While social media and instant messaging have changed the landscape of ecommerce marketing, email remains essential. According to a 2022 survey , nearly 80% of millennials said they enjoy receiving marketing emails.

With the number of daily email users worldwide expected to grow to 4.73 billion by 2026 , there’s no better time to learn email copywriting techniques to reach your ecommerce customers.

Learn the key elements of email copywriting and how they can drive conversions.

What is email copywriting?

Email copywriting is the process of writing the text and content of an email, usually for marketing purposes. Sellers and small business owners write product emails, promotional emails, welcome emails, follow-up emails, and other types of marketing emails to appeal to existing or potential customers.

Email copywriters create unique email content that aligns with your brand’s content marketing strategy and goals. For example, an email that drives traffic to a specific blog post or landing page is different from a sales email that aims to convert for a new product launch. No matter what your goal is, writing effective email copy can make the difference between whether your recipients open your email, delete it, or even unsubscribe from your mailing list.

Elements of Email Copywriting

• Target Audience
• title
• Preview text
• text
• Call to Action
• Unsubscribe link

Several key elements of email copywriting are essential to creating an effective email marketing campaign, including subject lines and preview text.

Target Audience

One of the key elements of email copywriting is the target audience, the group of recipients who will read your email copy and who will subscribe to your emails. Identify key demographics, evaluate customer surveys, and create buyer personas that are made up of a single virtual customer with common characteristics. The more you know about your target audience, the better you can tailor your copywriting to their needs.

title

The subject line is the first place to write compelling email copy that tells the reader what you have to offer, whether it’s a list of new product benefits or an article with information about your brand. A good email subject line draws the reader in with vibrant, interesting language that focuses on the benefits for the reader. For example, it emphasizes benefits such as exclusive discounts or new information.

Preview text

Preview text is a short piece of text that appears below or next to the subject line of your email. Preview text should encourage readers to open your email. For example, write preview text that complements and expands your subject line by answering the question posed in your subject line.

text

The body is the main text of the email. This email copy focuses on delivering what was promised in the subject line. Write the email in concise and engaging language to convey the essence of what your product, service, or brand offers.

Call to Action

Focus your attention on your call to action (CTA) button to help readers take a specific action, such as buying a product, signing up for a subscription, or navigating to a landing page. Use actionable and interesting language that will help readers naturally navigate to your call to action button.

Unsubscribe link

Include a clear unsubscribe link in your emails so readers can stop receiving your content. Making it easy for disinterested recipients to unsubscribe from your emails can increase your email open rates and email deliverability (measured by whether your marketing emails land in your recipients’ inboxes or end up in their spam folders).

6 Tips for Effective Email Copywriting

1. Set clear goals
2. Maintain consistency with your brand voice
3. Fulfilling the promise of the title
4. Use active language
5. Focus on the benefits
6. Optimizing your email

Here are some email copywriting tips for creating marketing emails that resonate with your audience and drive them to take action.

1. Set clear goals

To write effective email marketing copy, you must first identify the main goal of your email campaign. This could be increasing sales conversions for a new product, increasing traffic to your website, or some other sales or marketing goal. Once you have set your goal, use your email copy to invite people to take a specific action with a clear and prominent CTA button.

2. Maintain consistency with your brand voice

When writing email copy, keep in mind the specific style of your brand voice. Create content that matches the tone of your company. For example, a clothing brand with a young target audience and a bold brand personality will have a different writing style than a tech brand with a serious, information-oriented tone.

3. Fulfilling the promise of the title

Write a compelling subject line that focuses on how your content, promotional offer, product, or service can help your readers, and then deliver on the benefits you promised. Making false promises in your subject line can damage your brand reputation and negatively affect the deliverability of your emails. Be careful about what you promise in your copywriting and deliver on those expectations.

4. Use active language

Write your copy in actionable language that will grab your reader’s attention and drive them to action. Use active sentences and short sentences, and use the second person when addressing your reader directly. Emails that contain long sentences or excessive jargon can be frustrating for your recipients.

5. Focus on the benefits

Write email copy that highlights the benefits your existing or potential customers can get from your email. For example, offer a discount on a new product, a free trial of a subscription service, or provide useful information. Identify the needs of your target audience and identify areas where you can provide solutions to their problems.

6. Optimizing your email

Email marketing software and applications like Shopify Email can help you optimize your email marketing strategy with customized email templates, segmented subscriber list formats, and up-to-date data on important metrics like click-through rates, open rates, and response rates.

Using software tools to improve email performance can increase the deliverability of your emails and save you time with automated email sequences such as welcoming new subscribers, following up on items left in their shopping carts, and re-engaging previous customers.

Email Copywriting FAQs