTA, the language must be action-oriented and the reader should understand what they need to do. Whether it’s “Sign Up Now,” “Buy Now,” or “Learn More,” the CTA must be clear and concise.
When it comes to forming a compelling CTA, it isn’t only about having action-centric language. The CTA should also be visually differentiated from the rest of the email body, so that it grabs the reader’s attention. CTAs can be spelled out using different colors, larger fonts, or buttons.
Creating Urgency
The most effective psychological stimuli for marketing are those that involve a sense of urgency. Being in danger of losing something important puts humans in a position to make decisions. You can extract this logic from your email copy by composing a time limited deal or a limited quantity of a product or service.
Time-Sensitive Offers
This means that, for time-limited promotions-on the basis of a flash sale or some other time-limited promotion-a countdown clock/timer can be embedded. By adding this image, it allows the reader to sense and feel the urgency, and consequently respond faster. It might be something like, “Now! Until May 1st 20% off on your favorites!” This captures the mind at once and may even compel someone to act sooner rather than later.
Powerful Language
But aside from the visual, language plays an important role in engendering impatience as well. One of the simplest and most powerful phrases would be “Don’t Forget!” or “Limited Time Offer!”. The message is clear – the window of opportunity is closing and we need to do something now. It is the language that operates through FOMO and can increase your conversion rates by a ton.
Adding More Resources
It doesn’t hurt to create urgency, but you should add content too in order to keep the reader engaged and get them further in the conversion funnel. Other assets that can be bundled into your emails are of more value to your reader and can potentially enhance trust.
Curated Links
That could be links to product pages, blog posts, or other materials that are highly valuable to your readers. Such tools inform and guide the consumer further down the buyer’s journey. For instance, if you’re informing your subscribers about a new product, sending a link to a blog post with an explanation of the benefits will increase the reader’s knowledge and curiosity about that product.
When you’re including links in your email body, be concise. The links should, therefore, be highly legible and labeled in such a way that readers understand precisely where they are going. For instance, using titles like “Learn More About Our New Product” offers an open request to learn about something.
Testing Links
It is of utmost importance to test all links within your email campaign before sending out the email campaign to verify that they are working and taking the user to the intended destination. Failed links frustrate a prospective buyer and prevent conversions due to an unsatisfactory user experience.
Conclusion:
To sum up, producing the right type of email copy that will entice, engage, and convert involves planning and execution. By following these best practices, companies can create emails that stand out in the inbox and encourage clicks and conversions. Remember to always consider the reader’s needs and interests, Don’t make the email complicated or visually cluttered, and add a call to action that urges the reader to take action. With these hints in mind, companies can utilize the power of email marketing to establish rapport with customers and achieve growth.
