Earn Your Open: 5 Email Copywriting Tips for 2022

“What’s in a word?” Well, when it comes to email marketing, a lot. A successful email campaign hinges on engaging copywriting. Copy drives your opens, unsubscribes and click through rates. The importance of copywriting in emails is especially top-of mind thanks to the Apple Mail Privacy Protection update in iOS 15. In lieu of the ability to track exact email open rates, marketing blogs are teeming with tips about email optimization. A repeating theme has emerged from the blog-o-sphere: it boils down to strong email writing.

So crack your knuckles, wiggle your fingers and reach for the keyboard. It’s time to refresh your email writing with some helpful best practices so that you can delight your readers and get the open rate you deserve. Here’s our top 5 tips for email copywriting.

1. Be Human

Remember to talk to the people reading your email. Make them feel like you’re talking directly to them. Use the words “you/your” more than the word “we.” Hit on pain points they feel, and position your product/service/offering as the solution to their specific problem.

2. Be Clear

After you write a subject line or a headline, ask yourself, “Can a reader understand this in 5 seconds?” Email copy is not a space to make a reader work for it. Your message is competing with a million others in their inbox. You can be clever; just make sure you’re also very clear in what you want your reader to take away (in your headline and body copy) and do (in your call to actions).

3. Be On-Brand

When it comes to tips, trends and email fads, use these only when appropriate for your brand. Emojis, commonly used phrases or clichés might suit the situation but not your brand, so use caution. Don’t sacrifice a well cultivated brand voice because the dancing girl emoji felt fun. Consistency across channels builds trust and memorability.

4. Be Concise

Help your readers out! The average time a person spends reading an email is about 13.4 seconds. Keep it brief. Write out your message, then cut, cut, cut. Lean on visuals to express your idea. If ever there was a time to follow the old writing advice to “kill your darlings,” it’s now.

5. Be Attentive to Subject Lines and Preview Text

When you think of email writing, you may first think of an opened, full layout email. But that overlooks two subtle but powerful copy lines which determine if your email gets read in the first place: subject line and preview text. We recommend spending more time writing those than the headline within the email. Those two lines earn your open. Give them the attention they deserve. To optimize, use tools like SubjectLine.com and data from send history to learn what works for your brand.

The Bottom Line

No best practices are absolute. As you get to know your audience better — what tone they enjoy, what words or phrases catch their eye — you may bend or break rules to cater to your audience.

Email marketing comes to life with interesting, imaginative copy. It’s your chance to talk directly to customers and entice them further into your customer journey. Make your words worthy of being read. And if you need a hand crafting the perfect copy for your email campaign, don’t hesitate to reach out. We’d love to help.

Have any email copywriting tips you’d like to share? Drop them below in the comments.