Tips for Writing Better Email Marketing Copy

This article was last updated on June 7, 2021

Capturing a customer’s attention is hard. You dedicate hours of time and creative energy to trying to create the perfect email, only for your customer to discard your email and click-through rate tanks. What if you could write an email marketing copy that was not only clean, clever, and captivating, but also converts leads? In the following entries, you’ll find tips and tricks to make your email marketing copy impress your customers and keep them from clicking the unsubscribe button.

Use Actionable Language

FOMO, or the fear of missing out is a powerful marketing tactic. Using actionable language is a way to use FOMO to your advantage. By incorporating verbs like “take,” “download,” “buy,” and “reserve” in your email subject lines, you not only let your reader know what they’re supposed to do, but you also create a sense of urgency for the reader to act.

Now, adding verbs to subject lines isn’t the only way to create actionable language. You can still achieve the same effect by clearly stating to the reader that they can do something with the information given. For example, a bakery marketing email might say, “don’t miss the chance to taste our grandma’s recipe rhubarb pie.” Although you don’t use action verbs, you explicitly state what they’re supposed to do with the information: sign up, so you don’t miss out on buying a homemade pie.

Avoid Jargon

When writing an email marketing copy, don’t write as if you’re trying to impress your readers with your industry knowledge. No one likes a show-off! Be sure to steer clear of jargon and break your language down to a level that the average consumer can understand what you’re trying to say. Focus on your customer’s pain points and use language that speaks to how your company can help them overcome a problem, save money, or increase productivity.

Edit Your Copy

It should go without saying that spelling and grammatical errors are one of the quickest ways to turn off potential customers. Having a copy that’s full of typos and that lack a detailed eye conveys that you don’t have the time to check your work or have more important things to worry about. This feels especially true when there are free services like Grammarly and ProWritingAid to help you with the basics. Take the time to proofread your emails before you send them off to the masses. It will save you and your company a lot of embarrassment.

Keep it Short and Sweet

Despite the real estate an email carries, you should use every inch of it wisely. One of the ways to do this is to respect your reader’s time. Choose your words carefully, and don’t send them a wall of text. The average millennial spends 6.4 hours a day scrolling through their emails, more than any other group of people, and they do it as they complete other tasks. To reduce the chance of your emails getting deleted or dismissed, keep the contents of your emails concise and get right to the point. Sharing your life’s story isn’t necessary.

And when drafting emails, opt for different design tactics to grab and keep your reader’s attention. Break up your text with white space. Incorporate attention-grabbing graphics, bulleted lists, and shortened sentences into your emails. And if purpose serves, ask a question that requires action.

Make Sure Your Content is Relevant

There are many ways to make your content relevant. The first is to make sure that the emails you’re sending match the interests or the needs of the customers you’re sending it to. Don’t send the same email to every subscriber. You’ll wind up wasting your and your reader’s time, and your click-through rates will be in the toilet. If your email is about releasing a new dishwasher, would you share it with someone who’s an advocate for hand-washed dishes? Probably not.

To ensure your emails go to the right customers, try segmenting your subscriber list based on demographics or data that you collect. A few examples include click history, shopping habits, and where they fall in the marketing pipeline. By providing your customers with content relevant to them, you’ll increase readership and have email marketing copy that converts.

Be Customer Focused

Have you ever read an email that was chockful of first-person language like “I,” “my,”? Did it leave you feeling uninvolved or like you walked in on a one-sided conversation? That feeling is what you want to avoid with your copy. Be sure to emphasize the importance of your customers through your language.

The key to writing a good email marketing copy is to keep your focus on your customers, not the brand. This means directing the copy toward your customer by speaking in the second person; “you,” “your,” and “yours.” Using the second person to address your customers makes your brand appear more value-driven, focused on customer experience and needs, and adds a personal touch to an otherwise dull email.

Include a Call to Action

Although a Call to Action button is often the last thing added to a marketing email, it’s one of the most important pieces out of the bunch. It’s the final action that stands between converting a lead or missing your shot. In fact, having just one CTA in your email ends in better clickthrough rates than those without or even multiple CTAs. Similar to the actionable language you use in subject lines, CTAs benefit from including action verbs. Keep in mind; customers skim emails, so you don’t want your button to get lost. When they’re perfectly designed and feature great copy, readers are more likely to engage with them.

Make an Impact with MailBakery

The content featured in your marketing emails is equally important, if not more important than the email itself. It’s the deciding factor in whether or not your lead converts. Enhance your email marketing, and capture the attention of your audience with some help from MailBakery.

Check out our samples page to browse some of our best email designs. MailBakery can design and code an email template from scratch that captures your readers’ attention and blends it with your brand. Pair that with your stellar email copy and we’ve got a winning recipe.

If you’re interested in learning more, contact us today, and let’s get baking!