10 Tips for Writing Compelling Email Copy That Converts

Understand your audience

Writing an email starts with understanding who you’re writing copy for. Writing compelling content for marketing emails means segmenting your email list and messages to resonate with customers' specific needs, interests, and pain points of your target audience.

Instead of sending the same email to your entire email list, focus on sending highly targeted and personalized content to different subscriber groups based on their behaviors, interests, needs, and demographics.

Understanding your audience and crafting personalized email marketing campaigns leads to significantly higher click-through rates, open rates, conversion rates, and overall improved engagement and customer satisfaction.

A successful email message starts with a strong subject line that grabs your reader's attention, manages reader expectations of the email's body copy, and creates a sense of urgency that gives people a reason to follow up with your call to action and make their way to your landing page.

Since an email subject line serves as the initial point of contact and creates a first impression, crafting compelling subject lines can mean all the difference between your target audience opening your email campaign, deleting the emails, or reporting the email messages to the spam folder.

Engaging subject lines directly impacts conversions and maintaining an up-to-date subscriber list.

To promote email deliverability, keep in mind that an algorithm often filters subject line copy and navigates where it lands within a recipient’s inbox. Therefore, you want to make sure your promotional emails get past spam filters by creating engaging subject lines that avoid spam-triggering words.

Write a strong opening

To win at writing emails, you’ll need more than an intriguing subject line to convince people to open messages within their inboxes. Modern email services offer subscribers a chance to see preview text when they see the subject line to inform recipients with more context about what the email is actually about before opening it.

Therefore, both the subject line and the opening or preview text in email copywriting need to be compelling enough to hook the reader within the first few sentences.

For example:

• Sender: American Eagle
• Subject Line: 50% OFF ALL DENIM JEANS
• Preview Text: Plus free shipping on orders over $100

Compelling copywriting tips include focusing on writing copy with engaging email subject lines that talk about the benefits subscribers gain from just a few clicks rather than the features. When you talk about features, you shift the focus to you, your product, and your company.

But when you focus on pain points and work on creating email content that highlights benefits, the focus shifts to how your services or products can enrich the lives of your customers and subscribers.

Welcome emails are a prime example of benefit-focused email copy. They are a way to introduce yourself, but they do not focus on your company story. Instead, they focus on how your products can benefit them and which they might want to try or sample to start the relationship off on a strong note.

Keep it clear and concise

While email subject lines need to catch subscribers' attention, the overall body copy of effective marketing emails should be simple, clear, and concise.

Marketing copy should get to the point and have one single goal in mind for each email marketing campaign.

Break up email marketing copy with white space and focus on using short sentences, bulleted lists, and questions if you need help getting your call to action across, converting prospects, and achieving your marketing goals.

If you want your email marketing copywriting to resonate with your readers, you need to connect with them on a personal level.

Marketing copy should be crafted in a conversational tone that aligns with your brand's voice and engages customers in a casual, friendly voice—almost as if you’re talking to a friend. This will help form a sense of connection and familiarity with the recipient.

Also using the words “you” and “your” in email copywriting help encourage readers you care about them and that this is about them, not you or your company.

Thus making customers more likely to open your email campaigns thanks to the email subject line, engage with the content, and take actions that lead to higher conversion rates and open rates compared to a more business or professional tone.

Include a clear call-to-action (CTA)

Effective email marketing copywriting and subject lines include a clear call to action (CTA). Whether on a computer screen or mobile device, the CTAs should stand out and resonate enough with your subscribers to get them to click through to your landing page.

Just like your subject lines and body copy of your marketing emails, your CTAs should clearly state what you want your readers to do and involve a simple but clear link or button that invites them to click and take action.

Effective examples of CTAs in email marketing include buttons like, “Buy Now,” “Add to Cart,” or “Learn More.”

Create a sense of urgency

In email copywriting, creating a sense of urgency in a call to action or invoking a FOMO (the fear of missing out) mentality can encourage readers to take immediate action and help drive clicks toward your landing page.

Using phrases highlighting time constraints, limited availability, or potential loss if subscribers respond slowly can help encourage them to make a more immediate decision.

For example:

• Sender: JetBlue Vacations
• Subject Line: Hurry, up to 10,000 bonus points ends today!
• Preview Text: Last day to earn bonus TrueBlue points…

When crafting compelling email copy, nothing is more valuable than creating personalized marketing emails.

Email copywriting based on personalization involves tailoring your email campaigns to individual recipients based on their personal information, preferences, and behaviors. This will help increase the chances of click-through rates and conversion and make your email marketing copy more relevant.

For example:

• Sender: Target Circle
• Subject line: Hi “Name,” your weekly Target Circle Deals are Here in “City”!
• Preview text: The easy way to find all your savings for…

Optimize for mobile devices

Mobile devices are the primary source of marketing emails opened, but if your email campaigns aren’t optimized for mobile devices, they could display incorrectly, making it confusing for the recipient to read or engage with the content. This can produce low open, conversion, and click-through rates.

The issue is that mobile devices have smaller screens, and certain subject lines, graphics, or advertisements can be cut off, reducing the impact of your message.

Be mindful of a mobile device format when designing email campaigns, and keep messages short and sweet, with catchy subject lines and large call-to-action buttons that drive people towards a landing page by clicking to read on.

Writing compelling email copy that boosts conversions

Writing compelling email copy to boost conversions involves a catchy email subject line, personalized opening text, and a conversational tone that keeps things light, clear, and simple. Don’t forget to optimize for mobile devices and have clear but urgent calls to action.

Implementing and employing strategies and tools such as email marketing platforms and developing copywriting formulas to help streamline the email marketing process can lead to higher engagement and conversion rates and help grow your business.

Key Takeaways

• Copywriting is crucial to an effective email marketing strategy. It engages subscribers, urges them to take action, promotes the business, and drives sales.
• The subject line and preview text in email marketing copy must be compelling enough to entice the reader to follow through on the call to action.
• Your marketing emails' CTAs should clearly state what you want your readers to do, with a clear button inviting them to click and take action.