Email copywriting matrix

If you’re not a natural copywriter or if you don’t have a dedicated copywriter, the thought of writing copy for your email marketing campaigns can be quite daunting. Copywriting is an essential part of your email marketing campaigns and should really form a big part of your campaigns.

This article will introduce to you our Copywriting Matrix, a matrix we’ve developed to help you write better, more enticing, goal-based copy!

Why is copy so important in your email?

• Email Service Providers (ESPs) take the amount of copy you have in your email into account when they are deciding whether or not your campaigns are going to be delivered into your subscribers inbox or not.
• Your subject line forms part of copywriting and is one of the most important determinants of whether your email will be opened by a subscriber. A good subject line is informative and captivates and delights your readers. You want to get people to open your email to encourage them to take action.
• It’s what will guide your audience to take action and clearly know what you want them to do next.

Where to start?

We’ve developed our very own Mail Blaze copywriting matrix to help you plan your email campaign copy more effectively. This matrix helps you understand how to bridge the gap between what your business needs and what your current subscribers may be thinking.

Your Audience:

When you start writing your copy, you need to write it with your audience in mind. Depending on the type of email list you have built up over time, some messages might not be suited to everyone on your email list. This can be due to a multiple reasons, for example:

• Your product could be for a specific gender.
• Your product or service can only be sold to a certain age group.
• You’ve got different lists for different customers depending on the actions they’ve taken in the past like leads, paying customers, repeat customers, etc.

When you write, you always want to write as if you are creating an email with ONE person in mind. Here at Mail Blaze, we always write our emails in the first person and also keep our emails authentic, accessible and conversational. We only use jargon when we absolutely need to and even then will always endeavor to provide clear definitions for terms that might not be understood clearly.

One of the most common mistakes we see when it comes to email marketing is that people try to sound overly professional when they write their copy for their business. Imagine you’re checking your inbox and you see an email from a close friend. You’re more likely to open that email first than one from a company that seems cold or doesn’t make you feel included. Keep this in mind when you’re crafting your email messages. There’s a big difference between copy that connects vs copy that just speaks at people.

As much as you want to believe everyone on your list is ready to buy or make use of your services, this simply isn’t true. You need to understand that not all subscribers are in the same phase of their lifecycle within the context of your business.

Be a goal digger, ask yourself what am I trying to achieve?

All copy should serve a purpose. It’s really easy to over communicate and bore your audience with too many details, but at the same time the same can be said for not providing enough information for people to act. This is why it’s really important to look at why you are wanting to send an email campaign to your subscribers. If you don’t have anything to say, you shouldn’t be sending. Creating clear, measurable goals, help you focus your attention, add hierarchy to your message and send out a better email that your audience will enjoy.

Your objectives need to be clear and be measured with the correct metrics. If you would like to learn more about the importance of setting email marketing goals and how you can do that, you can read our article Email marketing goals and how to reach them.

Features should feature...

When you’re sending out email campaigns, you’re most likely to be looking to increase your bottom line and that means...SALES. If this is your goal, you want to make sure that you take all the features that would interest a potential customer and highlight them in the best possible way to show your subscriber how a certain product or service will improve their life or add to it.

Features are things you use to highlight value. Most people would think about it as a mirror of your “what you get” or description of a product page, but it could also be business processes or unique operational practices that can take a prospect from consideration to purchase stage.

Make sure when you are writing copy related to your features that you highlight why these features are important to a potential customer or user.

Strategy

Now that you’ve completed your assessment about what your copy should contain and written your first draft, part of the copywriting process is to strategize how you will display your copy in the best possible way. This is crucial. It doesn’t matter if you’ve written the most well put together copy the world has ever seen if you don’t display the copy in an effective way.

This means taking your copy and putting it together in an email template of your choice. Here you need to pay special attention to the order of information and how you highlight sections of your email.

You want to use headings where appropriate and craft captivating calls to action to drive your subscribers to take a next step. Regardless of whether that is to sign up, book a service or purchase a product. The reader should know what to do next.

You’re not done yet..

If you’ve put together your email copy and created a powerful email template that shows the content in the best possible light, you need to go and edit your work. Read through the email again and test how the email renders in different email clients. It would be great to give someone else the email to read before you send it and ask them what they understood about what you said, or if anything was unclear. Having another set of eyes on your work can only help you improve and adjust your campaign better.

Look at your subject line critically. You want to ensure you are grabbing people’s attention. Don’t be afraid to try something new in your subject line. You want to get people to open your email so that they can actually read your copy and move forward in the buying process.

Don’t forget that your sender name is important too. Your sender name should be recognisable and will definitely help you reach your desired audience.

Further copywriting tips that will help you stand out from the crowd:

• Make sure your copy is relatable.
• Section out content-heavy areas in your email template; this makes it easier to read.
• Put the most important information you want to communicate in the top section of your email.
• Benefits and features aren’t the same. Depending on your product, benefits are much more appealing to users than features as it helps the reader to understand what’s in it for them.
• Keep your content relevant - give subscribers what they expect.
• Don’t be scared to test new things.
• Be bold and creative.
• Don’t miss out on the opportunity to use preheader text. Preheader text can help you add some extra information to your subject line, which may help people open your email.
• Never send out an email that hasn’t been proofread. Copy blindness is a real thing. When you’ve worked on content for a long time it can become hard to see any grammar or spelling mistakes. That’s why we always recommend having someone else proofread your work.
• If you think your email copy is too long, it probably is. Trust your instincts and edit your work to ensure that your email isn’t too text heavy.
• Avoid ambiguous terms, jargon or buzzwords where possible. You need to understand that language is fluid and ambiguity can cause a lot of reputational damage to your brand. If you’re unsure whether someone would take offense to any of the content in your email campaign, rather change it.

Have any questions about email copywriting? Tell us in the comments below.