How to Write Great Emails for Your Email Marketing Campaigns

Let’s get started.


Two elements are constituting an email.
The subject line
The body copy
Remember, each of those elements of your email has a single job.

The subject line has only one job — to get the email opened

There are two main types of subject lines…

Blind – A subject line is written to appeal the curiosity and intended to maximize open rate.

Though this type of subject line can get more open rates, it could fail to work if the email body copy is not supporting it.

Direct – A subject line that tells the benefit directly and qualifies the reader before opening.

Though this type of subject line gets you fewer opens compared to the blind subject lines, it increases the chances of click-throughs because the reader already knows what is inside and by opening the email he shows his interest.

I prefer direct subject lines because I don’t want trick my readers to open the email and end up disappointed.

The body copy has only one job — to get the reader click the CTA

Just like the subject line you can choose either curiosity or direct benefit approach in your email body copy.

Like with the subject line, the curiosity based email copy may increase your click-through rate (tricking the reader to expect something) but often decreases the conversion rate on the landing page (because it doesn’t match the expectations set by the email copy)

If you noticed my emails, I prefer to use the direct benefit approach which tells the reader what to expect on the landing page. This could be a less fancy approach, but at the end, it works well for me.

Now, let’s move on to some writing tips.

1. Write for your audience

Your email copy will not convert if it is not written for your audience.

Think like your customer.

For each of your targeted emails, consider the needs and wants of your readers that might motivate him or her to act on your message.

Your customer or audience receives tons of emails each day. With each email he will be asking questions like:
Who is sending me this email?
What do they want me to do?
How will it benefit me?
When you answer these questions, you’ll be speaking directly to your audiences.

2. Be personal

Email is first a communication channel, and most of the marketers fail to treat it like one. The print media ads stopped working because they lacked the personal touch and spoke to everyone.

You wouldn’t want the same to happen to your emails.

Create a personal connection with email contacts through segmentation and tagging
Use “you,” “me” and “us” in your copy and avoid “I.” People don’t want to hear you bragging about “you.”

Write in plain language, as if you’re talking to your audience. Remember, email is a communication medium first.

3. Match your Email Copy with your Subject Line

We discussed this earlier also.

Remember, your readers are bombarded with spam, and irrelevant email content on a daily basis. They will be skeptical by nature.

You need to nurture trust in them by keeping your subject line closely aligned with your body text.

Don’t break their trust by creating an overly-compelling subject line that doesn’t match the content.

It’s better to write your subject lines after you’ve written your content. It’ll help you to craft subject lines that are true to the content.

4. Format the mail copy for Skimmers

In today’s world of information overload, people are impatient to read every email they receive.

They are trained to skim the content to see if there is something that captures their attention.

If you format your content easy for scanning, the more likely your audience might read your email, and give you conversions.

Keep your main points bolded and bulleted
Keep your sentences short
Make your call to action clear and simple

5. Be useful.

This is very important. You cannot email them when you need something from your readers.

Be genuinely helpful.

When you help your readers to learn something new or improve their lives, they’ll be more reciprocative and receptive to your emails.

It will help you get more opens, more clicks, and eventually more sales.

6. Ask questions.

You wouldn’t be able to have a face-to-face conversation with your reader without asking questions, would you?

Apply the same to your writing. Asking questions increases engagement from your reader and it also doubles their attention.

7. Don’t be boring.

One of the cardinal sins of writing is boring.

It not only shows your lack of interest in the subject but also forces your subscribers to leave you.

Editing your email copy ruthlessly could help you to remove the fillers and be straight to the point.

8. Have a clear call to action.

Don’t expect your readers to understand what you want them to do. Tell them exactly what you expect them to do next in clear words, and also remind them why doing so is in their best interest.

9. Leverage the power of the PS.

People have less attention spans and would appreciate if you can remind them about the salient points of the email.

And they will read the PS without fail.

You can use the PS to communicate the essence of the email or even make them reread the email.

Hope these tips help you write better emails