15 Email Copywriting Tips To Boost Engagement And Sales

Are your emails failing to convert? Or deliver the results you deserve?

No problem. Let’s fix that.

But what can you do to dramatically improve engagement and sales?

In this post, you’ll discover 15 actionable copywriting tactics to boost engagement and sales.

While not all of these tactics will fit every business, they should give you some ideas you can test.

Ready to try something different?

Ready, steady, go!

Tip 1. Keep the spotlight on your recipient

People are self-centered. That’s not a secret, and you can really use this information to your advantage: people love talking, reading, and hearing about themselves, so use any data you have on your leads to make the email copy more relatable to the recipient.

Use this short but effective checklist to remember:

Learn the leads’ pain points and address them.
Define their goals, needs, desires, doubts, and fears to cater to or dispel them throughout your email copy.
Study their decision-making process by finding out what influences their decisions, what motivates them, and what throws them off.
Clarify the type of conversation they prefer – regardless of all indicators, leads might have individual preferences to the type and style of email communication they prefer.

And finally, remember – desires are stronger than needs.

Many argue that a B2B email copy should, unlike a B2C email, appeal to the rational, not emotional. While a B2B lead is less likely to act on a whim, they’re not a machine but a human making the final decision, and that means they are just as likely to act on emotion.

So appeal to people’s desires and make them believe your product is not just something that can fulfill their needs but also meet all of their wishes about what a product should be.

Tip 2. Integrity over opportunity

Being polite goes a long way, and combined with a dash of professionalism and email copywriting skills, it can transform your email copy into an offer than presents both your product and yourself in the best light.

Here’s how you can achieve that:

Don’t try to wear the face of someone you’re not. Write the way you would speak if you were talking to the recipient face-to-face. Sincerity and authenticity first.
Stay just humble enough. Do not boast or try to position yourself as the best-of-the-best. Excessive unfounded confidence pushes people away. Instead, present yourself as the best to solve exactly the problem of exactly that lead.
Do not diminish your competitors. This is the shortest way to ruin your professional image and make people wary of you. Instead, try the reverse: praise your competition while highlighting why your product or service is a better fit.
To make people trust you, offer alternatives. This may seem counterintuitive, but when you offer leads enough information, you let them form their own opinion without having to research your competitors themselves, all while positioning yourself as a reliable authority. In other words, this way you will prove that you are confident in your product enough to compare it to others.
Make sure your email is easy to read. Of course, I am talking about melodiousness, inversions, power words, etc., but also consider if your email will be easy to read for this particular person – consider the email structure and length, and CTA, to make your offer easy to process and act upon.
Always re-read and edit. Read your email copy out loud – if it’s hard to pronounce, it’s hard to process. Edit, watch out for typos, and, ideally, get a second (and third) opinion.

Tip 3. Prove your claims

I can fly. Do you believe me? Surely not until you see me flying.

If you have proof of your claims, use it. When you prove that you, your platform, product, team are the solution through solid evidence, new leads find it easier to trust you and give you more time.

This evidence can be cold hard data, customer success stories, case studies, portfolios tailored specifically for this lead, etc. I find that using case studies and testimonials are the best for this.

To collect them, simply ask your most loyal clients to share their experience of working with you and include this information directly or by using storytelling in email marketing.

The whole purpose of these testimonials is to promote you, so don’t go overboard with salesiness – simply let the customers tell their stories in their own words.

Tip 4. Fight vagueness

Vagueness is decision-making’s worst nemesis.

If you want to leave no place for misunderstanding and doubts in your lead’s mind, don’t use abstract concepts in your email copy. Instead be as precise as you can: replace words like regularly and always with every week/monthly.

The more specific are the details and conditions of your offer, the easier it is to perceive and consider your offer.

Look at these two examples and you’ll see exactly what I’m talking about:

Example 1 – “You will receive regular updates with statistics that will help you monitor the success of your campaign”

Example 2 – “You will receive daily updates and weekly summaries with campaign statistics like email open, click-through, reply, and unsubscribe rates that will help you analyze active campaigns in real-time and even make changes, when necessary.”

Which one provides answers before you have to ask?

Email templates are one of the culprits behind this trend of ambiguousness: after all, it’s nearly impossible to make one email fit thousands of campaigns unless you use generic words and phrases.

Email copywriting experts have proven long ago that email template cliches ruin your campaigns and water down your offers, so please let them go for good.

Tip 5. Use more personalization

Remember tip #1? Focus on the recipient. And who doesn’t love reading their own name! In fact, it’s 2019, and that means if you still don’t use personalization in your emails, you have to go to email marketer jail. Just kidding (or am I).

