Email Marketing Copywriting Tips – Delivered, Opened, Read and Responded to

October 16, 2008

[If you've arrived here from Google looking for an email copywriter, you can read samples of email campaigns I've written in my portfolio here, or send me an email (matt@copywriterscrucible.com) with details of your project and I'll send you a free quote]

So as promised, please find below my tips for writing email marketing campaigns which build rapport, relationships and responses from readers:

Getting emails past the spam blockers

With spam about as desirable as raw sewage, junk filters are getting ever more zealous in blocking suspicious messages. This means the tactics used by spammers to get their emails noticed and read are constantly being added to the blacklist of unacceptable email marketing behaviour.

So you need to avoid using a spammer’s language if you want to pass the gatekeeper; don’t use words and phrases such as FREE, amazing, buy now, congratulations, dear friend, great offer, investment, special promotion or winner.

Before you send your email give it a quick health check using Lyris’ free content checker. Simply paste in your email content to get a report on its spam rating and what you can do to remedy any of its ills.

You’ll want to ensure your email marketing campaign is permission based with a double opt in mechanism, which means after people register they receive a confirmation email with a link to click on to confirm their subscription. This should notify your subscribers’ inbox that your email address is kosher, and asking them to add you to their address book is always a good idea.

Getting emails opened – the irresistible subject line

As with every type of copywriting, your subject line is the most important part of the email: if it’s not compelling or intriguing enough to get the email opened then you’ll have wasted sweat and tears crafted all those words for nought.

Having said that, writing an irresistible subject line that gets every email opened by every customer is tricky (if not impossible).

However, a good place to start in creating your attention grabber is to create an impression of your target reader and what makes them tick: what are their interests, problems and aspirations? How can you entice them with information in your subject line they’ll be rushing to read?

Remember that email is more personal than your website, so your subject line needs to sound intriguing and friendly, rather than formal, hype or salesy (leave  corporate copy for the brochure).

A couple of ideas for subject lines include:

  • Describe a benefit they’ll get from your email
  • Offer to solve a problem
  • Arouse curiosity with an interesting fact or question
  • Appeal to their desire for information by hinting at your email’s content
  • Use an editorial magazine style headline
  • Finish a partly completed subject line with an ellipsis (…) to create a sense of incompleteness that must be resolved
  • Use your database to personalise your subject lines with the receiver’s name or the product they’ve shown an interest in
  • Don’t be too clever and use deceptive ploys and promises you can’t backup. Trust is easy to lose and difficult to win back

Getting emails read – focus on the reader

As discussed in my previous post, email is a potent conversation tool that can create a dialogue and build relationships with customers. So the way you communicate should be in the manner of a one-to-one conversation between friends.

You want to sound like a trusted pal getting in touch with useful advice to help them solve a problem. Certainly not like a pushy salesman, whose only interest is in their credit card number.

Write in a style that appeals to the personality type of your target audience (whilst also reflecting the personality of your brand). So remember to picture your target reader in your head whilst writing and imagine how you’d address them face to face.

To structure your email you can rely on the trusty AIDA copywriting principle to guide your words. After a brief intro or comment on the news, discuss a problem the reader might have (or might not yet be aware of). Offer to sound sympathetic and understanding, tell them a story which shows how it’s a problem you’ve experienced yourself.

Then it’s a smooth transition to the desire trigger by explaining how your product or service is the solution, whilst sounding helpful and trustworthy, of course. Give factual and descriptive information to add concrete to the foundations of your offer.

Remember to stay on point throughout your email and guide your readers along a single line of thought, because you don’t want them to be confused or distracted with too much information before they’ve reached your call to action.

Getting emails responded to – tell them want to do next

Email marketing is about building rapport, relationship and trust with prospects. You can leave the hard sell for your sales page.

However, your calls to action could include visiting your website, calling your sales team or emailing you for more information. If you really want to push sales then send them to a specific page to discover more about your offer.

After your message has been sent, remember to track your stats for unopened messages and unsubscribers. Find out what parts aren’t working with a polite request for feedback and perform slight alterations or complete reconstructive surgery to shape your email copy so it keeps subscribers engaged for as long as possible.

People like to trade with those they know, trust and like, which are feelings a carefully written email marketing campaign aims to grow.

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Posted by Matt Ambrose | Filed Under Blog, Copywriting, Email marketing 

Comments

3 Responses to “Email Marketing Copywriting Tips – Delivered, Opened, Read and Responded to”

  1. Email Marketing Copywriting Tips - Delivered, Opened, Read and … on October 16th, 2008 5:01 pm

    [...] the rest of this great post here [...]

  2. smallbusinessbrief.com on October 18th, 2008 9:37 pm

    Email Marketing Copywriting Tips – Delivered, Opened, Read and Responded to | The Copywriter’s Crucible…

    Tips on writing email campaigns people want to read and are more likely to respond to. Tips include focusing on the reader, how to write a compelling subject line and how to provoke the right response….

  3. eMail Marketing « Jocelyn’s Marketing 430 Blog on November 20th, 2008 9:11 pm

    [...] give the message a quick review of the words that may  be caught and classify the email as spam. Words or phrases that should  be avoided are FREE, amazing, buy now, congratulations, dear friend, great offer, investment, special [...]

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