How to Write Emails That Actually Convert – Our Best Strategies

Email marketing is an effective promotion tool.

It generates twice as much response to PPC campaigns and comparatively delivers a higher return on investment.

The trouble is, one in three marketers use email for promotion, and getting your audience’s attention has become incredibly difficult these days.

In this article, I have shared some tricks and techniques to increase your conversion rate. This guide will help you learn the art of copywriting, giving you tools to start writing emails that actually convert.

Let’s get started.

What is Email Conversion and How To Write Emails That Convert?

Statista

Email conversion means generating a desired response from your target audience through emails. If the recipient reads your emails and clicks on the CTA or any link attached, we consider those emails high-converting.

Marketers typically measure the success of their campaign through email conversion rates–the number of people who open and click on the CTA. 

The average conversion rate of an email campaign is generally 2% to 5%, but realistically, you can reach as high as 15%, depending on the campaign type–for example, cart abandonment campaigns usually receive a better response than welcome emails.

The rate can also be affected by the industry. 

B2B brands might experience a lower conversion rate than B2C brands because of the audience volume. Similarly, beverage companies would likely get a higher conversion than, say, automobile companies.

But the major component that influences your conversion rate is your email copy. With a high-converting copy, you can easily persuade people to click on your email and take your desired action.

Let’s explore the seven copywriting techniques to help you write an email that actually converts. With this guide, you can draft compelling emails and improve your campaign performance. 

Seven Best Techniques for High-Converting Emails

Writing a high-converting copy requires a step-by-step thought process.

In marketing, we call it the basic copywriting formula–know your audience, identify their problem, and provide them with a solution. 

You’ll find this formula in almost every campaign, including email marketing. The intention and drafting might be different, but the process is typically the same.

I have divided this formula into seven actionable steps to help you create a template for emails. It isn’t a rigid process, of course, but it may provide you with a guide to optimize your campaigns.

1. Create A Goal

The first step of email drafting is to identify its purpose. 

What’s the intent of your campaign? 

Do you want to generate leads, nurture your subscribers, retain lost leads, or convert them into customers?

Or, to be more specific, do you want people to sign up for your newsletter, upgrade their subscription plan, or return to their cart and complete the purchase?

Creating a measurable goal will help you tailor your email campaigns and quantify your conversions. For example, if your goal is to retain lost customers, you can personalize your content to target those leads–like offering them discounts on the first purchase.

The above example is an excellent case study.

On the surface, it appears to be a newsletter, but you’ll notice that the content subtly directs you to check out the free courses. 

The intent of the email here is to nurture leads.

Dig deep to make your intent as specific as possible. The more targeted your goal is, the better you can personalize your copy.

2. Identify your Target Audience

Edrawmind

Many brands target a diverse audience to expand their businesses. It allows them to increase their customer base and generate different revenue streams. 

For example. Procter & Gamble is a popular consumer brand. Its product line covers a wide range of items, from personal and baby care to grooming and cleaning products.

How do you think P&G attracts such a diverse audience? Through targeted campaigns.

If you fall into the same category and sell more than one product, then knowing who to target can increase your return on investment by 77%!

The best way to do it is to build separate lists for each campaign. 

Ideally, you’d already have a segmented list for email marketing. All you need to do is create a group and send batch emails to the targeted people.

But if it’s your first campaign, no worries; templates are available on the internet for segmentation. Marketing platforms like HubSpot offer some good free resources. You can also get templates from collaboration tools, such as Edrawmind and Miro

As a general rule, you should divide your audience by age, income, location, and interests. From there, you can branch out and group individuals by their browsing patterns, beliefs, purchase history, and so on.

3. Write Catchy Headlines

Once you have done the prep work, it’s time to draft your subject line.

The subject line is one of the most important components of an email. It’s the first thing people see, and it’s what makes them decide whether to read or delete the email.

47% of people open emails based on the subject line alone, and personalized subject lines get even better results.

A good subject line should be no more than 60 characters. Most people check emails on their smartphones, and the small screen displays only a couple of words in your subject lines.

Make your message short and compelling. Use power words or teasers to gain attention. 

Most of all, avoid spam words that might provoke a negative response from the recipient.

How to know which words to use and what to avoid? There are tools to analyze your subject line. For example, MailMeteor lets you analyze your subject line for free.

Or, you can take the old-fashioned way and test it out yourself. 

Go to your inbox and tag emails that catch your eye. Break down the subject line to see what attracted your attention in the first place and note them for future use.

Here are three excellent subject lines for you. I copied them from the emails that gained my attention.

• HubSpot–Your HubSpot profile will be deleted in 7 days. – A FOMO technique is used here to incite action. When I read that subject line, I immediately clicked on the email, even though I hadn’t used my HubSpot account for two years–a pretty powerful trick.

• Kelli Bhattacharjee–Free Pumpkin Stencils!  The word “Free” is a double-edged sword. It can increase your open rate or trigger the spam filter. In my case, it was the former. I love collecting stencils.

• We Work Remotely–This will help you find work/life balance. – Curiosity-driven subject lines like this typically drive high conversions. The email generated my curiosity, too, because my work/life balance is terrible.

4. Write Relevant Content

The next step is to draft the main body. 

A good email is reader-friendly, concise, and relevant. 

People are impatient in general, and most spend hardly nine seconds on emails. 

Here, you have a short window to retain their attention. With relevant content, you can deliver your message and drive an impulse decision.

