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Email Copywriting 101: Essential Best Practices to Boost Your Campaigns

By Scott Chandler  |  Published May 06, 2024  |  Updated May 06, 2024
Scottchandler
By Scott Chandler

As Vice President of Growth Marketing at VonClaro, Scott masterfully orchestrates sophisticated marketing strategies, with a primary focus on search engine optimization (SEO).

Blonde woman working on email marketing strategies on her laptop in a cozy home environment

Dive into the world of email copywriting best practices and discover how to supercharge your campaigns with exceptional copywriting techniques. For businesses, email marketing is an invaluable channel; a direct line to clients that drives measurable action.

At the heart of any successful email marketing campaign is superbly crafted copy that understands its audience and communicates its message in the most compelling way.

This guide provides an in-depth exploration of essential email copywriting best practices that will significantly bolster the performance of your campaigns, resulting in higher engagement and conversions.

Email Copywriting Best Practices

Engaging with your audience through email starts with understanding who your audience is. Crafting impactful email copy demands a tailored approach that acknowledges your audience's needs, interests, and desires.

You'll learn how to formulate irresistible subject lines, a crucial first impression that can make or break the chances of your email being opened by a recipient. 

Creating engaging content that not only captivates but also serves the expectations of your audience is a fundamental skill your email marketing copywriter must possess. Let’s jump in.

1. Understand Your Audience

The key to compelling email marketing copywriting starts with knowing your audience. Every word, image, and call to action must be tailored to their needs, interests, and desires. Try creating customer personas, utilizing surveys, or studying email metrics to gain deeper insights into your audience.

Comparison of email campaign performance metrics highlighting different subject lines

2. Craft Compelling Subject Lines

Your subject line is the first thing recipients see and often determines whether or not the email gets opened. It should be concise, engaging, and perfectly encapsulate what the email is about. Personalization, curiosity-inducing phrases, and urgency can work wonders in boosting open rates.

Here are a few more tips:

  • Keep them short (no more than 60 characters)
  • Add emojis to inject some personality
  • Test a few different subject lines to see what performs best

3. Make the Content Relevant and Engaging

Ensure your content is not only engaging but also meets the needs of your audience. Use storytelling, answer critical questions, or provide useful information. Remember, high-quality content educates and excites.

4. Embrace Personalization

Personalization is another critical factor in efficient email copywriting. Utilize customer data to address the recipient by name, mention past purchases or interactions, or provide personalized recommendations. You can also segment your audience into different groups and send them entirely different emails depending on their preferences.

5. Clear and Strong Call to Actions (CTAs)

Every email should inspire the readers to take action. This could be reading a blog post, checking out a product, or signing up for a webinar. Ensure your CTA is clear, concise, and compelling. Not everyone will read your entire message, so it’s a good practice to mention your CTA at the start and end of your email.

6. Optimize for Mobile

More often than not, emails are opened on mobile devices, making optimizing for mobile a non-negotiable practice. Ensure your formatting is mobile-friendly, with clear fonts and easy-to-click buttons.

7. A/B Test Your Emails

The final email copywriting tip to make a part of your best practices is regular testing. Many email marketing platforms allow you to create two different versions of your email. This means you can experiment with different subject lines, email lengths, visuals, and CTAs to determine what resonates best with your audience.

Email application interface showing segmented recipient lists for targeted marketing

By following these email copywriting best practices, you’ll significantly improve your email marketing campaigns, resulting in higher open rates, better engagement, and ultimately, greater conversions.

To sum up, brilliant email copywriting is a balance of understanding your audience, crafting compelling subject lines, creating relevant and engaging content, personalizing the email copy, having a clear call-to-action, optimizing for mobile, and consistently testing your emails.

Incorporating these email copywriting best practices will undoubtedly boost your campaigns and take your email marketing to a new level.

Frequently Asked Questions about Email Copywriting Best Practices for Digital Marketing

We've compiled a list of the most common questions our users ask, and provided you with clear, concise answers to help you write emails your audience will love. 

1. What are the best practices for email copywriting to boost my campaigns?

  • Subject Lines: Write compelling, concise, and personal subject lines. They should not be misleading as open rates will drop once subscribers realize they're being manipulated.
  • Personalisation: Use your subscriber's name and other relevant data to make your email more personal. This helps increase engagement rates.
  • Value: Ensure your email provides value to the recipient. This can be educational, entertaining, or beneficial in any other way.
  • Call To Action: Make sure your email includes a clear, compelling call to action. This tells the reader exactly what they're expected to do next.
  • Test: It is important to constantly test your email copywriting strategies to identify what works best for your audience.

2. Email Copywriting 101: How can effective email copywriting improve the success of my marketing campaigns?

Email Copywriting 101 provides essential tips on crafting effective mail copy, from structuring your email for readability, to creating compelling subject lines, to improving response rates with personalized messaging. By following these guidelines, you can optimize your emails to drive higher engagement, improve conversion rates, and ultimately achieve your campaign objectives.

3. Are there essential guidelines to follow for effective email copywriting?

Yes, here are a few vital guidelines:

  • Understand your audience: Use a tone and language that resonates with your audience.
  • KISS (Keep It Short and Simple): Keep your emails short, clear and to-the-point. 
  • Use strong action verbs: Use words that engage, inspire, and persuade.
  • Follow a logical structure: Start with an engaging intro, followed by the main content and a strong call-to-action (CTA).
  • Avoid spam triggers: This includes all-caps subject lines, excessive use of exclamation points, and certain phrases like "Buy now" or "Free."

4. Can you explain the best practices for email copywriting mentioned in Email Copywriting 101?

Certainly! Here are some explained best practices:

  • Crafting the Subject Line: This is the first thing recipients see. It should be intriguing, aligned with your message, and actionable.
  • Structuring the Email: A well-structured email is easy to read and navigate. Use short paragraphs, subheadings, and bullet points.
  • Using Persuasive Language: Couple persuasive words with facts and figures for maximum impact.
  • Personalization: Craft personalized messages based on customers' behaviors, demographics, and preferences.
  • Call To Action (CTA): Use CTAs that incite action, create urgency and promise benefits.

Ready to write high-converting emails?

Remember, emails are a communication tool between you and your audience. Email copywriting best practices help improve your Return on Investment (ROI). When writing them, ensure they represent your brand and add value to your subscribers. Trial and error, coupled with testing different strategies, will help you find what works best for your business.

Are you thinking about which platform to choose for email marketing? See our article on How to Choose the Best Email Platform.

Want to grow your email list? Leadpages makes it easy to build high-converting landing pages that generate email subscriptions. It also integrates with all your favorite email marketing platforms so subscribers are added to your list automatically.

Try Leadpages free for 14 days and watch your list grow.


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Scottchandler
By Scott Chandler

Scott has been engaged in all aspects of digital marketing since 2007 and currently applies his expertise as Vice President of Growth Marketing at VonClaro. In this capacity, he masterfully orchestrates sophisticated marketing strategies, with a primary focus on search engine optimization (SEO). His extensive understanding of the digital marketing landscape enables him to deliver substantial and measurable results for clients.

Blonde woman working on email marketing strategies on her laptop in a cozy home environment
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