Conversational emails: How to write marketing emails that convert

Last Updated: December 3, 2021

One of the successful ways of communicating with your consumers and prospective clients globally is by using email. It takes more than just clicking the send button to guarantee that your recipient will take their time to open your email, read it and respond to it.

Businesses and individuals receive numerous emails from marketers that often end up unread, trashed, or worse: marked as spam. For your recipient to find your email worthy of their time, you must compose it in such a manner that will appeal to them as a person and not just as a consumer of your product.

A majority of business professionals still prefer using email in their day to day business activities over other mediums, making it a critical tool for marketing your business. So how do you make sure that you make proper use of email when carrying out your marketing campaigns?

Consider the following eight tips:

 

1. Pick an interesting subject

A good email subject line has the most impact on your readers as it is what they will first see when they open their accounts. Here is when the recipient decides whether to click your message and read it or move on past it.

When a reader opens their email accounts and sees numerous messages, they will first browse through them and open the ones that will appeal to them. You need to keep your subject line short and to the point. A subject line that will only use two or three words will stand out to the reader grabbing the most attention. An email subject line study concluded that a short email subject line is preferable to long ones as time is an integral asset to most people.

 You can also use a question piquing the interest of the recipient who will want to find out the answer to it. It also stands out from the rest as it is not the norm in writing an email subject line and it immediately engages your reader.

An example is:
Have you ever been in love?

Another approach is to captivate your reader’s interest without delivering the punch line. This will make them have to open your email to find out the rest.

Using numbers in your subject line captures your reader’s attention as humans are attracted to digits. When you list them, the complicated topics are broken down into smaller parts easily making sense to the reader.

An example is:
7 Ways to get your work back on track

You also need to be unique with your subject line, and this entails you knowing the audience that you are targeting and why they should pick your product instead of other similar ones.

An example of such is:
Jerry’s fries with a salad on top

Your subject line can also be surprising and unexpected telling your reader a little-known fact about your company, a weird statistic or a quote that they are not used to hearing.

Including multimedia in your email will put it a step ahead of the rest and you should ensure that your readers know about it right from the subject line. 

An example: 

Mary’s new video guide to fabulous cooking

 Related reading: How to choose images for your email marketing campaigns to boost your CTR

2. Avoid sales jargon

Some phrases and words used in different professional circles should stay in those circles and should never make their way to an email that you are sending to a prospective client.

Most of the time, your reader will not understand the jargon used making them lose interest in whatever you are selling. Some of the jargon to avoid using include; Think outside the box, value-added, customer oriented, fully focused, we give 120%, drinking the Kool-Aid, service and best in class.

 All of these terms are meaningless as every company considers itself as the best in its field and also seeks to please the customer at all times. When a prospective client reads this, they see a salesperson that engages someone in long conversations and wants them to purchase something without really explaining themselves.

Related reading: 6 steps to an ideal reputation in email marketing

3. Use a direct and friendly tone

While trying to sound professional, most emails end up lacking that human touch. You can be both professional and friendly without losing the business aspect of your message.


Some of the words to avoid include: The use of pronouns such as I, we, us, ours, me, mine and my.

It will help your email appear personal to the reader. You may use the following guidelines to make your email sound friendly to the recipient:

  • If you cannot fulfill something give the reader an alternative.
  • Avoid negative words and statements such as never, no and rejected.
  • End with a friendly sentence such as “if I can be of further assistance kindly.”

4. Stop being dull

When you write as though you are addressing a crowd, you lose touch with each reader; instead, write as if you are only targeting one reader. It will make your email engaging and personal.

Avoid long sentences and paragraphs; allow your reader time to breathe. If your sentence is too long, break it into two making each one short and easy to read.

 Read your copy out loud, and if it feels boring to you, it is going to be annoying to your readers as well. Change it.

5. Ensure that your email is useful

Only write to your clients, subscribers or prospective clients when you have something valuable or useful to tell them. People hate wasting time reading something that at the end it will have been of no use to them.

Also, do not write to them only when you need something from them, enquire if their last purchase was useful and if they require any assistance you are available.

Be like a real friend. Empathize with them and make readers feel like they are not alone and that you are on their side. Remember 86% of business professionals use email, use it well.

6. Put yourself in their shoes

Before you write that email, ask yourself, if I was a consumer what would I want to be told by the business owner. Put yourself in your reader’s shoes to get an idea of what they want. Which words would discourage you from opening that email and which ones would make you eager to read it.

