In just a few years, email marketing has come a long way. But you know what's funny about all the fancy new features brands are utilizing? A well-written, plain-text email can outperform (if not outperform) a highly designed email with a slew of bells and whistles.

Regardless of how fancy your marketing emails appear, your subscribers will stop opening – and begin deleting – your messages if they lack well-written content.

So, how can you design an effective marketing email? It all boils down to a few copywriting best practices that you should use for your message's subject line and content.

Next time you write a message for a lead nurturing campaign or a one-time email blast, ask yourself if your copy follows all of these principles.

 Email Copywriting Suggestions for Better Marketing Emails

We'll start with copywriting advice for better subject lines, then move on to copywriting tips for email bodies.

How to Write an Effective Subject Line

The subject line is an important part of drafting a great email marketing copy. The subject line is your email's gatekeeper: no one gets to read your fantastic email copy if they aren't intrigued enough to open it in the first place.

That attention is nearly entirely due to the email's subject line (with the sender's name playing a role, as well). We've produced a few blog entries about designing email subject lines, including one on the anatomy of a great subject line and another with examples of outstanding brand subject lines. Here's a summary of everything you need to know to write an excellent copy.

1) Make use of actionable language.

Utilizing actionable language in email subject lines does not always imply using verbs, but it certainly helps. OpenTable, for example, sent me an email with the subject line 'Take Mom to Brunch.' This is one approach to effectively employing actionable language in email subject lines. By including a verb (such as 'take,' 'download,' 'reserve,' 'ask,' 'purchase,' and so on), the reader understands precisely what they can do in the email.

However, there are methods to use actionable language without relying on verbs, giving you more leeway with wording. It all comes down to using language that communicates to the receiver what they can do with the material in the email if they choose to open it. In other words, keep the user's worth in mind. 

2) Personalize whenever possible.

Heavily segmented emails perform better in terms of open rate and clickthrough rate than emails that aren't tailored. According to Direct Marketing Association research, segmented and targeted emails earned 58% of all revenue for the marketers polled, with emails delivered to specific target selections accounting for 36% of income.

This is not surprising. After all, the more segmented your email list is, the more capable you can personalize the subject line and provide relevant material to that email reader.

3) Prioritize clarity first, and then consider 'catchiness.'

Create a subject line that is both clear and catchy. Clarity should always, always, always be your top concern in marketing content. Go for it if you can make it catchy, hilarious, cute, whimsical, or whatever after you've written a clear subject line. However, clarity should never be sacrificed for entertainment value.

UrbanDaddy is an example of a corporation that succeeds at producing subject lines that are always clear but also catchy, hilarious, or entertaining.

4) Match your subject line and email copy.

You may already know how important it is for your call-to-action copy and landing page offer to be in sync. It's no different when it comes to constructing your email subject line and email message.

The email message should deliver what your email subject line promises. Why? It's not only because it's responsible; clickthrough rates plunge when readers don't get what they're sworn in the subject line. (And, your email open rates will suffer in the long run.)

5) Determine relevance.

Just as the email marketing subject line should strive for relevancy through personalization, so should the copy in the email message.

Again, it requires more than a catchy subject line to persuade readers that what's within is relevant to them. So, at the very start of the email, describe how you know each other.

6) Use the second person.

When writing in the second person, the pronouns 'you,' 'your,' and 'yours' are used. 'Remember to bring your jacket before you go in the morning,' for example. You should write the copy with the mind reader, not yourself.

7) Focus on advantages rather than features.

You understand the worth of your email. But does your intended recipient? No way, not yet. And it is your responsibility to explain it.

The issue is that many emails merely discuss the feature, not the benefit. Examine the copy in two different ecommerce emails I've received. Which one emphasizes the quality, and which emphasizes the use?

8) Be precise.

One of the most common errors email copywriters make is attempting to fit the complete tale within the email message. Consider the last time you opened a marketing email in your inbox. Do you read everything in there? Most likely not. It's more probable that you'll scan for key aspects to get a sense of the overall message and determine whether or not to take action.

So, sending an email with hundreds of words of copy makes it much more difficult for receivers to determine whether or not to click through since they can't swiftly sift through all of the information in your email.

Conclusion

This call-to-action button is practical due to two factors:

Excellent design: First, observe how the enormous, bright orange button sticks out against the blue design; that call-to-action is visible.

Excellent copy: The copy on the button is also crucial. Your call-to-action button should use concise, clear, and action-oriented text. This AmazonLocal button tells you in a few words what you can do with verbs: view the deal highlighted in the email.