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Email marketing is a profitable way of monetizing your subscribers and is proven to be more effective than social media.

Source | Omnisend

Copywriting techniques in email marketing campaigns is used to convert emails into sales and is used in all industries that use email marketing as part of their sales strategy.

Source | Campaign Monitor

Copywriting for email marketing is not just for the main body, but it starts with the subject line.

Subject lines to increase open rates

Your subject line is undoubtedly the first thing your consumer will see when they get an email from you and has the power to get them to click open the email. In 2019, the overall average for all industries open rate for their email marketing campaigns was 14.79% 

As you can see the amount of emails.that get opened in any email marketing campaign is pretty low. Therefore, it is essential that you have great copy in your subject line to make your consumers just want to open your email just like these ones.

Source | WordStream

Here are 3 tips to create killer copy in your subject line.

Tip #1 Use actionable language

In subject lines you want to give a statement that tells what readers can do in the email. For example, if you have a subject line of ‘Don’t miss out on a holiday of a lifetime’. This tells the reader that in the email will how they are not going to miss out on the holiday.

Tip #2 Personalize

Adding the recipients name in the subject line increases open rates by 50%. As the recipients are impressed and feel that you are talking to them one-to-one instead of everybody.  To personalize the subject lines you add [FIRSTNAME] to the start or end of the subject line. Where you place the personalisation depends on the subject line and how it would naturally fit.

Tip #3 Have humour or be provocative

Having humour or being provocative in your subject line will catch the recipient’s eye. If you use humour or be provocative in your subject line, then just answer why in the first paragraph of the copy. Just make sure you naturally lead into the next paragraph to keep the reader engaged

It’s All About The Body

The body of the email is what ultimately gets email to convert. Amy Porterfield is a master at writing emails that convert. Whatever the email is about, she understands how to engage with her audience and click through on the call to action.

Here is an example of one of her emails

Source | Sumo

In this email, Amy Porterfield is talking about her audiences fears of creating an online course. But not only that, she is saying I understand and this is what I did to overcome it. So if anyone of her subscribers want to learn how to overcome this fear like Amy did, then they would be compelled to click through.

Here are 5 strategies you can use in creating an email body that converts.

1. Forget Me, myself and I

Your reader is only interested in how the email benefits them, they’re not interested in you. This may sound harsh but it’s human nature. To truly get the reader engaged is to use power words. Power words are used in the subject line and email body to trigger a psychological response and influence our behaviour.

2. Be results orientated, who really cares about the features

Focusing on the features in your email will not sell your product as consumers care about results. On Amazon’s product descriptions they talk a lot about the benefits of the product and results that the product gives.

You need to treat your email copy the same way. Focusing on the end result the product will give to the consumer. Consumers only care about themselves and their needs. Write your email copy so that it pushes what problem the product solves and the end result it can deliver.

3. Make your copy scannable

Consumers seeing your email at first glance, they are looking for

  • What the is email about
  • What the product is
  • How the product can help me
  • How can I buy the product

Consumers are not looking to read every word. So to do this you need to do these two things:

  • Keep the email brief
  • Keep the email scannable

Keeping the emails brief and scannable by using shorter sentences and paragraphs to highlight one point in each paragraph. Consumers are then able to get to the points that interest them the most quicker.

4. Let your personality shine

Let your personality shine throughout your copy and you will engage more with your consumers. Use the tone of voice that’s already used in your other marketing materials and website. Consumers will then continue to open your emails, engage with the body and click on your call to action.

5. Have actionable language in your call to action (CTA)

Create a CTA that stands out in your email and making it easier for consumers to see it, you want a great design and great copy with actionable language. Great design of your call to action button is the use of contrasting colours and colours that are aligned with your branding.

Amazon is a master at doing email marketing and this is an example of one where they use contrasting colours and branding colours as well as actionable language in the button.

Source | Vero


Ultimately for any email to convert into sales, you need to know your customer. Show you know your consumer with great copy in every part of your email from the subject line through to the call to action.