In turn, this will add that personal touches to your email making the reader feel like you are directly talking to them and that they are valued.

7. Promise something good

People want a little more than they have or want things to be better than they are. If your product or service will give your readers more than they already got, state it in the email.

It may make them happier, better at a business or in relationships, educate them or provide them with useful information to make them understand that. They will want to learn how to do it, making them read more of your email.

If you are giving a reward, running a promotion or giving out prizes, ensure that the readers know this. They may want to participate and win themselves something.

recent study on email preferences showed that 67% of people are totally fine with exchanging their email address for an incentive like free shipping or a gift card, and 39% already just to receive future promotions.

8. Experiment

Do not rely only on strict guidelines on how to write an email, try being different, experiment with various strategies and approaches to see how they work. When you stop following the set formula and write from your heart or become creative with your email, you will be surprised how many people might like it.

When you write using set rules, your email will sound like a thousand others out there and will bore your readers as they have already read one just like it.

9. (Bonus tip) Use automation tools to send emails

Writing an email is time-consuming but the tips above will help you do it quickly and like a pro. After that, you come to the stage of sending regular emails to people. This is no less time-consuming task but you can do it easily and quickly. You only need to find the right automation tool, something like email drip campaigns. Make sure your email security is on point to avoid DMARC fail errors.

Drip emails are a set of emails sent to recipients automatically according to the schedule and triggers (the predefined actions that the recipients perform). It won’t take you much time to compose the sequence of emails and you will surely save time sending follow-ups. Thanks to such a tool, you will always keep leads, clients, and subscribers engaged and well-informed.

As an example, here’s a Pointerpro help video on how to set up automatic follow-up emails for people that take a Pointerpro-built questionnaire:

Conclusion

Writing an email is not all about just sending words and statistics to your readers. You need to be personal and highlight the benefits of using your product or service.

You should care about your consumers genuinely and add a personality to your emails. Do not let your emails sound automated as many clients will skip out as it lacks a personal touch. Make sure you give precise information about your company and its products, and research on your clientele.

Your email should appeal to the customer/client and not to you! Follow these 8 tips and boost your email marketing campaign.

 

 

Related reading: 4 Ways surveys can supercharge your email marketing

 

Last Updated: December 3, 2021

One of the successful ways of communicating with your consumers and prospective clients globally is by using email. It takes more than just clicking the send button to guarantee that your recipient will take their time to open your email, read it and respond to it.

Businesses and individuals receive numerous emails from marketers that often end up unread, trashed, or worse: marked as spam. For your recipient to find your email worthy of their time, you must compose it in such a manner that will appeal to them as a person and not just as a consumer of your product.

A majority of business professionals still prefer using email in their day to day business activities over other mediums, making it a critical tool for marketing your business. So how do you make sure that you make proper use of email when carrying out your marketing campaigns?

Consider the following eight tips:

 

1. Pick an interesting subject

A good email subject line has the most impact on your readers as it is what they will first see when they open their accounts. Here is when the recipient decides whether to click your message and read it or move on past it.

When a reader opens their email accounts and sees numerous messages, they will first browse through them and open the ones that will appeal to them. You need to keep your subject line short and to the point. A subject line that will only use two or three words will stand out to the reader grabbing the most attention. An email subject line study concluded that a short email subject line is preferable to long ones as time is an integral asset to most people.

 You can also use a question piquing the interest of the recipient who will want to find out the answer to it. It also stands out from the rest as it is not the norm in writing an email subject line and it immediately engages your reader.

An example is:
Have you ever been in love?

Another approach is to captivate your reader’s interest without delivering the punch line. This will make them have to open your email to find out the rest.

Using numbers in your subject line captures your reader’s attention as humans are attracted to digits. When you list them, the complicated topics are broken down into smaller parts easily making sense to the reader.

An example is:
7 Ways to get your work back on track

You also need to be unique with your subject line, and this entails you knowing the audience that you are targeting and why they should pick your product instead of other similar ones.

An example of such is:
Jerry’s fries with a salad on top

Your subject line can also be surprising and unexpected telling your reader a little-known fact about your company, a weird statistic or a quote that they are not used to hearing.

Including multimedia in your email will put it a step ahead of the rest and you should ensure that your readers know about it right from the subject line. 

An example: 

Mary’s new video guide to fabulous cooking

 Related reading: How to choose images for your email marketing campaigns to boost your CTR

2. Avoid sales jargon

Some phrases and words used in different professional circles should stay in those circles and should never make their way to an email that you are sending to a prospective client.

