3. What do I need to know to write an email copy that works?

Be personal in a smart way

Use the same rules as those for the subject line. Don’t use contacts’ names, especially their last names, in your marketing emails when it’s not necessary. People are sensitive to their personal information being used, and their name is one such thing. Moreover, nowadays it feels spammy. Though it might look natural for person-to-person emails, it’s another story where cold emailing is concerned. I will cover this topic in the next articles.

Try to be personal using other general data that you might have:

Birthdays and anniversaries

Info about interactions with your site or brand

Locations

Business specifics

Information provided via surveys and feedback

You might need to separate your audience to smaller segments to use this personalization data smartly. For example, in delivering different content based on segments’ interests.

Let subscribers get to know you.

People are receiving more emails nowadays than ever before. The average person gets more than 70 emails daily. It’s hard to remember all the senders and even harder to recognize all the companies that message them. So you, therefore, shouldn’t presume that a reader knows your person or company by default. Let a reader get to know you. It’s probably a good idea to personalize emails from your end too. Add your photo, get them know your name. Tell stories from your own experiences. Many SMB and global companies use this tactic for marketing emails these days, and it’s well worthwhile.

Keep things short and bring valuable content only.

There are only two types of words — those which enhance your copy and those that must be deleted. Remember that every word counts. People get tired reading long texts about nothing. There’s far too much content around us and we have no time to consume it all. So stop believing that your piece of text is unique, respect the time and attention of your reader and you’ll be rewarded.

Clarify your goal to readers.

It’s a bad idea to make users guess what you want from them until the end of the email copy. Give readers a clear understanding of why you’re emailing them and what value they’ll get once they’ve finished reading your text. Otherwise, they’ll probably just delete or mark your copy as spam. At the same time, don’t be pushy right from the first line. It’s better not to be pushy at all. Learn to speak the language of readers’ value in the right way. Avoid cliche manipulative pitches. Inboxes are already full to the brim with this sh*tty stuff. It’s hardly likely that there’s space for another.

And one more important tip for you: maintain only a single CTA per email. It’s ok to place it in a few places in the email though. If you’ve more to say — create separated emails or even campaigns for different goals.

Align and visualize your ideas.

We love to scan through content. It’s just how we consume information today. And, rarely, when we meet a genuine piece of art, we read it fully from top to the bottom.

In a good email copy, everything is dedicated to a logical structure and the primary goal of the text. Your email should deliver what was promised in its subject line or email header. And don’t forget to keep your paragraphs short.

Tell breathtaking stories.

Stories are a great way to allow readers to dive into the world of your topic experience. It’s the best way to show the idea from your logical and emotional perspective. It also brings readers closer to your persona, extends the trust and authority. And the best thing — you can help readers to imagine themselves using your product.

Also, you can break up boring topics with a funny joke or two and add some emotion into your pitch, that will help readers keep a focus on the context in spite of the distracting world we live in.

Don’t try to cover too much.

Take one or two ideas and stick around it. Remember to keep things short. The average length of the emails is around 450 words or 3 min of reading. And the tendency is moving forward into shortening of emails. More than 50% of marketing emails shorter than 300 words.