5 Tips for Becoming a Better Email Copywriter

Expert Copywriter Mark Everett Johnson shares email copywriting insight at the Mequoda Summit East 2011

The first day of general sessions at the Mequoda Summit East 2011 surely did not disappoint, especially for those attendees looking for help with their email copywriting endeavors.

As an editor and copywriter, I am always excited to hear expert copywriter Mark Everett Johnson speak. He has a great method for teaching copywriting, which includes the “What if it said…” approach.

In doing so, he allows all attendees to give suggestions to improve email copywriting samples without criticizing the existing copy.

Prior to the session, attendees were asked if they’d like to submit email copy for Mark to look at. Four attendees volunteered to do so, and their email copy was displayed during the workshop.

Attendees then gave suggestions in the “what if” form to give suggestions of possible changes. At the end of the 90-minute session, all the writers who submitted copy agreed that the suggestions from Mark and audience members were truly helpful.

Five tips for better email copywriting

It’s no surprise that I came out of the session with a bunch of tips that I need to focus on it my own email copywriting. Mark has a lot of valuable knowledge to share…so I wanted to pass some of it along to you.

Use these five email copywriting tips to hone your skills and hopefully experience better results from your email campaigns.

Email copywriting tip #1: Your email copywriting should be designed to influence people’s opinions and actions.

Email copywriting tip #2: Be bold with your email copywriting by starting with a big claim, benefit, surprise or offer.

Email copywriting tip #3: Present your strongest points up front. After you’ve written an email piece, read through it to make sure your lead isn’t buried. The strongest point you make needs to be at the beginning to engage the reader.

Email copywriting tip #4: Test your subject lines before emailing to your entire file. Just because you might think an email subject line is great, it doesn’t mean your audience will…and vice versa. In order to determine the subject line that will fair the best with your audience, you need to test by sending different email subject lines to a small sample of audience members. The email subject line that gets the best click-through rate should then be used on the rest of your email file.

Email copywriting tip #5: Elaborate with your body copy. Instead of telling the reader that something is “important”, “urgent” or “special”, explain why it is important, urgent or special. Don’t hope readers will just take your word on it…prove it by elaborating with your content.

For more actionable email copywriting tips, download our free report The 17 Best Email Subject Lines.

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