Email! It’s amazing, isn’t it? You press a button and in seconds, your words appear at the fingertips of your audience, anywhere in the world. What a phenomenal piece of technology, right?
But there’s a dark side to that convenience…. People get so inundated with emails, sometimes they don’t even bother to take a look before they hit the “trash” button. Ouch!
So how do you avoid the dreaded “glance and goodbye”? It begins and ends with engaging copy!
Make Sure You Have Something To Say:
And know what that is!
You have to have a clear message, first and foremost, to have a focused email. You don’t want to be sending out a confusing hodgepodge of messaging, or worse, pure filler. Pick your topic for the week/month/quarter, make an outline highlighting the most important features of your topic, and stick to it.
Don’t write just to fill the void. You have important things to share with your audience! Be sure to know your topic and stay on point; if you have a lot to say, you can always break that topic up into a theme for the month and spread it out!
Have A Good Hook:
They always say the first couple lines of a story are enough for a person to decide to keep reading or put the book down. The same principle applies to emails!
Make sure your opening draws your audience in. You want them to think, “Hmm, what a good point! I wonder what they’ll say next. This sounds like something I’m interested in.”
Start with the subject line. Be concise and to the point, true to your topic, a little witty if possible! This will get your emails opened; and, if you stay strong in the opening lines of your email, it will carry your reader through to the end.
Stay True To Your Brand:
Know your voice and be true to yourself! Your audience is smart - they can tell when you’re writing from the heart vs. when you’re just parroting buzz words.
When you’re writing in your own voice, that creates the connection between you and that person on the other side of your email, something that your audience is desperately looking for. This is what keeps people coming back to your words!
Stick To A Schedule:
You know when you get those automated emails every couple of days from that store you gave your email to a couple of months ago? You get so many emails so often saying nothing that you start to automatically delete the emails, even if one of them might have information about a sale that might interest you.
Don’t burn your audience out; you want to be present and active in their inbox, but you also don’t want to inundate them. Be steady and reliable, and let enough time elapse between emails that your audience is looking forward to hearing from you again.
Experiment With Layout:
Formatting, graphics, fonts… try it out!
A straightforward wall of text is fine if you’re writing personally and directly to your roommate from college. But when you’re interacting with your audience at large, you want to spice it up a little bit!
Don’t go overboard; flashy graphics and colorful headings aren’t an excuse to skimp on the meat of your messaging. Your copy should still be the star of the show. You just want to highlight with some tasteful additions so that your words are elevated.
Construction:
As a rule of thumb, you want to start with an introduction, followed by a brief personal touch (be it an anecdote or personal story) that will lead into your info, with links for more reading if necessary, and ending with a call to action.
You want to bring in your audience, remind them of the connection between you two, and then hit them with the main meat of your email. Keep it accurate but just past surface level so that your readers know they’re interacting with an expert, but they don’t get bored or overwhelmed. If necessary, link to deeper reading or sources.
Always end with a call to action, if you can! You want to keep people interested in who you are and what you do, and give them easy steps to take to learn more and connect with you more deeply than before if they’re inspired by your words. If it’s easy, more people will take that next step.
Ask For Help If You Need It:
Depending on your emailing schedule, you might find yourself getting burnt out every now and then. And that’s totally normal and okay!
With planning and a sustainable schedule built from your experience, hopefully, this will be the rare exception. But it does happen every once in a while!
When this happens, don’t be afraid to ask for help. You can hire someone to essentially be a “ghostwriter” and write for you echoing your voice, or you can acknowledge a guest writer directly to highlight a partner or collaborator.
Blog writing is a service that Assistants4Hire provides, including research, edits, and rewrites. Check out our services to see if this is something you may be interested in during those days where you just don’t have the time or the inspiration! 😁
We’re looking forward to working with you!
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Written by Jordan McAndrew