Last updated on August 13th, 2024 at 11:48 am
You may have heard it before: the fortune’s in the follow up.
And when you’re selling online, the easiest way to follow up with your leads and prospects is through email marketing.
If you want to make sure you’re not sending more boring ads to your audience, we’re going to break down trade secrets from some of today’s best email copywriters.
When you do it right, great emails can help build your brand, cultivate an amazing community, and (ultimately) lead to more sales and growth in your business.
In this guide, we’ll show you how to make your emails more effective and dive deep into 5 of the biggest needle movers in your email marketing campaigns.
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How is Email Copy Different From Other Types of Copy?
The first thing to realize if you want your email campaigns to be more effective is that email copy isn’t like other types of copy.
While they have a lot in common, emails have different constraints and frameworks you need to work inside of.
The Inbox is More Competitive
Inboxes today are incredibly overcrowded.
And with people’s attention spans getting shorter and shorter every year, it means that the length of copy you use for your emails needs to get shorter, too.
Each email you send needs to be focused specifically on what people want from you if you expect to capture their attention and get them reading.
We’ll dive more into how to do this in a bit.
When it comes to your emails, though, the subject line and preview text (or preheader) are two of the most critical components in each email you send.
Since you have a lot less space to get your message across, that means you’ll need to be far more concise with the copy you use in those two areas.
Your subject lines need to instantly grab attention and fulfill the “what’s in it for me?” test every prospect subconsciously asks themselves when they’re scanning their inbox.
Then, the preview text you use needs to dive a bit deeper into the headline to grab their curiosity enough to get them clicking and opening the message.
This is a lot different than an ad on social media or your landing/sales page.
They’re More Than “Just an Email”
While many marketers think “it’s just an email”, it’s actually so much more.
We just mentioned your subject lines and preview text, but there are other elements you need to take into account as you’re writing your emails.
Elements like the body copy, your call to action, and your P.S. (if you use one) all affect how well your emails perform.
In an ideal world, your subject line is going to flow into the preview text, which will flow into the body copy, which will all be tied together by your call to action.
So when you’re planning (or writing) emails, think about them in terms of the pieces of the puzzle you’re putting together.
You’re sending more than just an email. You’re connecting with your audience in a more personal way and want to ensure that once you have their attention you’re able to keep it.
That means tying your subject line into your call to action and making sure everything in between fulfills that “what’s in it for me?” test each prospect is going to put your copy through.
They’re Meant to Presell — Not Sell
Then, remember: your emails aren’t for selling.
They’re actually for preselling and generating enough curiosity to get your subscribers to click your CTAs or share your content with other people.
This is one area many marketers get it wrong.
You don’t have to write 500 word emails to get a click.
Instead, focus on the fact that your emails are built to bridge the gap between your reader’s inbox and your landing/sales page.
They serve as a tool to recapture your reader’s attention, increase their interest level, and entice them to take the next step.
They aren’t meant to get people to pull out a credit card and buy something. That’s the job of your sales page — the page your emails drive traffic back to.
If you want your emails to be as effective as possible, make them as short as possible.
Focus on the minimum viable message that will get their interest level up, generate some curiosity about what’s on the other side of clicking your CTA, and what’s in it for them if they do take that action.
Here’s a great example from Slack:
You can see, Slack isn’t selling anything in this email.
Instead, their copy is focused on introducing the reader to a problem they may be experiencing and how there may be solutions to that problem.
They’re not trying to sell or convince anyone of anything.
There’s no CTA saying “Click here to buy.” or anything remotely close.
They’re preselling how their product solves the problems they know their audience is experiencing.
They’re using stories to build the relationship they have with their audience.
And, more importantly, they’re driving traffic to a medium that can deliver longer form copy where they have the visitor’s undivided attention — a bridge page, in this example.
When the subscriber clicks “Read the story”, they’re taken to an advertorial that works on selling the solution, so the email doesn’t have to lift that weight for them.
Now, to help your emails be more effective, we’ll break down 5 of the best trade secrets that will help you increase your open rates, drive more clickthroughs, and build the relationship you have with your audience.
#1: Grab Attention
Your subject line is your first (and many times only) chance to get attention in an overcrowded inbox.
These days, people either scan the subject lines to see what jumps out at them or scan the sender’s name to see if they already have a relationship with the person/company.
If either of those tests fails, chances are high they’ll keep scanning past your emails in the future. If your subject lines are selling people, they’re going to tune out.
When they see subject lines like “Cart closes in 2 hours” or “25% off EVERYTHING” or “Last chance…” you’ve lost their attention.
They know they’re being sold.
And in the words of Jeffrey Gitomer, one of America’s #1 sales leaders, “People don’t like to be sold but they love to buy.”
Check out these subject lines from Disney+…
They’re all focused on what’s in it for Disney.
They’re assuming that people are just sitting around with their credit cards in hand, eagerly looking forward to Disney sending them a message so they can immediately buy something.
That’s not how the world works, especially the world of email marketing.
So if you want to increase your open rates, don’t do what Disney does.
Instead, shift your focus to what actually drives open rates:
- What They Want – Write about what they want to get out of it. The copy you write is 100% about them and what they want from the relationship.
- Comparison – Present information in a way that highlights the contrast between where they are right now and where they want to be.
- Emotional Resonance – Evoke emotions such as fear, curiosity, or excitement to drive engagement and action.
Here are some great examples from Marie Forleo:
There’s a very clear distinction between the two.
Compare the subject lines from Marie Forleo to the ones you saw from Disney+.
Disney doesn’t do anything to invoke curiosity, grab attention, or tell the reader what’s in it for them. Instead, they’re focused on what’s in it for Disney.
Marie’s subject lines, on the other hand, focus entirely on what’s in it for the reader.
They grab attention and generate curiosity — exactly what they should do.
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#2: Build on Their Curiosity
Now, once you have your reader’s attention with your subject lines, you have one more opportunity to build curiosity and get them opening your emails: the preview text.
These are the first couple/few sentences of the email that get previewed in most people’s email service providers.
Take a look at these:
You can see the preview text highlighted in yellow: “The best time to start is now.”
After a reader has scanned your subject line and decided they’re interested, the second thing they’re going to do is look to see who sent it to them.
If they already have a relationship with you, they’ll move their eyes over to scan what the preview text looks like.
And, if that preview text builds on the subject line, your chances of getting them to click and open the email are substantially improved.
While your subject line serves to grab attention, your preview text helps build the case for why they should keep paying attention to your message.
It also gives you another chance to build on the curiosity you created with the subject line.
Take a look at an example without preview text:
You can see there’s a ton of missed real estate and the text your readers actually see is boilerplate text that email service providers include.
Things like “Read in your browser here.” and “Hi, friends. Greetings from Austin!”.
Neither of those sentences does anything to move the conversation with your subscribers forward and make it easy for them to keep scanning past.
So if you want to write compelling preview text, try this:
- Use the curiosity gaps — Encourage readers to open the email by creating a curiosity gap. Offer just enough information to pique their interest, but not so much that it satisfies their curiosity.
- Don’t repeat your subject line — You want your preview text to ADD to what you’ve said in the subject line, not repeat it. Think of it like a subheadline while your subject line is the headline.
- Stick to the word limit — For Gmail (the most popular email provider), your character count is limited to between 100 and 110 characters. That means you have 100 to 110 characters to build on your subject line.
It takes practice but once you understand it, your email open rates will dramatically improve.
#3: Tell Them why it Matters
After you’ve worked so hard to get your emails opened, the next big goal is getting people to click through the links you send.
That means you don’t want to use boring CTAs.
Things like “Download”, “Sign Up”, and “Learn More”, while sometimes effective, aren’t nearly as effective as using benefit-driven CTAs.
Because, remember, your subscribers are always subconsciously asking themselves, “What’s in it for me?”.
They want to know why they should be clicking your links.
There’s an easy formula you can use to make your CTAs benefit-driven, too. It’s called the “so you can” test.
Take these examples, for instance:
“Download your free guide on French cooking.”
“Click here to connect with your free personal trainer.”
“Click here to get started now.”
Those aren’t terrible CTAs. They would generate clicks.
But if you want to increase your clickthrough rate, try running them through the “so you can” test.
Here are those same examples in a benefit-driven format:
“Download your free guide on French cooking so you can make your next meal a 5* masterpiece that gets talked about for days.”
“Click here to connect with your free personal trainer so you can take advantage of a full 30-minute interactive session.”
“Click here to get started now and immediately see improvements in your copywriting.”
The second set of CTAs focuses on the benefit of clicking the link — what’s in it for them.
They speak directly to what’s on the other side of the click so your readers know what to expect when they click — and the benefit they can expect to receive by clicking.
Here’s how Atoms, the shoe brand does this:
What’s great about Atom’s CTAs:
- Focus on a key benefit
- Clear and concise
- Action-oriented
- Relatable and specific
If they wanted to increase their clickthrough rate even further, adding a simple “Click Here” and explicitly telling their readers what to do may make their CTAs even more effective.
For your own CTAs, make sure you’re not only telling people what to do, but what they’ll get out of doing it and your clickthrough rates will improve, too.
#4: Write About Them, not Yourself
The body copy you use should also be focused 100% on what’s in it for them.
To give you some context, take a look at these two examples.
The first is how most marketers write their emails — believing that the message is about them.
The second is taking that same message and flipping it from being about the marketer to being about the reader and what’s in it for them.
Subject: Our New Online Course Is Available!
We’re excited to announce that we have just launched our latest online course, “Mastering Time Management.” Our team has worked hard to create an excellent course that covers essential time management strategies.
This course includes 10 comprehensive modules, expert interviews, and downloadable resources. We believe this is the best course on the market for improving time management skills!
Don’t miss out on this opportunity. Sign up for “Mastering Time Management” now!
Now, while that message might get results, it’s not nearly as effective as changing the language from being about you to being about them.
Here’s an example of ‘you-focused’ language:
Subject: Want to get more done every day? (Check out this new strategy.)
Are you struggling to manage your busy schedule?
Does it feel like there’s always so much more to do — even though there’s only 24 hours in a day?
If you’re tired of your schedule keeping control over you and want to finally take back that control, you’re going to love this.
It’s a new method that helps you instantly regain control over the chaos in your schedule so you’re able to get more done every day — without feeling like you’re always being drained.
When you click here you’ll get to uncover practical strategies for prioritizing tasks so the most important stuff gets done first, as well as how to eliminate distractions so you develop laser-like focus and (ultimately) achieve your goals faster.
All while feeling more refreshed & less stressed out.
Sign Off
See the difference?
The first message is all about you and assumes that your reader has put you onto a pedestal and eagerly awaits your every message.
While that may be the case for some established marketers and entrepreneurs, for most people it just isn’t the case.
So instead of making your body copy all about you, shift your focus back onto them like we’ve done in the second example.
Here’s a great example of shifting the focus onto your reader & what they want:
It focuses entirely on the problems your readers are experiencing and works to build trust that you have the solution to those problems.
But, more importantly, it keeps your emails from looking like everyone else’s emails — who only focus on themselves & what they can get out of the relationship.
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#5: Follow The Power of one
Now, for our final needle mover, there’s another rule you’ll want to keep in mind:
The Power Of One
One reader, one promise, one offer.
Each email you write should be focused on ONE single idea that you’re trying to get across.
Jim talks about this in-depth in his Copywriting Secrets book.
One Reader
Remember, even if you’re sending an email broadcast to a list of 10,000 people, there’s really only one person reading your message at a time.
That means you want to focus on writing to one specific reader instead of writing into the void and trying to appeal to all 10,000 people on your email list.
Keeping your message tighter to your perfect customers can, and will, create unsubscribes but what it will also do is increase the connection you have with those perfect customers you’re wanting to attract in the first place.
On the flip side of that, trying to attract all 10,000 people on your list has the opposite effect.
It typically ends up attracting far fewer people than you would attract if you kept each message focused on one specific, perfect customer in your audience.
This is why your marketing will evolve over time.
As you start getting more responses to your emails, feedback from customers, and objections people have to purchase your offer, you can dial in on the messaging they want to see.
Then, as you’re writing your emails, you’ll want to focus on:
- Struggles and difficulties that you can help them resolve.
- Aims and ambitions they’re pursuing.
- Concerns that prevent them from realizing their goals.
Like this example:
This message is focused on people who are afraid of failing.
So even though there may be people on Ramit Sethi’s list who are already successful, people who haven’t started a business yet, and people who may be struggling in their business, this message is focused entirely on the people who want to get to the next level.
Not beginners. Not super-successful people. But people who are already making sales and want to do it more consistently and break through plateaus.
It doesn’t attempt to connect with every single one of those other avatars.
One Promise
That email also focuses on making one specific promise: if they understand why businesses struggle to hit the next level, they can begin living the Rich Life they’ve said they want.
This goes back to the benefit-driven copy we talked about earlier.
When you’re writing your body copy, you want to communicate a compelling and specific promise or benefit that the reader will get from taking you up on the offer you’ve made.
Instead of diluting the message with multiple promises, keep your focus on the most compelling promise that’s relevant to the rest of the message and your one target avatar.
This ties directly into the offer you’re making them — and what’s in it for them when they take the action you’re asking them to take.
Since you’re writing directly to one reader with one idea you’re trying to get across, don’t lose their attention by trying to include multiple different offers or promises.
Take a look at this example from Amy Portferfield:
It’s a great example of focusing on the Power Of One and what an effective email marketing campaign looks like in the real world.
It immediately calls out the one reader this email is for.
It focuses on the one big benefit that readers want to receive.
And, to wrap it up, includes one single CTA and an offer tied to that benefit.
As you’re starting to write your emails, to keep them more focused, start by writing down the Power Of One — the one reader you’re talking to, the one benefit you’re speaking to, the one offer you’re giving them, and the one reason they should care about all of it.
If you can do that, your emails are going to convert at higher rates. Guaranteed.
Final Thoughts
Writing highly-effective emails is a lot easier when you follow the tips, formulas, and frameworks we’ve laid out in this guide.
When you do it right, great emails can help build your brand, cultivate an amazing community, and (ultimately) lead to more sales and growth in your business.
If you want to dive even deeper to make your copy convert like the professionals, check out Copywriting Quickstart Secrets. It will help you improve all of your copy, from your ads to your landing pages, emails, sales pages, webinars, VSLs, and more.