{"id":5776,"date":"2016-04-05T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-04-05T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/how-to-write-great-email-copy\/"},"modified":"2022-08-30T09:50:32","modified_gmt":"2022-08-30T13:50:32","slug":"how-to-write-great-email-copy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/how-to-write-great-email-copy","title":{"rendered":"How to Write Great Email Copy featuring Ann Handley"},"content":{"rendered":"

Writing for email may be one of the most difficult jobs in marketing.<\/p>\n

Different segments require different messaging. The devices your subscribers are using affect the perceived value of your copy. (What\u2019s helpful on desktop may be long and laborious on mobile.)<\/p>\n

And subject lines? You have just a few short words to compel your subscribers to open, otherwise all that copy you wrote has significantly less impact.<\/p>\n

The words we choose matter.<\/p>\n

This is why we\u2019re launching The Email Copywriting Series, where you\u2019ll find interviews with some of the top minds in writing talking about how to write better emails.<\/p>\n

Our very first installment features Ann Handley<\/a>, Chief Content Officer at MarketingProfs.<\/p>\n

When it comes to writing well, there are few people who get it more than Ann.<\/p>\n

She, quite literally, wrote the book on content marketing. (First with Content Rules<\/em>, then with her most recent bestseller, Everybody Writes<\/a><\/em>.)<\/p>\n

Ann was doing content marketing back when it was still just called writing. (Why do we call it content marketing, again?)<\/em><\/p>\n

She pioneered a movement when she founded ClickZ in 1997, one of the first sources of interactive marketing news and commentary and on the web.<\/p>\n

Cited in Forbes as the most influential woman in Social Media and recognized by ForbesWoman as one of the top 20 women bloggers, Handley is one of the foremost authoritative voices on the topic of writing for business.<\/p>\n

Here is our conversation on how to write great email copy, including tips on writing succinctly, achieving pathological empathy, and being personable and profitable at the same time in all of your emails. (Full recording below.)<\/em><\/p>\n

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Litmus Spam Testing<\/h2>\n

Once your email is written, make sure it actually reaches your subscribers’ inbox. Get your email scanned by every major spam filter before you send.<\/p>\n

Run a Spam Test \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

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Q: Receiving emails that are both relevant and interesting is so rare. I\u2019m always impressed at how your newsletter from AnnHandley.com consistently achieves both. How do you approach writing such compelling emails that keep your audience engaged?<\/strong><\/p>\n

People don\u2019t think before they put out the ink.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s so easy to write long and include everything than it is to go back, edit, and decide what to include. Shorter is harder to write than longer.<\/p>\n

I think the critical thing is to barf up that first email, and then go back and swap places with your recipient in a sense, and figure out, \u201cwhat is it I\u2019m really trying to convey here? Am I saying things as succinctly as I can or am I being indulgent as a writer? Do I really need to include all this background or can I just get right to the point.”<\/p>\n

Just that simple act alone of writing what you want to write, then going back to edit it with an eye toward the recipient is huge. It sounds so obvious, and so simple, but you should look at my inbox right now. It\u2019s filled with emails from people who didn\u2019t do that. They just threw it up there, and a five paragraph email could\u2019ve easily been half that.<\/p>\n

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Q: If writing shorter emails is harder, how do we begin to write more succinctly and effectively?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The key is understanding the one thing you\u2019re trying to convey. It should only be one thing. You shouldn\u2019t have four or five calls-to-action, and if you do, you should really go back and reconsider sending only one email.<\/p>\n

Every email should have just one key point. Boil down your message, not only to an elevator speech, but literally a tweet. You should be able to convey the key idea in just a word. That doesn\u2019t mean that every email has to be that short, of course, but I think the key idea behind it should be very succinct.<\/p>\n

I make a habit of writing the key idea behind anything I write in bold at the top of my draft. This way, I can refer back and ensure that I\u2019m always staying true to what I\u2019m trying to convey.<\/p>\n

Once you get clear about what it is you\u2019re trying to say, building a short message around that and not wasting the audience\u2019s time is much easier.<\/p>\n

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Q: You talk a lot about not just being empathetic, but achieving pathological empathy with your subscribers. How can marketers go about that?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The notion of pathological empathy really means to focus relentlessly on the recipient. And it\u2019s something you can work at, I don\u2019t think we\u2019re all naturally empathic. You really do need to put yourself in the midst of the person you\u2019re writing to.<\/p>\n

Having enormous empathy for the problems that they\u2019re having, and the solutions that you offer, and not just talking about the features and benefits of what you offer but putting it in the terms of how it helps them.<\/p>\n

I think a very easy place to convey empathy is in your calls-to-action.<\/p>\n

I love the way Joanna Wiebe<\/a> of Copy Hackers words it. She describes this approach by saying, \u201cDon\u2019t amplify the act of proceeding, amplify the value of it. So not \u2018free trial\u2019, but rather \u2018end scheduling hassles.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