Most of the time, your reader will not understand the jargon used making them lose interest in whatever you are selling. Some of the jargon to avoid using include; Think outside the box, value-added, customer oriented, fully focused, we give 120%, drinking the Kool-Aid, service and best in class.

 All of these terms are meaningless as every company considers itself as the best in its field and also seeks to please the customer at all times. When a prospective client reads this, they see a salesperson that engages someone in long conversations and wants them to purchase something without really explaining themselves.

Related reading: 6 steps to an ideal reputation in email marketing

3. Use a direct and friendly tone

While trying to sound professional, most emails end up lacking that human touch. You can be both professional and friendly without losing the business aspect of your message.


Some of the words to avoid include: The use of pronouns such as I, we, us, ours, me, mine and my.

It will help your email appear personal to the reader. You may use the following guidelines to make your email sound friendly to the recipient:

  • If you cannot fulfill something give the reader an alternative.
  • Avoid negative words and statements such as never, no and rejected.
  • End with a friendly sentence such as “if I can be of further assistance kindly.”

4. Stop being dull

When you write as though you are addressing a crowd, you lose touch with each reader; instead, write as if you are only targeting one reader. It will make your email engaging and personal.

Avoid long sentences and paragraphs; allow your reader time to breathe. If your sentence is too long, break it into two making each one short and easy to read.

 Read your copy out loud, and if it feels boring to you, it is going to be annoying to your readers as well. Change it.

5. Ensure that your email is useful

Only write to your clients, subscribers or prospective clients when you have something valuable or useful to tell them. People hate wasting time reading something that at the end it will have been of no use to them.

Also, do not write to them only when you need something from them, enquire if their last purchase was useful and if they require any assistance you are available.

Be like a real friend. Empathize with them and make readers feel like they are not alone and that you are on their side. Remember 86% of business professionals use email, use it well.

6. Put yourself in their shoes

Before you write that email, ask yourself, if I was a consumer what would I want to be told by the business owner. Put yourself in your reader’s shoes to get an idea of what they want. Which words would discourage you from opening that email and which ones would make you eager to read it.

In turn, this will add that personal touches to your email making the reader feel like you are directly talking to them and that they are valued.

7. Promise something good

People want a little more than they have or want things to be better than they are. If your product or service will give your readers more than they already got, state it in the email.

It may make them happier, better at a business or in relationships, educate them or provide them with useful information to make them understand that. They will want to learn how to do it, making them read more of your email.

If you are giving a reward, running a promotion or giving out prizes, ensure that the readers know this. They may want to participate and win themselves something.

recent study on email preferences showed that 67% of people are totally fine with exchanging their email address for an incentive like free shipping or a gift card, and 39% already just to receive future promotions.

8. Experiment

Do not rely only on strict guidelines on how to write an email, try being different, experiment with various strategies and approaches to see how they work. When you stop following the set formula and write from your heart or become creative with your email, you will be surprised how many people might like it.

When you write using set rules, your email will sound like a thousand others out there and will bore your readers as they have already read one just like it.

9. (Bonus tip) Use automation tools to send emails

Writing an email is time-consuming but the tips above will help you do it quickly and like a pro. After that, you come to the stage of sending regular emails to people. This is no less time-consuming task but you can do it easily and quickly. You only need to find the right automation tool, something like email drip campaigns. Make sure your email security is on point to avoid DMARC fail errors.

Drip emails are a set of emails sent to recipients automatically according to the schedule and triggers (the predefined actions that the recipients perform). It won’t take you much time to compose the sequence of emails and you will surely save time sending follow-ups. Thanks to such a tool, you will always keep leads, clients, and subscribers engaged and well-informed.

As an example, here’s a Pointerpro help video on how to set up automatic follow-up emails for people that take a Pointerpro-built questionnaire:

Conclusion

Writing an email is not all about just sending words and statistics to your readers. You need to be personal and highlight the benefits of using your product or service.

You should care about your consumers genuinely and add a personality to your emails. Do not let your emails sound automated as many clients will skip out as it lacks a personal touch. Make sure you give precise information about your company and its products, and research on your clientele.

Your email should appeal to the customer/client and not to you! Follow these 8 tips and boost your email marketing campaign.

 

 

Related reading: 4 Ways surveys can supercharge your email marketing

 

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About the author:
Lori Wade

Lori Wade

Lori is a content writer for EliteEssayWriters who is interested in a wide range of spheres from education and online marketing to entrepreneurship. She is also an aspiring tutor striving to bring education to another level like we all do.

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