If you want people to read your cold emails or newsletter, here’s the hard truth: you need to write better emails.
People hate a message landing in their inbox that’s either boring or of no use to them whatsoever. So, instead of allowing your recipients to continue deleting them within minutes (or unsubscribing), keep on reading.
13 tips to help you write better emails
If you want to increase your open rates and persuade your recipient to take action, try these tips:
One. Know the goal of your email
Before you start writing your email, ask yourself the following three questions:
- What do you want the reader to do?
- How do you want them to feel?
- What action do you want them to take?
Knowing the goal of your email makes it easier to write. When you don’t know, you’ll end up whacking down a load of loose threads that don’t tie together, turning what could have been a sharp message into a bloated bag of words that’s neither insightful nor useful.
Two. Consider the tone of voice
The tone of your message is crucial.
If you pitch a cold email to a cancer charity, then going in all guns blazing with a load of obscenities will earn you a one-way ticket to the junk box. You need to think about who it is you’re emailing.
- Who are they?
- What are they like?
- What tone would they appreciate and react well to?
If your audience is your current list of newsletter subscribers, you can be a little more OTT because they know you. That’s not to say you can’t be a bit humorous in a cold email because you need to be memorable.
Just think about the person reading it, and be the you that they’ll like (cos we’ve all got dozens of different personalities depending on who we’re talking to).
If it’s somebody who’d appreciate a really chatty tone, learn more in my article, 15 ways to write in a chatty tone of voice (with examples).
Three. Make sure the email is worth sending
Before you send an email, ask yourself two questions:
- What is the point of this email?
- Is it worth sending?
Ideally, you’ll have asked yourself this before spending time and effort writing it. But honestly, make sure the email is worth it.
Are you:
- Being insightful?
- Writing something the reader will find informative and useful?
- Adding your own expertise?
If not, and you’ve bashed out an email just for the sake of it, delete it and start again.
Four. Make your subject lines impossible to ignore
This is where the magic really happens.
You don’t have to resort to clickbait to get people to open your emails. Personally, I bloody hate something landing in my inbox that starts with:
- URGENT!!
- INFECTED!!
Instead, use power words, like great, awesome, crazy or amazing, as they’re good for getting people to open emails, as are numbers and questions. Make it relevant to what is in the email, and don’t use more than around eight words.
To update my newsletter followers about this article, I could use subject lines like:
- Want 13 reasons for opening this email?
- 13 friggin’ cool ways to get people reading your emails
- Want more people reading your emails and newsletters?
- Increase your email open rates – now!
Not bad, they tell people what it’s about, and give them an idea of the result they’ll get from opening it.
But I could go even further and create a subject header that’s either funny, weird or intriguing:
- This email is going to make you pump with joy
- Make people read your emails on the loo
As long as those silly headers are answered within the email, they’re fine.
Just capture attention, whether it’s by being informative or a little bit daft – you’ll know what your audience will relate with.
Five. Choose the appropriate greeting
Emailing Lord Kenneth Chesterton, who runs a bespoke gentlemen’s tailoring shop in Savile Row, might be your ideal customer. But if you start the email like this: Yo! Ken!
Well, he’s going to tut and tell one of his lackeys to delete the email.
Make sure your greeting is appropriate to your audience, whether that’s:
- Hello
- Hi
- Hey
- Dear
Or, indeed:
- Yo!
But getting somebody to open an email is only the start.
Six. Write an attention-grabbing opening sentence
If you want to write better emails, you need to grab them by the jaffas straight away.
Don’t waste your opening sentence, it needs to be strong enough to make the recipient want to read on. If it’s a cold pitch, research the person online. Check out their Twitter or Instagram feed – or see if they’ve been dropping some real insights on LinkedIn.
Hell, to make it super personal, you could start it with a picture of the lemon drizzle cake they posted on Instagram:
Hey [Name],
I want to start by saying – WOW, your homemade lemon drizzle cake looks amazing!
Anyway, my name is…
Something like this will depend on how you perceive their personality.
If you’re unsure, be direct. An example of an email about this article could be:
Hey [Name]
The days of people ignoring your emails and newsletters are over!
This one tells them what the email is about and what it will do for them.
This also works when contacting a group of people.
Seven. Keep it short and clear
One of the best ways to write better emails is to keep them short and clear. Tell your reader what it’s about fast. Don’t go on for ages to get to the point.
To learn more about reducing word count in your written content, check out 7 ways to master short copy.
Eight. Cut the jargon
Not everyone is an expert, and even if they are, reading an email packed with buzzwords will be boring for them too.
Nine. Use bullet points
Bullet points:
- Create white space on the page
- Allow you to list important information
- Make it easy to read
Ten. Be consistent with your fonts
Don’t litter your emails with loads of different font sizes and colours.
We’ve all had emails where parts of sentences are in BLOCK CAPITALS, have raNdOm upper and lower case letters or are bolded red. Then there’s the random use of multiple headers, all with different fonts.
If you’re using headers (like I do), keep them the same colour and font throughout – ideally the same or similar to the one you use on your website and in your marketing.
Otherwise, you’re going to hurt people’s eyes, look unprofessional and annoy the reader into clicking delete or unsubscribe.
Eleven. Write a clear call to action
Whether you want them to:
- Reply
- Check out your services
- Download a free guide
- Schedule a call
Or, something else, tell them what you want them to do and provide the relevant information or link (if it’s to an external page).
If you don’t tell them, they’ll look blankly, shake their head and think, “What was all that about!?”
Twelve. Conclude the email with an appropriate final sentence
If it’s a cold email, don’t just end your email with, Kind Regards.
Add a sentence that thanks them, like:
- Thank you for your time
- I’m looking forward to your reply
If it’s to your email list, end it with: “Chat to ya later, nerds!” if that’s what they’ll connect with.
Thirteen. Spellcheck, proof and edit your email before sending
Before sending your email, spellcheck the hell out of it!
You will look unprofessional and sloppy if you send an email riddled with spelling mistakes.
So, check, check and check again.
Oh, and don’t just use a spellchecker in your Word document. Use one or all of these tools too:
- Grammarly (Free & Paid)
- Scribens (Free)
- Wordtune (Free & Paid)
These will help you catch mistakes or reword your content, making it sound even better.
Now you’re ready to write better emails.
So, what are you waiting for?
Take the thirteen tips above, implement the ones you’re not yet doing, and you’ll find it easier and faster to write emails. Oh, and your open and click-through rates might start to improve too.
But if writing anything leaves you lost for words, or it’s just not your thing, let’s chat and see if I can write your emails and newsletters.
Until next time,
Matt
P.S. If you’re unsure about hiring a copywriter, check out the article, 15 amazing tips for working with a copywriter, and if that persuades you, get in touch to see how I can help you write better emails.