Avoid lengthy intros and get to the main point as quickly as possible. You can start your email with a brief one-line introduction or directly with your message. Both are effective strategies.

The second thing to consider is personalization.

Email is a personal communication tool. People generally expect emails to be addressed to them and respond better if the message feels personal.

There are several tricks you can apply to create tailored content. 

You can add the recipient’s name in the email body, make generous use of the word “You”, or connect the message with the recipient’s browsing behavior.

Here’s a real-life example of a relevant and personalized email.

Hey, Zarqoon,

Want your content to stand out in search results?

We’ve put together the ultimate guide to schema markup – your key to better SEO.

Inside, you’ll discover:

• What schema markup is (no tech jargon)
• How to implement it step-by-step
• Tools to generate and validate your schema
• Advanced tips for creating a “knowledge graph”
• No coding skills required. We’ve broken it down into simple, actionable steps.

 Read the full guide here.

Cheers.

This email has all the components. 

It’s conversational, relevant, and personal.

5. Make An Offer

A sales copy almost always comes attached with some kind of offer. It’s how marketers grab their leads’ attention and how they persuade them to take action.

Take Temo, for example.

Temo is an online e-commerce platform, like AliExpress, and it sells a variety of third-party consumer products. 

The products and prices on Temo are attention-grabbing and generate high conversion, even though 80% of the items have terrible quality.

How do I know this? Let’s just say I had a brief moment of shopping frenzy and ordered several products from Temo. 

The first purchase should have been enough to delete the app, but I still made multiple purchases from Temo.

Why? Because of its tempting offers. 

91% of people are attracted by free gifts and discounts, and this technique generates 38% more conversions. Temp also reels in the customers with free goodies, mystery gifts, and discounts.

Here’re some real-life examples of offers.

• Extra discount on your cart item. Shop Now–Temo.
• Get 1 month of offline listening with Premium for $0–Spotify.
• It’s your last chance to get a year of Grammarly Pro for just $72–Grammarly.

If you want to dial down your promotion pitch a little, there are good ways to seamlessly add offers to your email copy–like the example below.

Do you have printed pictures of yourself? That would be great.

Then check out the Clickworker app for this new fun project “Take up to 7 videos of different printed photos of yourself!” and reward yourself with some cash.

We launched a bonus campaign and will pay for each approved video $1.20.

Your recordings are used for artificial intelligence training and will surely not be published!

This email is also pretty aggressive, but it feels personal and conversational.

6. Gain Trust With Social Proof

One of the most challenging aspects of email marketing is converting general leads into qualified leads. 

People usually don’t trust promotional emails. Sure, they might open your email and probably read it, but converting them into customers requires more than just a little persuasion.

That’s where social proof comes in.

Social proof refers to making a purchase decision based on others’ experiences. If brand X claims it can optimize your meeting schedule, but your friend says brand Z works better, you’ll likely go for product Z. 

That is essentially called social proof.

You can increase your email conversions by 34% with social proof alone. 

Plenty of techniques can be applied to incorporate social proof into your email copy.

If you need some examples, here are three ways you can use social proof to boost conversions.

• Testimonials–You can attach existing customers’ feedback or share your customer base number. Tons of B2B businesses use this technique to improve their credibility. 

• User-Generated Content–Almost 93% of marketers use USG to create brand authenticity.

• Influencer Marketing– Name-dropping is an old technique to impress people. You can try it in email marketing as well.

Below is the email I received from Flowrite. You’ll notice it has used social proof in the subject line.

Subject: 50,000+ people are waiting to use our extension – and you have the access.

Email Body: Nowadays, our daily communication extends far beyond emails. We message through various platforms, such as LinkedIn, Twitter, and WhatsApp every day…

And Flowrite is available wherever you need it.

Thanks to our browser extension, you can use Flowrite to write messages on over 20 popular websites.

Explore Flowrite integrations.

Best,

Aaro

CEO & Co-Founder of Flowrite

7. Write a Good CTA 

The last component of a high-converting email is its call to action.

CTA is the hyperlink text that directs users to your desired web page. You typically see it as a clickable button at the end of the email with a highlighted background and bold fonts to make it notable.

This is important because the entire email leads to CTA. You want readers to take some action, and you do it through CTA.

Your call-to-action text should be clear and concise, letting readers know where the link will lead them. If your email’s goal is to increase subscribers, the CTA should convey the same. 

The second thing to consider is its purpose. The main job of a CTA is to persuade people to take action. That means it should not only be concise but also direct.

Think about it. If you see “Find Out More” and “Subscribe,”. Which one would you likely pick? 

The second one, why? Because it’s specific and direct. You know what you are getting, and the clear choice helps you make an informed decision. 

CTAs like “learn more” and “Discover” generate curiosity and work well in nurturing campaigns, such as newsletters and blogs. For a high-converting copy, a direct CTA is perfect.

You can make it more persuasive by adding a sense of urgency, like “Subscribe Now” or “Get Your Free Mystery Gift.”

To summarize, a good CTA can greatly increase your chances of conversion. Check out this blog to see the type of text you can use for the CTA button.

Conclusion

Writing an email isn’t that difficult. Tons of templates and guides are available on the internet to help you draft a compelling copy.

But a good email doesn’t guarantee high conversion. To make that happen, you need to know what draws your audience’s attention and what can retain them.

Use this guide to draft your first email and A/B test some variations to measure your audience response. 

With a little practice, you’ll begin to see positive results. Good luck!