Of course, personalization is more than just a name. Spice up your email copy with data like location, job position (if you work within the B2B niche), previous purchase history, recent achievements, etc.

And please, look into your sending times! Find out your recipient’s time zone and pick the best time to send emails for your business type – it’s proven that picking the correct day and time can drastically increase your email opens, clicks, and conversions.

Think about your email frequency and do not overdo it.

All this personalization makes the lead feel special and provides the feel of a personal approach that so many customers now seek.

Pro Tip: You can only personalize outreach emails when you know who you are contacting. Rather than sending to a generic email address, try finding someone at the company you can contact direct. LinkedIn can work well here. Then, once you know who you’re going to email, check out Respona’s article on how to find someone’s email address.

Tip 6. Try a double verbal kick

A double verbal kick technique is basically putting two words (preferably power words) together and connecting them with the help of and. Yeah, that simple.

Connect two words to create a sense of a variety and abundance. See what I did there?

Tip 7. Or a double number kick

Numbers speak louder than words, and that’s a fact. But two numbers work even better.

Combine two numbers within one sentence to magnify the effect. This tactic is especially popular for subject lines and article titles.

Here are a few examples of how you can use this tactic in the email subject line to increase email open rate:

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Tip 8. Be the guide

Use phrases like just think, imagine, pay attention, etc. to help your readers through your email. This will help you hold the leads’ attention, especially if your email copy is on the longer side.

Tip 9. The no-to-yes tactic

This tactic works best for SaaS services but you can try it for any other niche. All you need to do is offer a few options (product versions or paid plans) to your customers, skipping the middle price option.

First, mention the most expensive option, to which the recipients are very likely to say No, then slowly lead them to the affordable option. The contrast in price will help them see the affordable option as a definite Yes, as well as make the price for it seem extremely good in comparison to the first one.

Tip 10. Add an anchor

Give people double the reasons to convert. This can be done by adding an anchor to your offer. Here’s how this works: for example, present your newest product, describing in detail all the improvements in the new model, i.e. the usual.

However, this time hook them in with an extra something that’s supposed to make your offer irresistible – free shipping. That’s your anchor.

Tip 11. Avoid spam trigger words

Spam words are the silent murderers of modern email copywriting. Not only do they prevent your emails from landing in the inbox, they may ruin your chances of the deal even if the email avoids the spam filters.

All because the spam trigger words cheapen your copy – they evoke doubts and suspicions in the reader. So always check your email copy and avoid spam trigger words.

Examples of spam triggers are:

Free Product…
Best Price…
100% Free…
Click Here For…
Unlimited Offer On…
Billion Dollars…

I think you get the picture…

Tip 12. Mention the key benefit thrice

If you want the recipients to perform a specific action (and isn’t that the aim of every marketing or sales email), you need to motivate the recipients to do it by showing the key benefit/s of doing so.

Define the key benefit in your offer and repeat it three times throughout the email – at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end. This will cement it in your recipient’s mind and influence their decision.

Tip 13. Give extra points

Give extra information and list the advantages throughout the text.

Use words like additionally, moreover, another thing to mention, etc. The more benefits you share, the quicker people start considering your offer.

Tip 14. Soar and slide

Simple, but extremely effective, this technique presents the benefits in soaring numbers and prices sliding down. Of course, it doesn’t have to be just profits and prices – you can use this technique with time frames, features, or any other relevant data.

Here’s this technique in action: “How easy is it for your company to organize an email campaign? Many details go into the process, but we can help you set up and launch a personalized month-long campaign not in a week, not even in a day, but in 2 hours.”

Tip 15. Question your email copy

Once complete, check if the email copy is relevant for your recipient.

Does it reflect their needs? Does it address their fears? Does it answer the questions the recipient will want to ask? And, of course, is it coherent? You should be able to confidently answer these questions.

However, there’s another set of questions you (and your recipient) should be able to answer.

Reread the copy and check if the recipient will be able to answer these 5 questions:

What am I offered?
Why should I buy it?
Who is selling?
How can I buy it?
Why should I buy it now?

Seems easy enough? The more reason to make sure your email copy checks all the boxes.

Experiment and find your key to success

Email copywriting is vital for successful email marketing and improving your copywriting chops will be invaluable.

Use the email copywriting tips to help you improve open rates, click-through rates, engagement, and sales.

But, if there’s one thing I’d like you to take away from this is that you can and should experiment with your email copy.

Play around with these tips and techniques, A/B test your email copy, experiment with send times and get creative.

And, most importantly, remember the golden rule:

The golden rule is that there are no golden rules.

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