Copywriting For Emails

Write Like When You Talk To A Friend

People are desensitised to a sales pitch. It will be refreshing if you write to them like your friend, and they are more likely to pay attention to what you have to say.

Use Simple Language And Avoid Jargons

Simple language is easier to read. Avoid difficult words and long sentences.

Have Only One Main Message Per Email

Keep the email focused by having only one message per email. If it is a new product launch email, you don’t need to talk ask for their feedback and review. If it’s an email on product care guide, you don’t need to mention your shop’s bestsellers.  

Also, be clear about what you want the reader to do. Usually it’s to ask them to click the link to visit your Etsy shop. Put action words on the button you want the readers to click on will be helpful. For example, “Shop Our Black Friday Sale” and “Last 3 Days To Get 20% Off”

Keep It Short And Sweet

Get straight to the point. You are not writing a novel.

Use p.s. At The End To Help Conversion

A study shows 79% of readers read the p.s. before anything else. It’s a great place to add or reiterate something that you want the reader to do. For example, “p.s. Order before Dec 15 to have it delivered by Christmas (link to the shop)” or “p.s. If you are loving your product, it would mean so much if you can leave a review here.”

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A Bit More On A/B Testing

A/B testing is important in improving your email marketing performance. Most email marketing services, such as MailerLite and ConvertKit, support A/B testing. This feature allows you to send two variations of an email to a percentage of your subscribers (usually about 25% for each variation). Based on which variation performs better, the rest of your subscribers will receive the higher-performing variation.

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Email marketing services that provides A/B testing allows you to experiment emails with different subject lines, and some even let you test variations on content or sender names. So you can gain insights on what your subscribers respond well to, and you can use that to further improve your email marketing performance over time.

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One thing to keep in mind is that A/B testing is only effective when you have a large enough subscriber list. Usually it's recommended that you have at least 1,000 people on your list before starting to test. If you test with a relatively small list, the results you get may be because of chance instead of actual preference of your subscribers.

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If you have a relatively small list, focus your effort on growing your list and implementing the best practices listed in this chapter.

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Writing Clickable Subject Lines

Emojis

Emojis are fun and lighthearted. And most importantly, eye-catching.

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Open your email inbox now and look at all the promotional emails you have. Do the ones with emojis pop out to you?

Urgency

If you run the sale only for 3 days, say it in the subject line “3 Days Left!”, “Ending Soon”. But make sure that the urgency is true. If you over-use urgency, you can potentially lose trust of your subscribers.

Keep It Short

Short subject lines are easier to read than long ones, and they also stand out on an inbox full of long subject lines.

Make It A Question

Sometimes asking a question will make customers more curious and click. “Do you know that this new material is 3 times softer?”, “Fun fact, do you know diamond is the hardest gemstone on Earth?”, etc.

Avoid Spammy Subject Lines

Avoid spammy and all capitalised subject lines like “You have just won $50 coupon!” And “CLICK THIS TODAY TO WIN OUR GIVEAWAY”.

Examples

Here are some examples of great subject lines:

“🎃 Trick or Treat! Our Halloween Collection Is Here!”

“Do This One Thing To Make Your (product name) Last 5 Times Longer”

“Last 24 Hours Before Our Black Friday Sale Ends ⚠️”

Layout Of Emails 

Usually email marketing services have templates of different email layouts.

My recommendation for email layout is to keep it simple. Simple emails loads faster and can improve the experience of shoppers and customers. 

Logo at the top, easy-to-read font as the main text, and only necessary photos.

Sometimes when photos are not necessary, it’s best to just have a text-based email. Emails with too many photos can end up in the “promotion” inbox rather than the main inbox.