Email is versatile and can be used for a variety of purposes such as communicating with co-workers, promoting upcoming holiday specials, reminding customers about items they’ve left behind in their shopping carts, working with influencers, and keeping your target audience up to speed with new developments.
To quantify just how popular email is, here are some interesting email marketing statistics:
- It’s anticipated that there will be 4.3 billion email users by 2023.
- On average, less than 0.3% of subscribers choose to click on the unsubscribe button.
- It’s forecasted that by 2025 more than 376.4 billion emails will be sent per day.
Even though it is versatile, you still need to follow certain rules when writing emails for it to be effective.
This quick guide to writing emails will help you create more effective emails moving forward. It includes advice on what to include and what to leave out, as well as how to take your emails to the next level.
The Different Parts of an Email
1. An interesting subject line
The subject line of your email is very important. A bad subject line could mean that your email will be ignored and deleted. A subject line that is too promotional could result in your email being marked as spam.
Email subject lines are not as easy as they seem. You need to be creative and concise to get your point across without using too many words.
The subject line of an email becomes more important when it’s the sender’s first email to the recipient. A well-crafted subject line can serve as an introduction to the email’s content and the sender’s brand. Clickbait subject lines often have the opposite effect of what’s intended, hurting both open rates and brand identity. It’s also best to avoid using all capital letters in a subject line, as this can cause recipients to get upset before they even open the email.
To help you get started, here are some examples of great email subject lines that you can use:
- Have you solved your [insert pain point] yet?
- From overweight to healthy and happy
- [Insert name] shares secrets to better branding
- Top 10 under $10
- NEW [insert product category]
2. Greeting
The subject line is not as important as a appropriate greeting. The context will determine the best greeting to use. For formal emails, “Dear” or “To Whom It May Concern” are the best options. For more informal emails, you can use something like “Hey”.
3. A first sentence that will capture attention
How you start your email can determine whether or not the recipient will read it until the end. Make sure your first sentence doesn’t make it seem like you’re sending the same email to everyone on your list.
To make your first sentence more attention-grabbing, do some research on what your target audience finds interesting. What kind of content do they interact with often on social media?
4. The body
Your email should be short and to the point. You can make it easier to read by using short sentences and paragraphs, and using bullet points where possible.
Your email should have a primary point or idea, and every sentence should help communicate this main point. Include a call to action.
5. The closing
You can be more creative when writing your subject line and opening sentence, but it’s better to be simple when writing your conclusion. “Best regards” and “warm wishes” are usually more effective than something creative.
It is also wise to create a professional email signature. This is the last chance to make a good impression and add valuable information without lengthening the email.
7 Tips for Making Your Emails More Effective
1. Keep it conversational
You should adjust the way you speak and write to match your audience and the situation. In some cases, it is better to sound more informal and like you are having a conversation.
It’s not only important to use informal language, but also to stick to active voice instead of passive voice. So, for example, instead of writing “Your order has been shipped,” you would write “We have shipped your order.” In short, active voice just has a unique way of humanizing a brand to help create a more personal connection.
2. Start with an appropriate greeting
The salutation is the “Dear Sir or Madam” part of the greeting. The opening sentence is the part that comes after the salutation. You should begin your email with a greeting that includes a salutation and an opening sentence. The salutation should be “Dear Sir or Madam” and the opening sentence should come after the salutation.
The best way to start an email depends on who the email is for. If it is for a bank or government institution, it is better to start with “Dear [X].”
If you are sending an email to someone you know or work with in a casual environment, it is perfectly fine to say “Hi [Name]” or “Hello [Name].”
This phrase can be used when the recipient of the email is unknown, or when the email is being sent to a group.
A potential issue with using terms like “Hi guys” and “Mr./Ms/Mrs.” in your salutation is that they can be exclusionary.
To help you out, here is a list of salutations you can open in your emails:
3. Have a strong attention grabber
Once you’ve said “Hello,” it’s time to start your email.
The subject line of your email is the most important factor in whether or not it will be opened, but the opening sentence is what will determine whether or not it will be read until the end.
If you are introducing someone to someone else, you can open with something you know will interest the recipient. You can find this out through a little research on their social media profiles. Perhaps they Tweeted something interesting or recently posted something on LinkedIn you can reference.
Use this tip to help you form a bond with the person you’re emailing and to demonstrate that your message is not just a mass-produced email.
It’s not essential to provide context when emailing someone you know, but it can be helpful.
With a colleague, start with the “why.”
It is important to state the purpose of an email early on, as recipients likely will not have the time or patience to try and guess what the email is about.
If you need help coming up with what to say in your sales emails, HubSpot has a library of free templates designed for each stage of the customer journey.
4. Keep your message short and concise
Approximately 319 billion emails are sent and received every day around the world.
This statistic implies that a lot of time is spent reading emails. Many people scan emails to get the gist of the message and move on to the next email.
With this in mind, you want to optimize your email for readability and scanability. This will look like:
- Keeping paragraphs short.
- Adding bullet points.
- Using visuals to break up the text.
Do not write an email that contains everything you ever wanted to say in one email.
No one likes getting a three-page email. Keep this in mind when writing your emails: What is the most important point you want to get across, and what action do you want the recipient to take?
After coming up with your goal, write your email and make sure that each line included helps you meet that goal. If it does not, take it out.
If you have a lot of information to include in an email, you might suggest a phone call or meeting instead of including everything in the email. You can use a free meeting tool to schedule your meetings faster and avoid back-and-forth emails.
5. Be consistent with your font
Email can be more fun by adding images, GIFs, and colors; however, too much can be jarring or distracting.
An email that uses bad design can be difficult to read. one type of bad design arises when you use several different fonts, font sizes, and colors.
In addition, your recipient may not receive the message as intended as they are too distracted by all the elements in the message that are fighting for their attention.
As a general guideline, it is best to stick to one font. If you want to use a second font, use it sparingly. The same rule applies to color.
If you’re using a non-English keyboard, your fonts may not show up properly on the other person’s device. Instead, use web-safe email fonts like:
- Arial
- Courier
- Georgia
- Helvetica
- Lucida Sans
- Tahoma
- Times New Roman
- Trebuchet MS
- Verdana
If you want your recipient to see your message in a regular font, regardless of their device or operating system, you should use one of thesethis setting.
6. Write a simple closing
After you are done writing the email, it is time to finish it.
You don’t have to make your closing complicated or adorned. Just keep it simple and straightforward.
Use safe and proven closing lines instead for the best results.
You can choose from some of the most common closing lines below:
- Sincerely
- Best regards
- Best
- Warm regards
- Warm wishes
- Kind regards
- Kind wishes
- Thank you
- Take care
7. Proofread before hitting send
Although it may take some time to write an effective email (particularly if you use the aforementioned tips to structure it), it is worth taking the time to do so. A small mistake, such as a typo, can ruin your entire email, so it is not unreasonable to spend a few extra minutes checking for grammar and spelling errors.
A second pair of eyes may be better for proofreading a message. If there are no coworkers to help, try reading the message out loud, which can help with the overall tone and flow.
Related posts:
