Don’t you just hate receiving emails that begin with phrases like “Dear customer” or “To whom it may concern?”
Ugh!
These are truly cold marketing emails because they don’t connect with you on any level. Brands that send such emails lack knowledge on how to create a high-converting copy and ultimately get most of their marketing messages labeled as spam.
As the result, the share of spam emails remains quite large of the global email share worldwide. According to the most recent calculations made by Statista, spam messages accounted for 48.16 percent of all email traffic in March of 2018.
Global spam volume as percentage of total e-mail traffic from January 2014 to March 2018, by month, Source: Statista
Many of these messages may not be spam at all, but users perceive them to be such. The reason for such a strong reaction is that they are so fed up with hard-sell marketing and in-your-face advertising, they would rather label a message as spam and never see another one rather than deal with it.
So how to write emails that can connect with recipients and get you more leads and customers? Well, the answer to this question is simple: give them a reason to open and read your messages!
For this post, I’m going to describe what it takes to write high-converting sales & marketing emails so you can improve your email marketing strategy and get more customers.
Let’s dive right in.
1. Always Have a Purpose for Every Single Email
Email marketing is not limited to messages that try to entice recipients to buy products. Neither it’s a strategy that involves sending emails just for the sake of it.
If you have nothing meaningful to say in your email, don’t send it. Seriously.
An email without a purpose is a useless one because it doesn’t contribute to your marketing strategy and possibly wastes the time of recipients. That’s a bad formula for getting the attention of potential customers.
Every single email that you send out is a part of your marketing strategy and should contribute to its goals. So, before you get to writing, ask yourself “What do I want to accomplish with this email/strategy?”
Examples of marketing email purposes include (these should be aligned with the main goals of the strategy!):
- Entertain recipients
- Provide information on an upcoming sale
- Collect more data from recipients
- Increase the traffic on your website.
2. Write a Rock Solid Subject Line
If you want to master email marketing, learning how to write killer subject lines is a perfect place to start. An enticing subject line is the main factor that can make your email stand out in a stuffed inbox of a recipient, so getting this one right is a must.
In fact, 47 percent of email recipients choose to open an email solely because of the subject line, according to this compilation of statistics by Super Office.
Credit: Super Office
Accomplishing this goal, however, is not easy, mainly because there’s no universal formula that gets the best results.
However, there are a number of great practices that you can experiment with, including the following.
Include the Name of the Recipient
According to the aforementioned compilation by Super Office, subject lines personalized with a recipient’s first name can increase open rates by almost 19 percent.
Credit: Super Office
Describe the Benefits to the Recipient
One good way to convince a recipient to click on the subject line is to state what it’s in there for them. Here’s a good example that clearly defines how the recipient will benefit from the email.
3. Write in the Natural Language
Using stilted corporate language is a sure-fire way to get your emails in the spam folder. No one likes ‘corporate talk,’ so choosing to go with natural, conversational language is the best way to reach your recipients.
“Natural language makes them feel comfortable enough to open your email and eventually contact you,” explains Veronica Wright, CEO of ResumesCentre. “You see, people tend to connect with other people, not companies, so you can boost your bottom line by using the language they use.”
See an example of an email written in the natural language in the next section.
4. Write a Persuasive Copy
Now that we’ve taken care of the subject line, let’s talk more about the main text of your emails. As it was mentioned in the introduction, you need to give your recipients a reason to open and click on your links, so let’s give it to them.
Take a look at this email from a well-known digital marketing company CoSchedule. It was sent by an actual person and addresses the recipient by name, which is a very good idea to make them comfortable and wanting to read further. Next, it uses natural language just like we’ve just discussed.
So what do you think makes this email text great? It’s fairly short and is written in a persuasive language. The writer address the recipient by name, then asks him questions about his goals and offers to achieve them. The most important parts are highlighted in bold to focus the attention of the reader.
And, of course, like any other effective email, it ends with a call-to-action with a link to the sender’s website (more about that in the next section).
If you feel like you need to check your texts and determine if they meet the requirements above, don’t forget that you can always use online tools. Some of the good ones include Hemingway App, FlashEssay, Readable, EssaySupply and Grammarly.
5. Include a Call-to-Action (CTA)
The example email above includes a beautiful textual CTA that perfectly ends the text of the message. A CTA is an essential element of every high-converting email because it describes the action that you want your recipients to take. So, it’s something that you should use effectively.
Let’s take a look at one more example of CTA. This time, the email comes from LiveStrong.com and it features a different – and more frequently used CTA type than the one above – a button.
This email is designed in the way that focuses your attention on this button with an excellent use of the white space. Moreover, the color of the CTA is different from the rest of the message and the button features short but sweet CTA: read more.
No salesy calls like “Buy Now” or something like that. Just an action-oriented CTA that uses the first person, minimizes options, and is very hard to miss.
Remember this because I’ve just listed some of the best practices for designing and writing a CTA in an email.
Wrapping Up
No more “Dear customer” emails, right?
Evidently, effective writing is an essential element of a high converting marketing email. Working through the process of writing systematically like this provides you with a great chance that the recipients will do what you need them to do. Getting email writing right doesn’t happen overnight, so good luck and hope you’ll crank up your conversion rate very soon!