7 Ways to Write Email Copy that Converts

9 minute read

Upland Admin

You understand how email marketing can successfully drive real conversions for your business, but is it easy? The bombardment of promotional emails into the inboxes of customers has numbed them towards email, making it all the more difficult for you to get your messages opened and read.

Ask yourself: Do your emails nurture potential clients and convert them into sales? If your answer is NO, you need to write email copy that actually converts. You’ll need to make sure that your emails resonate with your recipients BEFORE you hit that ‘send’ button.

Writing great, creative email copy is no less than an art! Over time, these things will become second nature to you, but to get you started on the right path, Here is a cheat sheet on 7 ways to write email copy that converts:

  1. Write for Your Recipients
  2. Explore the Magic of Personalization
  3. Get Personal with Your Recipients
  4. Write an Attractive Subject Line
  5. Sync Your Landing Page with Email Copy
  6. Tap the Potential of Compelling CTAs
  7. A/B Test, Analyze & Improve

You must dig a little deeper into these points if you’re really looking to play the game right. So fasten your seatbelts – we’re taking you on a fast-paced journey to become a master email marketer in just 7 easy ways.

Let’s dive in!

1. Write for Your Recipients – Create your email copy with your recipients in mind. Try and understand who they are, their interests, where they live, how long have they subscribed to your products or services, etc. Answering these questions will help you segment your contact list and write targeted email copy for each group of recipients. Be advised that segmented emails result in 50% more click-throughs than non-segmented emails.

Never forget to step in the shoes of your recipients when writing your marketing emails. It’s vital to know the needs, wants, tastes and preferences of your customers to build entertaining, interesting and engaging email copy.

Make sure that your email includes answers to the questions that your customers might have, such as why are you reaching out to them, why should they choose to receive emails from your brand, and how will it benefit them.

Remember, providing basic information in your email copy will help you lift your open rates and increase your click-throughs.

Here’s an image that perfectly captures what happens when you don’t write your emails with your recipients in mind (that’s you on the left, all alone):

[Image Courtesy: interaction-design.org]

2. Explore the Magic of Personalization – Marketingland.com reveals that 70% of brands fail to personalize their email messages. Now, this is surprising. After all, all it takes is to write your recipients’ name or greet him/her on their special days, etc. to personalize your email copies. This isn’t too difficult. Is it?

With such steep competition, sending a personalized email with your recipient’s correct name and their correct details is the least you can do. And it has its own share of perks! It helps you build customer trust for your brand and positively impacts their perception when they open your emails.

Personalized promotional mailings have 29% higher unique open rates and 41% higher unique click rates than non-personalized mailings. Personalization is all about creating  email copy that your recipients remember years later.

Check out a brilliant example of personalized email from Dropbox.

Image Courtesy: dropbox.com]

3. Get Personal with Your Recipients – Okay, we discussed personalization – isn’t it about getting personal with recipients? Well, the answer is YES, but there is a difference between personalization and getting personal. Remember, everyone likes to be treated individually and not to be spoken to in masses.

That’s why you should make sure that your email copy is conversational and friendly. Here, writing your email copy in second person using terms such as ‘You’ and ‘Me’ could be just the ticket to win the hearts of your recipients.

Use words that make your recipients feel special. Thewritepractice.com explains that “using the pronoun “you” and describing action as it happens supplies a personal sense of urgency, propelling the story—and the reader—forward.” Writing in second person gives you an opportunity to speak directly with your recipients.

Look at these two subject lines below:

You will love our service because it will save you time.”

Our product is time-saving.”

So which one of these two has a more personal touch? We bet your answer is the first one. But also, don’t forget to use simple and plain language when writing your emails. It should appear as if you’re actually talking to your recipients.

Check out this amazing example from MomsRising.org to get an idea of how you can get more personal with your email copy:

Image courtesy: johnhaydon.com]

4. Write An Attractive Subject Line – According to Mashable.com, the average working professional receives more than 100 messages each day. Most people can’t open every email. Instead, they read the subject lines and decide whether to open an email or not. Beamery.com states that 35% of email recipients open email based on the subject line alone. And that’s why it makes sense to write ‘killer’ subject lines for your emails.

