Your Ultimate Guide to Writing Effective Email Content

Picture this: You pour your heart and soul into crafting what you think is the perfect email, hit send, and... crickets. We've all been there, especially when starting out.

But what if I told you that there's a way to write emails that not only grab your reader's attention but also leave a lasting impact?

Email marketing is effective when you know that the content you are sharing is top-notch. How many of your favorite creators and brands have newsletters that you just can’t get enough of?

For me, it is Arnold’s Pump Club and Smart Nonsense – both have their edge that cannot be overlooked.

The emailing industry skyrocketed over the past two years, and there’s no shortage of marketing statistics demonstrating the impact of a good email strategy. But this evidence only testifies to the power of the marketing channel. 

Power needs to be directed well to be of use. Poorly aimed TNT is a liability, not an asset.

We all have too much experience with poorly crafted email marketing campaigns. You open up your inbox only to find yet another message from a company trying to sell you something you don’t need. 

The trick lies in learning how to write effective email marketing content. How can you create messages that are opened, read, and answered with action?

How To Write Effective Email Marketing Content: Your Process

Let’s start with the content-creation process. As you craft your next email campaign, try moving through the 5 Ts.

What are the 5 Ts of email marketing? Developed by Jen Tabal to shape the content strategies of large corporations such as Marriott, the 5 Ts lay out a progressive methodology for engaging your customers.

1. Tease

Create an engaging subject line or headline that will grab your readers’ attention. 

It should leave your audience wanting to know more.

Write about what connects with your audience, their desires, and goals. If you can nail the subject line, you’re already halfway there!

But the intrigue doesn't stop at the subject line. You can tease and captivate style in the body of your email. As your readers open your message, greet them with attention-grabbing copy or visuals that build on the curiosity sparked by your subject line.

The goal here is to make them eager to further explore the contents of your email.

2. Target

To whom are you writing, and what do they want to hear from you?

Personalize your messaging so that it resonates with your specific audience. You should tailor your content to the interests of your readers and create content that they will find interesting and relevant.

beehiiv’s automation tools make it easy to segment your audience to give them only the most relevant content. You can also use the recipient's name or mention something specific about them in the subject line or body of the message.

Personalized emails have higher open rates and click-through rates than generic emails.

Let's spark some creative ideas for the segments you can incorporate into your newsletter with beehiiv:

• Identify your top-engaged subscribers based on open rates or click-through rates.

• Recognize the subscribers who are exceptional at referring readers through your referral program.

• Single out subscribers who haven't yet interacted with your content.

• Target subscribers in specific geographic locations that align with your campaign.

To witness these strategies in action, navigate to the 'Audience' section and explore the 'Segmentation' tab."

3. Teach

When you provide helpful tips or information, you establish yourself as an expert in the field and build trust with potential customers. Try educating your readers on a particular topic or issue related to your brand or industry.

Let’s assume you’re just starting and you are still exploring your interests – how can you teach something?

In that case, you can share your learnings about specific topics. If you are learning about Web3 and Crypto, you can break down crypto jargon using your weekly newsletter! 

4. Test

Test different types of content to see which ones perform best with your audience. It would be best if you experiment with different formats as well as different topics to see what resonates best with your readership.

For any given campaign, you can run A/B tests to optimize your subject lines and content.  This helps you understand what your audience is loving and what needs to be iterated!

5. Track

You will know what’s working and not when you track your performance.

Track the performance of each piece of content, so you can measure its success over time and make adjustments accordingly. Pay attention to important email metrics such as:

• Open rate

• Click-through rate

• Unsubscribe rate

With beehiiv’s 3D analytics and the new dashboard, you can get the insights that make a difference and boost your growth!

What Makes Good Email Marketing Content? Your Customer’s Process

Tabol’s 5 Ts work well when it comes to envisioning email campaigns. But as you write each email, put yourself in the reader’s place. Write with an eye to their process. 

1. Open the Email

Get them to open the email. What’s the point in learning how to write content for email marketing unless it reaches your audience?

Your email needs to arrive in your audience’s inbox and grab their attention. In general, you need to protect your reputation as a sender and stay out of the spam folder. Here are three best practices to begin with:

1. Regularly prune your email list: Cleaning your email list enhances the quality of your community and ensures that your subscribers are engaging with your content.
   

2. Use an opt-in system: Using a double opt-in system filters out low-quality leads.
   

3. Send from a verified domain: Having a custom email domain when you start your emailing journey is a good way to start. Next step? Start warming up your email domain.

