What are the key email copywriting principles?

“Readers give you little time to get your message across, so your choice of words and layout is critical to your success. Our fourth clinic shows you the secrets of email copywriting…”

Ronen Yaari, OpenMoves
Questions? Drop me an email or call!

In this week’s clinic we finally get our hands on the email itself.

You already know which emails to send and to whom. But what about the words you use to present your offers and information? Does email pose any particular copywriting challenges?

What makes email different?

The basic principles behind presenting information or offers in a persuasive manner are the same for email as for any other medium. But there are some particular challenges you must master.

First, your email lands in an inbox surrounded by other emails competing for the recipient’s attention. You need to ensure it’s your message that gets a closer look.

Second, once you actually have their attention, you must make it easy for subscribers to read and grasp the content.

Third, once you have them engaged with your message, you must ensure they see those copywriting elements that drive the response you’re looking for.

Get them to open your email

Every incoming email is just one click away from the Deleted folder. Users make the “delete?” decision in a matter of seconds, based largely on the information in your email’s “From” and “Subject” lines.

They will pay attention to your message if they recognize the sender, or if something about that email makes them want to learn more about the contents.

So your “From” address should be whichever personal, brand, product, service, or business name is most likely to get recognized.

The “Subject” line can then further reinforce recognition — for example, by including the name of the newsletter or repeating your brand name.

It also has the task of persuading the recipient to commit to a closer look. Here are some tips:

• Avoid writing anything that looks like spam. That means no more than one word in all capitals. No excessive punctuation (like !!!!). And no deceptive or misleading information.
• Keep it short and simple. Be sure the length is less than 50 characters.
• Make it clear and relevant. Describe the content or offer that’s inside the email.

The Subject line gives readers a reason to open the email. For example…

• To demonstrate the benefit of closer examination:
  How to lift email sales by 10%
  
• To generate expectation or a sense of urgency:
  Big reductions on golf gifts: 48-hr sale!
  
• To ask a relevant question that has them looking for the answer:
  Is your accountant telling you the truth?

Keep their attention

Your From and Subject lines get their attention. Now you have to keep it.

The text layout must be easy to skim and read. And it must draw attention to the most important information.

• Use short, narrow paragraphs. No paragraph should be more than six lines or wider than 65 characters.
• Break up the text. Use subheadings and bullets to give people reference points and keywords they can use to scan your email quickly.
• Highlight key information. Use bold text to emphasize key points and draw the eye to important elements of the message.
• Put the critical material at the beginning.
• Keep it simple and concise. If you need to present a lot of information, put the bulk of it on your website and use email to send people there.

A typical content-based newsletter should rarely exceed 800 to 1,000 words.

Get them to act on your email

Of course, it’s likely that somewhere in all this text is an opportunity for the reader to respond to your email by clicking on a link and going off to read, download, purchase, request, or look up something at your website.

How you present this “call to action” has a heavy influence on whether people actually take that action.

Here are some suggestions on the best way to do this:

• Match the wording to the actual action being taken. Not “Click here,” but “Click to learn more,” or “Get more information,” or “Click to see product details,” or “Request a copy.”
• Include a benefit in the call to action. “Click to learn more on how to raise sales,” or “Register now and claim a discount.”
• Place the call to action wherever appropriate. At least include a call to action before and after the relevant text.
• Link where it seems natural. People tend to click on product or service names, images, and headlines. Consider turning all of these into links, too.
• Avoid excessive punctuation, such as multiple exclamation marks.
• Make the call to action stand out from the surrounding text. Give it its own clear space, a striking color, or a larger font.

Don’t forget the landing page

When people do follow a link, the subsequent destination Web page (the landing page) must reflect the reason they clicked.

If people click for more information on a product, the destination page should offer exactly that — specific information on that product.

In addition, ensure the design and styling of the landing page reflects the email used to send people there. The more seamless the transition from email to Web page, the more likely it is that visitors will continue with their action.

OK, so much for your words. But your email’s impact also depends on the images, layout, and format you use. It’s time to tackle email design.