Email marketing is one of the most effective ways to communicate with your audience, build trust, and generate sales. But how do you write email copy that grabs attention, sparks curiosity, and persuades your readers to take action? Here are some tips to help you craft engaging and persuasive email copy that converts.
Before you write anything, you need to know who you are writing to. What are their pain points, goals, interests, and preferences? How do they talk, what do they value, and what motivates them? The more you understand your audience, the more you can tailor your email copy to resonate with them and address their needs. Use segmentation, surveys, and analytics to gather insights and create buyer personas for your email marketing campaigns.
I like to conduct VOC when we are struggling to get engagement, and then test the messaging that’s developed from their input. Every time we do this, we’re surprised with what resonates. It wouldn’t have been our first choice of messaging!
Your subject line is the first thing your readers see in their inbox, and it determines whether they open your email or not. Therefore, you need to make it catchy, relevant, and compelling. A good subject line should spark curiosity, convey a benefit, create urgency, or appeal to emotion. You can also use personalization, questions, or emojis to make it stand out. Avoid spammy words, misleading claims, or boring statements. Test different subject lines to see what works best for your audience.
If you don't know where to start look at the emails that you've signed up for and try to mimic their subject lines. When it comes down to it you just need to practice. Keep writing them and with each send look at your open rate. Make a list of your emails with top open rates and keep adding to it. This is your inspiration writing subject lines going forward.
Once your readers open your email, you need to hook them with the opening. The opening is the first sentence or paragraph of your email copy, and it should capture their attention, build rapport, and lead them to the main message. You can use a story, a statistic, a quote, a compliment, a question, or a problem to hook your readers. Make sure your opening is relevant, engaging, and concise. Don't waste time with irrelevant or boring information.
The main body of your email copy should deliver value and benefits to your readers. This is where you explain what you are offering, why it matters, and how it can help them. Use clear and simple language, short sentences and paragraphs, and bullet points or subheadings to make your copy easy to read and scan. Focus on the benefits, not the features, of your offer. Show how your offer can solve their problem, improve their situation, or satisfy their desire. Use social proof, testimonials, or case studies to back up your claims and build credibility.
The final part of your email copy should call your readers to action. This is where you tell them what you want them to do next, and why they should do it. A strong call to action should be clear, specific, and urgent. Use action verbs, positive words, and time-sensitive phrases to create a sense of urgency and excitement. For example, "Click here to claim your free trial before it expires", "Reply now and get a 20% discount", or "Join the webinar and learn how to boost your conversions". Make your call to action stand out with a button, a link, or a color.
Some research suggests that the correct placement of the call to action button is also significant in how many conversions your email will bring. For example, HubSpot suggests that having a call to action button placed in the middle of your email can be more impacting with another link placed at the end, as not all readers are willing to scroll to the end.
Before you hit send, you need to proofread and optimize your email copy. Check for spelling, grammar, punctuation, and formatting errors. Make sure your copy is consistent, coherent, and concise. Avoid jargon, slang, or passive voice. Use tools like Grammarly, Hemingway, or CoSchedule to improve your writing and readability. Optimize your email copy for different devices, browsers, and email clients. Test your email copy with a small segment of your audience and measure the results. Adjust and improve your email copy based on feedback and data.