What is email copywriting?
Email copywriting covers every written aspect of your email campaign, from your sender name, subject line, and preheader in the inbox to the language in your email footer.
So much attention in email marketing goes to the design and images. For many brands, copywriting is either an afterthought, minimized to a header and a call to action, or copied from the website. This is a big mistake!
Why? Because it fails to recognize the unique role that email copywriting plays in achieving your campaign goals.
Email copywriting has one focus: to persuade readers to convert—to do what you want them to do, such as purchase. Three mini-conversions have to happen before that big one can occur, and each requires a separate copywriting goal:
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Open the email
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Click on the call to action
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Convert on the landing page
If your email messages aren’t getting opens and clicks, your email copy could be a factor. If you use the same language in your email content that you use on your website, you’re making a common mistake.
Email marketing and web marketing have different jobs. The conversion doesn’t happen in the email message. Email is the bus that drives your consumer to the website, where the conversion goal happens. At that point, your web copy can take over and lead the customer to convert.
Also, email readers are at a different stage in the conversion journey compared with web visitors. They’re often farther away from a decision than your web visitors. If you focus on “buy now” instead of “learn more” or “get help” in your emails, you could turn off customers who are interested but not ready to commit.
10 email copywriting best practices
Email copywriting best practices have evolved over the years. At first, brands simply pasted website copy into their email templates, added subject lines, and hit “Send.” When HTML arrived, many used two-column and three-column formats to pack as much info as they could into the email.
Then we learned how long our subscribers spend reading those emails. In 2018, that was 13.4 seconds. Now subscribers take an average of 8.97 seconds to read those emails.
As mobile and smartphones became more popular, brands moved towards single-column email designs. These were easier to read and click but also reduced copy space.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that on the surface. A few well-chosen words can be more motivational than big blocks of copy. But the key is “well-chosen.”
The best practices listed below will help you craft copy that intrigues your subscribers to open your emails more often and drives them to click through to your website.
Understand your objectives and audience
Knowledge is power for successful email marketing copywriting. It begins with knowing what each campaign should achieve and how it fits into your overall email plan. But it also means knowing your customers or subscribers intimately—what motivates them to open, read, click, and convert – and what turns them off.
Align copy with your brand voice
If your brand could talk, who would it sound like? The sassy best friend? The cool sophisticate? A confident professional? Every word you write should reflect your brand voice. It reinforces your brand but also aligns with what your customers expect.
You can modulate your tone for different kinds of emails, such as onboarding journeys versus new-product announcements. But the customer should still hear your brand voice come through loud and clear in each one.
Include copy specifics in your campaign creative brief
A creative brief is a detailed document that lists every aspect of an email campaign: what the campaign is about, who it’s for, and what it should achieve. The brief also should specify copy tone and length. A well-written brief eliminates errors or misunderstandings.
Tip: Get an action plan for creating or improving your creative briefs in this MailCharts blog post: What to Include in an Email Creative Brief.
Write attention-grabbing subject lines
We could write entire blog posts about writing better subject lines. In fact, we have: How to Write the Best Email Subject Lines for Ecommerce. We’ll sum it up here: Don’t treat the subject line as an afterthought.
Give yourself time to think about the campaign objectives, the kinds of subject lines that work best, and what you want to say. Keep scrolling to find a handy trick that can jumpstart your creativity if you get stuck.
Speak directly to your customers
Email is a conversation. What would you say to your customers if you were speaking face to face? That will lead you to write simple, short sentences with descriptive language. Avoid passive verbs like “see” or “check out.” Go for power verbs like “discover,” “solve,” “stop” and “reveal.” Ask your SEO team for high-performing keywords, and weave them into your content where appropriate. These keywords tell you what’s on your customer’s mind.
Highlight benefits over features
Whether you’re stuck with a single 25-word copy block or have the freedom to expand, your email copywriting should always answer the unspoken question, “What’s in it for me?” In the email, play up the benefits of clicking. On the landing page, reward your clickers with detailed features and more benefits.
Use personalization and segmentation
Copywriters don’t decide which personalization or segmentation strategies to use for an email campaign. Instead, they match their writing to the audiences chosen for the message.
An email going to frequent buyers will use different language from one going to unengaged customers who haven’t opened or clicked in a long time. Once again, your copy should reflect these differences from the subject line all the way to the call to action, and even to the landing page if that’s in your brief.
Create strong calls to action
In email’s infancy, we needed to say “Click here” in an email campaign message because we were training customers on how to use email. Today, “click here” is as outmoded as the rotary telephone and side ponytails.
When thinking of CTA copy, don’t focus on the click. Instead, tell your customers what great things will happen when they click. Here are three examples we pulled from the MailCharts database:
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“Find out what it is” (Sivana, for a mystery discount reveal)
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“Meat Your Match” (Barkshop, for a Valentine’s Day dog treat promotion)
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“Order & Earn” (Chipotle, for a dual-promotion email)
Align images and copy
Another conversation is happening in your email besides the one between your customers and your brand. It’s the one going on between your copy and your images. Do they work together? If your hero image conveys excitement or anticipation, your email copy should follow suit.
Follow copy guidelines in all email contacts with customers
Good email copywriting applies in every email you send to customers, but this doesn’t just mean in your promotional or journey emails. Every message from your brand should line up with your brand voice and have a strategic goal.
This includes automated alerts like password resets, payment problems, and customer-service follow-ups. These are key links in the chain that can build or tear down customer trust and engagement.
