The Anatomy of a Perfectly Persuasive Marketing Email

Every single email marketer out there is well aware of the stiff competition that they have to contend with on a daily basis. As more and more brands continue to hop on the bandwagon of email marketing thanks to its stellar ROI and massive impact, the volume of emails that are now sent on a daily basis is downright mind-boggling. So, how do you cut through the noise then? By ensuring that your email copy is absolutely on point.

Good content and copy are well worth their weight in gold and play a pivotal role in enhancing the communication of your marketing campaigns. After all, when people are receiving hundreds and thousands of emails on a daily basis, why should they bother opening yours if it’s worded just as generically as the rest? Grabbing people’s attention is no small feat, and doing so requires you to compose your emails as persuasively as possible. Wondering how you should go about it? Well, that’s exactly what we’ve covered in this article today. Dive in to find out!

Make Your Subject Lines Stand Out

You know how a good trailer encourages you to watch the movie? Well, that’s precisely what a subject line does for an email. It is the very first thing that recipients see about your email. Should it not be impactful enough, you might as well kiss the chances of your emails getting opened goodbye. Crafting creative and compelling subject lines is the first step of creating a persuasive marketing email. 

Next time, when you sit down to write a subject line, consider taking the following things into account:

• Try to use sensory words in your subject lines. As is indicative from their name, sensory words work towards evoking the five human senses. A subject line punctuated with sensory words creates a flurry of mental images in your readers’ minds, thereby leaving a lasting and strong impression on them. Why should one read words when they can experience them?
• Make sure your subject line has action words. Since subject lines are a reader’s first point of contact with an email, it is important that their phrasing drives the reader to engage or interact with the email. Remember, action words and verbs are not for commanding your subscribers; they’re simply for nudging them towards the path you want them to take.
• Create a sense of urgency. It might be the oldest trick in the book, but it works just as effectively as the rest. Every time there’s a subject line that announces a ticking clock, it invariably registers more engagement than the rest.
• Personalize your subject lines. Personalized subject lines are 26% more likely to be opened than their non-personalized counterparts. It’s 2021- batch and blast just don’t work on customers anymore. Segment your lists, personalize your communication at scale, and deliver an excellent customer experience.

Here are a few subject lines to fill you with inspiration:

Gooey Snacks: Craving some chocolate? (Source: https://reallygoodemails.com/emails/craving-some-chocolate)

Typeform: Camera shy? We’ve got the cure (Source: https://reallygoodemails.com/emails/camera-shy-weve-got-the-cure)

Bonobos: Don’t Wait, 30% Off Is Already Here (Source: https://reallygoodemails.com/emails/dont-wait-30-off-is-already-here(

Hally: 10% off code expires today! (Source: https://reallygoodemails.com/emails/10-off-code-expires-today)

Tell a Story

If there’s anything in this world that unites us despite our millions and millions of differences, it’s a good story. Narratives have shaped the course of human lives since time immemorial, and nobody knows that better than marketers. Therefore, a surefire way of creating a persuasive email is to embed an absorbing narrative at its heart. Irrespective of where the world finds itself in a few years from now, a good story will never fail to find its audience. 

Take a look at these persuasive email examples that have absolutely nailed their narratives.

Highlight Benefits, Not Features

Nobody likes someone who toots their own horns. Many marketing emails find their way into spam folders simply because they ramble on endlessly about their products and services and themselves. We get it; you want to communicate the value of your offerings to your subscribers. But talking about your features isn’t the way to go about it. If you don’t want your recipients to tune out of your email, you must speak about what benefits your products and services can add to their lives. In simple words, make the email about them, not you. 

Suppose you’re an automobile brand and you’ve launched a new scooter. Now, instead of writing about how its fuel efficiency and durability are a notch above the rest, tell your readers how these same features can help them save more and enhance their overall driving experience. That’s why it’s considered a good practice to write promotional emails in the second person so that the focus remains on the recipient. “You” over “We” and “I”, any day.

Here are a few persuasive email examples that highlight the same.

Keep It Short and Simple

As of 2021, the average person’s attention span stands at a meager 8 seconds. So if you’re not cutting to the chase with your email copies, it is safe to assume that your subscribers will overlook your content. Yes, good storytelling is an intrinsic part of email marketing, but it also merits a special occasion- holidays, product launches, anniversaries, and the like. You can’t expect your readers to have an appetite for stories frequently. Besides, short copies also give you the scope of formulating sound bites that are catchy and which instantly etch themselves onto the readers’ memories. Thus, what you need to practice regularly is to keep your email copies crisp and relevant. At the end of the day, your goal is to make your customers click on your CTA (call-to-action) button. And your email copy is what guides them towards that.

Take a look at these examples.

Step Up Your CTA

How could we possibly wrap a blog on creating persuasive email templates without including a section on arguably the most crucial part of an email- the CTA? You could have the choicest copy and the most striking design in your emails, and it would still fail to fetch you conversions if your CTAs are not upto the mark. 

To get your CTA game on point, you need to be mindful of the following:

• Its placement: Normally, many brands prefer placing their CTA button above the fold. That way, it catches the subscribers’ attention the minute they open the email. However, many brands deem it risky to include just one CTA in their emails. Hence, along with a primary CTA, they prefer adding a few secondary CTAs below the fold as well. 
• How it looks: The size, shape, and color of your CTA button all play an essential role in determining its visibility. The sizing of your button depends on the dimensions of the other elements in your email and must be in accordance with the visual hierarchy you have created over there. There are mainly two routes that brands take when it comes to shape- rectangular buttons and rounded-at-the-edges buttons. Both look equally neat, so it ultimately boils down to which shape complements your other design elements more. As far as the color of your button is considered, it’s best that you stick to the existing color scheme of your brand. If you don’t have anything defined as such, then use a color that contrasts sharply against the background to promote greater visibility.
• The CTA phrase: There’s perhaps nothing more off-putting than CTAs having the generic phrases of “Click Now,” “Buy Now,” “Try a Demo,” and the like. If you really want to drive action, then you need to get creative with your CTAs. Make your CTAs quirky, clever, and action-oriented.

Here are a few examples to get your juices flowing.

Wrapping It Up

We’ve bared the anatomy of a persuasive marketing email for you, and we’re sure that you now know what to do to make your campaigns the cynosure of all eyes. Remember, it’s alright if you don’t get it right on the first try. The important thing is to get your basics right. The perfect execution is just round the corner.