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“Don\u2019t amplify the act of proceeding, amplify the value of it. So not \u2018free trial\u2019, but rather \u2018end scheduling hassles.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Tweet this \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

It\u2019s a subtle shift, but it\u2019s an important one. Because you suddenly realize this isn\u2019t just about starting a free trial, it\u2019s actually about what that free trial will do for the recipient.<\/p>\n

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Q: How do successful companies align their messaging with the problems their audience is having?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Talk to them. In my experience, a lot of marketers don\u2019t actually talk to customers. Sales talks to customers. Customer service talks to customers. But a lot of times marketing doesn\u2019t. So just make it a point to have conversations with the people you\u2019re communicating with.<\/p>\n

That could mean picking up the phone every once in awhile and calling five customers and getting a feel for their challenges, or sending out a quick survey with a few challenges you want to ask about.<\/p>\n

Do this once every quarter and keep your pulse on the problems your audience is having.<\/p>\n

At MarketingProfs, I actually get a ton of insight just by listening on Twitter. So not just sharing and broadcasting on social networks, but just listening to what marketers talk about, showing up at Twitter chats, not so much to talk, but to hear the conversation. To understand what the point of view is of marketers in different industries.<\/p>\n

That type of social prospecting can yield a lot of data that you can then use to inform the email that you\u2019re putting out there.<\/p>\n

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Q: How can brands balance being personable, as you often do, while also being profitable?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It really depends on who you are as a brand. A lot of companies can\u2019t easily define who they are.<\/p>\n

Sure they can say \u201cwe\u2019re a fun company with a certain point of view,\u201d but when you actually ask them to define it in three words, they can\u2019t. I ask companies, \u201cif you covered up the brand logo, do you sound like everyone else? If the label fell off your product, would everyone know who you are?\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cIf you covered up the brand logo, do you sound like everyone else? If the label fell off your product, would everyone know who you are?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Tweet this \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

And very often the answer is no. And a lot of companies haven\u2019t done this exercise and know who they are.<\/p>\n

I believe every brand is human and should speak directly to the humans they\u2019re trying to connect with. And if it doesn\u2019t feel right, then who are you?<\/p>\n

But a super simple thing brands can do is come up with three attributes that define who you are as a company and what you\u2019re like to deal with.<\/p>\n

Using your voice to differentiate your brand is a huge advantage.<\/p>\n

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Q: How do you achieve personalization in your own emails?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Pay attention to your writing and value your writing as a way to convey all of these things we\u2019re talking about.<\/p>\n

Personalization does not mean \u201cDear [first_name] here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead what it means is really taking that human tone and writing for one specific person. I do that all the time on my own blog. I always think about, \u201cwho is this really going to help?\u201d So coming at it from that perspective and writing to one person and not just a nameless, faceless mass of people\u2013 that alone can help.<\/p>\n

I think it\u2019s important for companies to approach their marketing from a place of humility, to respect their audience. To put themselves out there to support their audience in any way that they can. Just starting there is a great place to start.<\/p>\n

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Q: How long should an email be?<\/strong><\/p>\n

In general, I think shorter is better. I think brevity always rules. I think if you could say it more simply, you should.<\/p>\n

If your writing requires more space, I\u2019m not against long messages. What I am against is wasting the time of the audience. As long as you respect the audience and you\u2019re coming from a place of humility, I think it\u2019s completely fine to write as long as you need to.<\/p>\n

But nothing self-indulgent. Don\u2019t waste the time of your audience.<\/p>\n

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Q: How do you reengage an unresponsive email list?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Send a simple and direct message to that segment and say, \u2018do you want to be on this list? do you find value in it?’<\/p>\n

Offer them an opportunity to speak back with you. What is it that isn\u2019t satisfying you in this particular exchange?<\/p>\n

You might find that it\u2019s just not going to be of any interest to them. That\u2019s okay. I wouldn\u2019t spend a whole lot of time trying to reengage people who aren\u2019t interested. Ultimately, if they\u2019re not interested, they\u2019re not interested.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think it\u2019s a wise action to try and reengage people after you\u2019ve given them one last shot.<\/p>\n

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Q: In Everybody Writes<\/em>, you list out writing rules for various aspects of copy. What would you say the email rules for writing are? <\/strong><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think my approach to writing email is all that different to writing anything else.<\/p>\n

Thinking about the recipient as being one person, not just a mass of people or a customer segment, is enormously helpful because it allows me to write in a more natural voice because I\u2019m writing to one person in the space of their email inbox.<\/p>\n

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“Thinking about the recipient as being one person, not just a mass of people or a customer segment, is enormously helpful because it allows me to write in a more natural voice.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Tweet this \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The other thing that it does is it forces you to think about the value you\u2019re trying to convey when it\u2019s only one person.<\/p>\n

This is the same approach I take when writing a blog post. Or when I wrote \u201cEverybody Writes.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Principles of writing great email copy<\/h2>\n