Although these messages might launch from different systems or platforms, their copy should follow the same rules for brand voice, images, and intent—helpful rather than rote, focusing on how to fix a problem or take the next step.
Tip: Find swipe-worthy examples of declined-payment and order-cancelation email alerts on this MailCharts list. This link takes you to a curated selection. You can view the full list as a MailCharts subscriber.
Overcoming writer’s block in copywriting
Is there anything more terrifying to a copywriter than a blank screen or sheet of paper? Yes! When you’ve been working for hours and suddenly the creative well runs dry.
Inspiration can be hard to come by when you’re on deadline or have little or no guidance. (That’s why a complete creative brief can be your best friend.). We’ve all been there, and we’re happy to share our work-every-time tips to help you get back on track.
Relax and reboot (your brain)
Whether you’re writing away in a cubicle or sitting at home in your PJs, a simple change of pace can unblock your creative stream. When you find yourself deleting more than you write, or your mind simply goes blank, it’s time to step away from the keyboard for a bit.
Go outside for a walk. Get something to eat. For you work-from-home folks, clean the bathroom. (Trust us on this one!) Let one part of your brain relax and reboot while you engage the other one in something undemanding. This can let inspiration flow again.
The messy first draft
The best way to start writing is to start writing. No, we’re not being Captain Obvious.
Want to know how many times we started the paragraph you’re reading now? Five. Maybe six. We’re rolling now because we took our own advice and didn’t get frustrated because we didn’t nail it the first time.
We started with some freewriting, where we just put down some vague ideas and concepts. That spurred an opening sentence. We tried that out. Got a couple of sentences in. Didn’t like them. Started over. Wrote a full paragraph. Sat back and looked at it. Still not there. Tweaked a few words. That’s better. Moving on! We’ll probably revisit it again, but for now, it’s good enough.
Don’t aim for perfection the first time out. Create a messy first draft that generally follows your brief but might not hit all your key points. Once you have that down, take a break. When you come back, you can rewrite, tinker, and polish until it’s just right.
Mind-mapping
A detailed creative brief is essential for knowing where to start and for staying on track. An outline can help you organize your thoughts and spur those first words. But if you need something more visual to organize your thoughts, try mind mapping.
Begin with a blank sheet of paper (easier than doing it on a computer or tablet screen). In the center, write your key concept or campaign goal. Surround this with related topics like products, feelings, insights, or what you want your customers to think, feel, or do.
For each of these topics, write whatever comes into your head, whether it’s related or not. Pretty quickly you’ll come up with a detailed map that can trigger ideas and point you in the right direction. Need more ideas? Find them here.
The Don Draper approach
If you’re a Mad Men fan, you might remember a scene in which ultra-cool creative director Don Draper stationed himself at a typewriter and banged out 25 versions of a tagline for a client before leaving the office at the end of the workday. It’s memorable because it shows hows a short burst of focused effort can produce the elusive just-right phrase, whether you’re writing a subject line, header, tagline, or call to action.
Start with your creative brief to find an opening phrase. Then, write the next thing that comes into your head. You might find you’re heading down the wrong track. No problem. Start over, and don’t stop until you get that phrase that makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up, or your nose twitch, or activates some other signal that tells you it’s a winner.
SMS and email testing
These email copywriting best practices also apply to text and push notifications. You’re far more restricted in character count, and you won’t have images to help tell your story if you send only SMS messages. So, each word counts. Following brand voice, an informal and direct style, and a clear CTA will yield action-driving messages in these constricted environments.
Use A/B testing to inform copywriting
Subject-line testing is a start, but it tells you only what worked for that campaign. Run A/B tests to get longer-term insights into the kinds of messages that nudge customers to act.
Suppose you want to learn whether customers respond better to urgency (“hurry before the price goes up”) or scoring a good deal (“lowest prices of the season”). You would create two versions of the email in which all copy elements—the subject line and preheader, the message copy and the call to action—support one approach over another. Then test the two versions to find out which one produced more sales.
Although this version takes more time to set up than just testing two versions of the subject line or call to action, what you learn could be more valuable in the long run.
Email copywriting examples we love
The MailCharts database is full of ecommerce copywriting that we wish we had created. Finding just a few is a near-impossible task! But here are three recent examples from brands whose emails stand out as consistent winners for engaging copy.
Eileen Fisher
Subject line: A Dress Made for the Moment
Preheader: Our Best-Selling Shape, in Bright Sandstone >
The writing for this women’s clothing brand is as minimalist and elegant as the fashions the emails promote. It looks simple, but any copywriter will tell you it’s harder to write shorter than longer.
Chipotle
Subject line: Put some sun in your sip 🌞
Preheader: Order Delivery Chipotle.
This Mexican-style quick-serve restaurant takes email marketing seriously and has created a strategically oriented program that covers all the bases. We picked this email because we liked the call to action, which covers two objectives in one: persuading customers to order and reminding them of the benefit, that when they do, they earn points they can redeem later.
Brooks Running
Subject line: Your order has been canceled
Preheader: Have questions? Please give us a call.
We picked this email because it illustrates a graceful way to handle a sticky customer touchpoint: canceling an order because of a declined payment. The copy is empathetic, explains what happened, and gives the customer options for correcting the problem.
Browse thousands of email copywriting examples for inspiration
The MailCharts database is full of triggered journey emails like the Brooks Running example we showed you here, along with promotional campaigns from thousands of ecommerce and retail brands.
Not a subscriber yet? Join for free and discover how MailCharts can take the hassle out of email marketing every day.
