It just seems like there are certain fields where everyone is an expert!
That’s like if you go to the movies, you’re a film critic. If you eat at restaurants, you’re a chef. You drive a car, so you’re a mechanic. You watch Superbowl commercials, so you’re an ad exec. Finally, you receive emails so you have email copywriter skills.
I don’t believe it. I don’t believe it because of a) all the badly written, boring, non-effective emails I’ve seen and b) all the time I’ve invested in studying copywriting and testing copy in email copywriting work.
Someone must be writing these emails. Emails that have all kinds of fundamental problems that prevent them from being effective.
I’ll share with you some tips on how to make your email copywriting more effective – starting with the pointy end of the spear.
The first thing you have to get good at is writing subject lines. A subject line can make or break your email. You can write a tricky, clever, funny, curious, vague, subject line and for a moment get someone’s attention – until the reader sees the email and realizes they’ve been duped. Then it’s game over.
Those types of subject lines fail.
Mort effective subject lines should be 35 characters or less. They should incorporate the characteristics of the best headline writing skills like using a reader-oriented benefit. They should use the word ‘you’ or ‘your’ verses the words ‘me’ and ‘I’.
Now sit down and write 12 subject lines that get to the heart of your email and follow these guidelines.
You’ll soon see this takes a bit of effort. There are many more guidelines but this is a basic framework to get you started down the path of email copywriting excellence.
Clarity trumps all other considerations in your email copy
If you can do one thing to make your emails more effective you can make them easy to understand. Readers are busy, they’re distracted, and they don’t have time to try and figure out what you mean.
Read and re-read what you’ve written and make sure it makes sense. Remember, you don’t have to write up full terms and conditions like the Apple iTunes End User License. You just have to be clear.
Your email has to be compelling
Let’s say you were sitting in front of me explaining why I should read your message and take the action you want, you would try to convince me. When you start to write you get all formal and stop being compelling. If you need to yell, YOU SHOULD YELL!
Good email copywriters will use your voice
Everyone has a different tone to the way they speak. They use phrases, words, and idioms (you know, like when you say I went to the club last night and had a riot – you didn’t have a riot, you had fun) that show who they are.
Use idioms and comfortable language that shows your personality. Some have more than others. If you’re funny, be funny. If you’re precise, be specific. If you’re Scottish, use your accent. Use a voice.
What numbers do you trust?
Email copywriting often falls back to bad practices and because you see them used so often you think they are good when in fact the opposite is true.
Here’s a for instance.
We’ve sent thousands of email campaigns so we know what we’re doing.
Last year we sent 1,459 email campaigns so we know what we’re doing.
When you quote a number, be specific. You’ll be more credible.
Above all – have a strong and specific call to action
A good copywriter will think in terms of a call to action as the proper close of an email. You send the message and you want things to happen as a result of sending your message.
In order to make something happen you have to tell the reader what to do.
I’ve talked about this before but the words ‘click here’ are a garden variety call to action. Better calls to action are things like ‘get your discount here’, ‘register for the event here’, ‘view the details on our website’.
Finally, use short line lengths
This one is tricky. Some people will read your message on a smart phone and some will read your email on a giant 27″ screen. If you don’t fix your line lengths the message will look different on different devices.
The top copywriters in the world want to control EXACTLY when you move to the next line and next paragraph. They will set line lengths short. Once you read your message with short line lengths you soon discover re-writes are necessary so it formats properly and STILL delivers a powerful message.
Here’s what that looks like:
The top copywriters in the world
want to control EXACTLY when
you move to the next line and
next paragraph.
They will set line lengths short.
Once you read your message
with short line lengths you soon
discover re-writes are necessary
so it formats properly and STILL
delivers a powerful message.
Hopefully you’ve taken away a few pointers to help you be a better writer and as a result you’ll have more email success.