[Image Courtesy: beamery.com]

Though it should be written in an easy-to-understand manner, each subject line must be catchy as well as informative! The trick here is to use active verbs to add a more personal touch to subject lines.

Take a look at a few examples of good subject lines:

Lose Weight While You Sleep.

Get 50% off On Your Favorite Shirts

Tired of Making Your Boss Rich?

Copyblogger.com suggests not to misrepresent the content of your email — it annoys your subscribers and could increase your unsubscribe rate. So when you write the subject line, ensure that it is consistent with the text of your email copy. What you promise in the subject line should be delivered in the copy as well.

A good subject line may increase the open rates, but if the text is not supportive of the subject line, all your efforts will go down the drain as readers will not convert into buyers.

5. Sync Your Landing Page with Email Copy – Matching your email marketing campaign with landing pages will create a cohesive experience for your recipients. A consistent design across all your platforms helps you build trust, increase conversions, and makes you look more buttoned-up. According to Jumplead.com, if a landing page doesn’t offer a cohesive journey from the email, there is a chance that your customer will be confused and will not convert.

Moreover, also the text that you write should be consistent for both your email and your landing pages. This will make it easier for people to recognize your brand instantly.

Check out a great example of a cohesive email campaign from Gap. Their email and landing page look similar and cohesive. No wonder their emails get such a staggering response from their recipients!

[Image Courtesy: Jumplead.com]

6. Use Effective, Compelling CTA – A compelling, persuasive and powerful CTA can help you guide your visitors through the buying process. Yes, they actually help! CTA buttons placed at the right place in your email body can motivate, inspire and convert your recipients.

Though they all look the same, CTAs are most effective when they use less text and are placed strategically and prominently.  Simple, short and strong action words such as “Sign up,”  “Start now,” “Order,” “Buy,” and “Get” are the most effective ones.

To further give a boost to your conversions, you can use words such as “free” or “customized” in your CTAs. Your call to action should create urgency so that your visitors convert.

Make sure that your CTA button is in contrasting colors and is above the fold in your email body for attracting the readers visually. And don’t forget, as mentioned above, keep the look of your CTA buttons consistent with that of your landing page. The more simple and consistent, the more will clicks you can expect.

Though your email CTAs need to be simple so that users easily understand your message, they need to be compelling enough to urge your recipients’ to take the action you want them to take. For instance, offering something for free is a great way of grabbing the attention of your readers and persuading them to click.

Here’s how ‘Dropbox’ brilliantly explores the potential of hard-hitting email call-to-actions to its advantage.

[Image Courtesy: writtent.com]

7A/B Test, Analyze and Improve – At this point, you’ve already created some great email copy, and you’re just waiting for them to drive loads of conversions. But what do you think will set apart the greatest email copy from your shortlist from the rest? In a word, details. The right ones. And how can you tell the details are the right ones?

Simple! By measuring the effectiveness of your email copy. You’ll need to A/B test your email content and analyze the results for email conversion rate optimization. Remember, you’ll need to continuously improve to double or triple your conversions.

So whenever you’re ready with your email copy, you’d do well to A/B test it. Divide your contact list into two or more contact segments and send emails to check which email copy converts better. Analyze the open rate, click-throughs and view rate to see which text gets you the best conversion rates.

[Image Courtesy: agilecrm.com]

Don’t forget to refine your email marketing copy to improve upon your conversion rates. Some key questions that you’ll need to answer to do so are:

  • Which email copy drove highest conversion?
  • Which copy got you highest click-throughs?
  • Which CTAs got better response from which segment?

Check out your analytical data to answer these questions. Once you’ve an answer to these questions, optimize your email copies further to improve your conversions.

Over to You!

So, there you have it – the 7 easy ways to write email copy that converts. Segment, personalize, write your subject lines and sync them well with your email content and landing pages.

Use powerful and compelling CTAs to convert your contacts into qualified leads, to convert your leads into actual buyers and to convert buyers into your brand advocates. Don’t forget to always test your emails and analyze your results to continuously improve upon your conversions.

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