Email marketing has become a non-negotiable part of every successful business, be it online or brick-and-mortar. In this series, I will write about the tips and guidelines that I found to be the most useful to follow in email marketing, so you can benefit from them instantly instead of experimenting years to notice them on your own.


Tips and guidelines on How to write better emails.

Writing better emails takes time and practice. However, you can speed up your journey by following some guidelines that email marketers have discovered through years of experience and sending many email campaigns.


1. Write a subject line that is fully authentic but has some mystery.

The subject line plays the most important role in improving your email open rate (One of the most important key performance indicators of an email campaign). Try to write a subject line that is relevant to the topic of your email, but still keep it mysterious and interesting. That is critical because the reader would want to open the email to reveal any small mystery around the information included.

For example, the subject line "The number one organic traffic sources to grow your business" has a little bit of mystery in it, as the reader would want to discover more about that organic traffic source that we are writing about. So the reader would want to open the email so they can learn more about what you've proposed in the subject line, and that would increase your email open rate dramatically. While if the subject line is too revealing the reader might be satisfied without opening your email. For example, when you write the subject line "Organic Traffic through SEO" most of the readers that have heard of SEO they would most likely pass on opening your email.

Now, you might ask "If the reader opens the email from the somewhat mysterious subject line, what will make the reader stick to reading if the mystery has prevailed?". The simple answer is through the hook of the email that we will discuss below.


2. Start your email body with a hook.

After the recipient opens your email, what ensures that they will continue reading through it? simple answer, the hook. The hook of an email comes at the very beginning of the email body to capture the reader's attention ensuring that they will have enough interest to continue reading through your email.

This part of the email plays a very essential role in another very important key performance indicator, which is the click-through rate. The click-through rate is the percentage of those who clicked on the link you're promoting from those who opened the email.

For example, if the email is pitching an SEO article, a good hook for the email would be "Read in my free article some of the most important SEO guidelines that guarantee improvements in your business website rankings and not get negatively affected by Google's latest major update". This hook will capture the reader's attention to the update from Google and want to learn about the guidelines that they need to follow in order to make use of the update to their favor instead of being negatively affected by it.


3. Add a signature.

what is an email signature? An email signature is a block of content at the bottom of the email that contains information about the sender like name and job along with some contact information like an email address and a phone number along with the brand of a company if exists.

The importance of an email signature is that it adds to the legitimacy of the email in the eyes of the reader by making it much more professional. And adding information about the sender and contact information builds more trust with the recipient as they will know who they are in contact with.


4. Don't forget to keep a friendly tone.

Your emails should always look and feel professional, however, you should not forget to keep a friendly tone in your writing. Keeping your emails professional will add greatly to the legitimacy of your brand in the eyes of the reader

If the purpose of your email is not very professional, it's advised to address the reader with their first name to establish a closer relationship between you and them. You might even go as far as writing a very brief joke that would make the reader feel more at ease.


5. Add your unique touch

A key factor to write better emails is including your unique touch in the email. You can add your touch in greeting the reader in a unique way or having an eye-catching signature at the end. 
An example of how I personally add my personal touch to the email when I'm addressing business owners is writing "How are you and your business doing?" after greeting them. 

These touches make the reader remember your email and set it apart from the competition. As everyone we meet has their own unique style, making your emails follow your unique style will put the reader more at ease as they think of you as just another person they met. This will establish trust and rapport with the recipient and they will read what you're advertising with open-mindedness without the constant fear and worry of falling into a scam.


6. Make sure you don't have any spelling or grammar errors.

This tip in particular is very important to write better emails because having any spelling or grammar errors would destroy the reader's perception of the legitimacy of your brand. 

For the purpose of this tip, I would like to recommend that you install Grammarly on your browser (totally free). Grammarly's free version will detect any grammar or spelling errors in your writings and will suggest the best fix, it also detects the tone that you've set in your writings. For example, Grammarly can detect if your writing is more formal, friendly, supportive ...etc, so you can adjust the tone of your writing to match the purpose of your emails. Grammarly's paid plan offers much more features like suggestions for better rephrasing and writing tone adjustment.


7. Appear as a friend, not a salesman.

The content of the emails should also be carefully considered. They should certainly highlight the products and services you are promoting and the benefits that the reader would gain from them, but you should do so without your email appearing as a hard sales pitch. 

Pitch the product or service that you are offering in an authentic manner. You should state to the recipient the benefits that they will gain clearly and truthfully. Don't exaggerate the benefits or gains of your promotions because even if these exaggerations weren't noticed by the user from the first email, they will likely notice them later down the line and you will lose the trust of a potential lifelong customer.


8. Add a call to action, don't forget your primary goal.

Don't forget when writing your email that your number one priority is compelling the reader to take action, be it purchasing a product, free signup, ...etc. Your emails should provide the reader with a clear and specific call to action. This should be a statement urging the reader to take a specific action such as making a purchase or researching a product. You should try to make the action process very smooth and easy for the user to make.


9. Don't include many links.

As I've written above, you should include in your email a clear and specific call to action, and it usually starts with a click from the user. We always see emails that just have many links to click, hence many focus points, that would leave the user confused about where to continue, and that is neither a clear nor specific call to action. What you need to do is try to stir the focus of the user into one focus point, one link to click, and one action to take. So when the reader is sold on your they already know exactly the action that they need to take leaving them no time to rethink their decision resulting in a higher click-through rate for your email campaign.




Conclusion.

Developing the skill of writing better emails surely requires time and practice. But I believe implementing these tips and experimenting to find your own would tremendously shorten your learning journey.