8 Email Copywriting Tips for Marketing Campaigns

Has it come time in your company’s journey to craft some marketing emails? Got a list full of leads but are now staring at a blank screen and hearing crickets? Our email marketing agency can help. Here are eight tips for email copywriting to make your next marketing campaign a success. 

1. Be Clear on Who You’re Writing To

Remember, you’re not writing just to write. You’re not even writing to promote your product or service. You’re writing to reach someone. There’s a reader on the other end of that email you send who will (hopefully) open it and make a decision about whether or not it was valuable for them. Write to that person. This is the foundation of email copywriting. 

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To do that, you’ll need to do some research. As much as you can, try to understand what your recipient’s day is like, the many hats they wear, their lifestyle, their desires, their challenges. How will your product/service/expertise make their life/job/whatever it may be happier, healthier, more profitable, more productive, etc.? By knowing these things about your eventual reader, you can write to how what you’re offering is directly valuable to them. 

Another tip on knowing your audience: Be clear on which part of the sales funnel you’re speaking to. Are you reaching out cold? Cold email copywriting requires you to introduce your brand and provide some context for who you are and why you’re contacting them. If the recipient is more toward the bottom of the sales funnel and has already interacted with your company in some way, your emails can focus more on specific value statements and include hard data and testimonials to urge your reader to convert.

2. Make the Most of Your Subject Lines

Without a convincing subject line, it doesn’t actually matter what your email says. No one will see it if the subject line doesn’t inspire someone to open the email. A subject line is not a throw-away email component. It’s actually critical. In just a few words, you need to hook the reader enough to get that click. To do that, you want to appeal to both their logical mind and their emotions. A subject line should give enough information for a recipient to have at least some idea what this email is about, while also connecting with them emotionally, such as hinting at a fun opportunity or a chance to win a contest. 

Not all email platforms give you the option to include preview text with your emails, but if yours does, use it to your advantage. Preview text is what’s displayed after the subject line when viewing from the inbox. It’s another sentence or two that gives you the opportunity to entice your reader to open by letting the reader know what’s in it for them if they click. 

Tip: Keep your subject lines and preview text short. You can view roughly 40 characters on most mobile devices and up to 90 on desktops. 

3. Get to the Point…Fast

Okay, you’ve gotten someone to open your email. Don’t let them slip off the hook by writing a novel no one wants to sit and read. Your recipient has a busy life. They could be walking to a meeting at work, about to head out to pick up the kids, or waiting on their Starbucks order while running errands. Whatever they’re doing, they’re not likely in a position to give your email a ton of time and attention. That’s why you want to get to your point quickly. 

Don’t wax poetically for several sentences before you get to the reason you’re emailing. Don’t even do it for one sentence actually. Your email should include only the essentials you need to convey to your reader, padded with some charming but succinct context. As much as possible, keep your email under 200 words.

4. Personalize Your Emails

This is a big one when it comes to email marketing best practices. While you may be sending this same email copy to hundreds or even thousands of people, you don’t want your recipient to feel like that. An email that feels like a mass, blanketed communication will make your reader feel lost in the shuffle. 

To get their attention, connect. Personalize your copy to include their name, the name of their company if that’s relevant, and how what you’re offering solves their specific challenges. If you’re emailing a warmer prospect, include references to former interactions, like what you discussed on your last call or asking what they thought about that conference you spoke with them at. Make them feel seen so your communication feels more intimate and person-to-person.

5. Keep It Scannable

Again, your reader is pressed for time, so format your email to be easily digested. Email copywriting is all about saying a lot in few words. In addition to keeping it under 200 words as often as you can, break up your text so it’s easy on the eyes and can be quickly scanned. No text walls. No long, rambling sentences. Keep paragraphs to three or four sentences at most, and use bullet points to highlight important information.

6. Be Helpful

This one is often overlooked when it comes to advice on how to write marketing emails, but your emails shouldn’t be one-sided. You’re writing this email because you want the reader to do something. If you want something from them, you need to offer something in return. Make value the focus of your email. Yes, you’re here to give a sales pitch, but that doesn’t mean the email should be all about you. The best way to turn a prospect into a customer is by showing how you can help them. Speak to their needs, provide links to helpful resources, include instructional images or videos, or point them to something relevant they might enjoy or find useful. 

7. Don’t Be a Cliché

Gone are the days of selling your product or service with pushy, in-your-face tactics. You’re not a car salesman from the 90s or a late-night infomercial that wakes you up by loudly proclaiming about your offer. You can be persuasive without being aggressive. Consider how you would want to be pitched if the tables were turned, and make your case respectfully. 

And if they don’t take the bait after a few emails or choose to opt out of your campaign, leave them alone. You don’t want your campaign to get flagged as spammy or not meeting email platforms’ rules about crossing inbox boundaries.

8. Sound Like a Human

Lastly, write in a way that’s conversational and approachable. Even if you’re writing business to business, you can be professional without being robotic or overly dignified. You’re simply a human talking to another human about how you have something that can fill a need or solve a problem for them. Be polite, professional, and sincere. Throw in an appropriate joke or share a brief personal anecdote where relevant. Imagine if they were sitting in front of you. Write to them how you would speak face to face, human to human. 

Conclusion

Here’s a bonus tip to add to your email marketing best practices: Proofread. Once you have your emails written, give them a read-through to make sure there aren’t any errors that could make you or your company look uncredible. You may not get many chances to get in front of your recipients, so put your best foot forward with every email you send. 

Still feel a little ill-equipped when it comes to email copywriting? Go Fish Digital has a skilled team of copywriters that can write your email marketing campaign for you, as well as manage the project from beginning to end. Make your life easier (and increase your chances of converting prospects) by checking out our email marketing services today.