One more thing, nail the subject line. It should be:

• Conversational – Avoid all-caps, multiple exclamation points, and common spam trigger words.

• Distinct – Stay true to your brand personality.

• Informative – Give readers a hint as to what awaits them in the email. At the very least, don’t mislead them.

• Compelling – Make sure your subject line piques people's interest.

• Concise – Keep it to 50 characters or less to ensure that the entire message is visible in most email programs.

A bit of wit and creativity never hurts either.

2. Digest the Information

Your customer needs to be able to digest the information with ease. 

To keep your subscribers engaged and attentive, the key is to maintain conciseness and a singular focus within your emails. Lengthy emails, akin to a novel in your inbox, are more likely to overwhelm readers and potentially cause them to disengage.

However, it's not just about reducing word count. It's also about breaking up your textual content with visuals, whenever the opportunity arises. 

Visual elements inject a vital dimension into your messages. They serve to punctuate and separate prolonged blocks of text, making the reading experience more comfortable on the eyes. These visuals not only enhance comprehension but also capture attention, ensuring that your message doesn't get lost in a sea of words.

In essence, it's all about delivering your message in a manner that respects your audience's time and attention. Clarity, brevity, and judicious use of visuals are the building blocks of email communication that keep your readers engaged and coming back for more.

Front Load your most important points, use plain language and use short sentences and paragraphs. 

3. Engage

You want to interest the customer as well as convey information. Pick topics that will draw people in and keep them coming back for more. That could be industry news, brand updates, or special offers. 

The appearance of the email matters, too. A beautiful email marketing design frames your message and compels your reader’s attention.

Varying your medium can also help engagement. Try adding videos to emails. Today’s audience is video-hungry. They watch them, share them, and impatiently await the next drop. Videos also aid retention and understanding. 

4. Take Action

The effectiveness of your email hinges not just on what your customers read but on what you want them to do after they've finished reading. 

The action you desire can vary greatly, from clicking a link, downloading a file, and providing essential information, to making a purchase. This critical step, often referred to as the call-to-action (CTA), defines the purpose and success of your email. 

A compelling CTA is clear, concise, and highly focused. It leaves no room for ambiguity, spelling out precisely what you want your readers to do next. 

To ensure that your CTA doesn't get lost in the sea of text, it's wise to visually highlight it. This can be done by turning it into a button, using contrasting colors, or strategically positioning it within your email. The idea is to draw attention to your call to action, making it unmissable and easy to act upon.

How Not To Write Content for Email Marketing: Biggest Mistakes

Part of learning how to write email marketing content is learning what not to do. Know the email marketing mistakes to avoid. Here are just a few.

Don’t Emphasize Promotion Over Value

The heart of any form of content marketing is the value your material offers the customer. To build a community and sustain it, you have to provide them with the content they signed up for. 

Why should they open your email? Just to see another ad? 

You need to give them something — a discount, new information, a laugh, etc. 

Don’t Be Sloppy

Taking a moment to proofread your content can make a world of difference. Typos and errors, no matter how minor, have a knack for undermining your credibility and professionalism. 

They can distract your readers from your intended message, leaving them more focused on the mistakes than the content itself.

It's a reflection of your brand's integrity and reliability.

Don’t Be Generic or Overly Broad

Segment your campaigns and target specific groups with tailored messages. 

Having a niche audience of 20K subscribers is way more valuable than an audience of 150K people who do not feel connected to you.

Not only are they more likely to respond, but you are also showing people that you value their time and individual needs.

Don’t Overstuff Your Emails

Each email should have one primary objective. It's this objective that should take center stage, while everything else plays a supporting role. Understanding the core purpose of your email is paramount; it's the North Star that guides your content and ensures its relevance and impact.

In practical terms, it's about ruthless clarity and focus. You should scrutinize your email and eliminate anything that doesn't actively contribute to your primary objective.

Extraneous content not only dilutes your message but can also confuse or distract your recipients

Start Planning Your Next Campaign

You can make sure that your emails are more likely to be read and acted upon by your recipients. For the best results, provide value, be concise and clear, and include a strong CTA. 

Above all, keep your audience in mind. Think about how they will receive the email. What will convince them to open it? What will they take from it? What will it convince them to do? How can you track their response?

As long as you put the customer at the heart of your email campaign, you’ll do just fine. 

To test your performance, boost your growth, and ensure that you have great deliverability – start sending your emails using beehiiv.

You can start for free today.

Happy emailing!