Persuasion lies at the heart of marketing. For all your hard skills as a marketer, for all your number-crunching and shogi-level strategizing, if you don’t know how to write a persuasive email, it’s all for naught.
Now, there could be multiple reasons why your subscribers are not converting. But, all things being equal, it boils down to just this: You’re failing to persuade your audience to buy from you. Having worked with over 5,000 global agencies across the world, you can take our word for it. After all, doing the right thing isn’t the same as doing it right.
How about we con a few tricks of persuasion? We’ll explore what goes into making a truly persuasive email template. And of course, we’ll show you a number of examples. Let’s roll the ball!
Persuasion in Email Marketing
Persuasion in email marketing works differently than in other forms of communication. Since the primary goal is to persuade people to buy your product or service, email is concerned with persuading the recipient to click through to your website.
Let’s put it this way: A truly persuasive email is the result of a series of “micro-conversions,” as Kath Pay has identified.
To that end, here are a few things to bear in mind:
- The first micro-conversion starts with the subject line. You must get the subscriber to open your email! The subject line includes both it and the pre-header. Space is limited, but attention, more so. Therefore, you must ace the subject line.
- As Pay points out, the body of the email is where your skills as a copywriter “go into overdrive.” Persuasion is a mix of excellent copy and intelligent design. We’ll get to it in detail in a while.
- Now, once you’ve persuaded the subscriber to click through to your website, your landing page will do the converting now. But your email copy and landing page copy should be markedly different. Pay advises marketers to “spend generous amounts of time” on crafting their landing pages. Never copy one to/from the other. Email and landing pages are as different as poetry and the novel. You’re addressing two different mental states, if not two different audiences. Email recipients are farther from the conversion stage than the landing page visitor.
Now, that’s the series of “micro-conversions.” It’s all good, in theory. But do brands follow it? Let’s explore a few examples.
5 Persuasive Email Examples
Let’s look at 5 brands that have mastered the art of persuasion.
1. dbrand
The hallmarks of conversion-focused copywriting are imagination, storytelling, humor, and subversion. It bewilders you, shocks you, and grips you. It’s daring and quite often so face-palmingly simple.
Take a very close look at this cart abandonment email from dbrand; read every line of it. The email’s subject line is: “You did it again 🎉”
Source: Inbox
What makes this cart abandonment email so “persuasive?” Here’s what:
- Intimacy: The subject line “You did it again” has that heartfelt, love-filled disappointment on the part of someone who cares. You don’t expect it from a stranger, it’d be offensive. But here’s someone who you’d be disappointed to disappoint. Now that’s the vibe such a subject line creates.
- Fear-then-relief: The good news-bad news bit is an example of the well-studied fear-then-relief effect. The goal is to scare, then immediately provide relief. (Incidentally, this is how insurance companies persuade you, but it’s most evident at the hustings.)
- Bold and brief: The upfrontness of the copy, “just give us your money,” this spitfiery way of talking, all these add up. It’s riveting, makes the reader sit up and notice, and that’s the point. The effect is one of humor obviously, but how often do you see it?
- Storytelling: What’s the point of introducing your second cousin, Troy, your mom, and your grandparents? Nothing! And that’s the point, haha. It’s a kind of “useful redundancy.” In this way, the brand re-positions itself as your only problem-solver.
- Subversion: Finally, dbrand subverts the way the unsubscribe option is provided. The dig is not lost on the reader. 😊
In terms of design, the dark-color theme, paired with a prominently yellow primary CTA, and good use of white space make this a truly persuasive email template.
2. Doughp
One of the greatest benefits of being creative is that you can depend on everything and nothing to get the job done. It’s not formulaic as such, though it has its rules and established strategies. Take a look at this persuasive email example from Doughp. It’s an apology email, and the subject line reads: “Yikes! We messed up…”
We almost feel that it’s so well-written it seems like a marketing ploy! But that’s the power of the (well-)written word.
This is such a good apology that you’d buy in order to forgive than to enjoy a bucket of Doughp. Here’s what stood out to us:
- The way it ends: What a beautiful way to end the message! The P.S. is so clever. It deliberately places the company in a good light. Because that’s what matters to the customer: The brand, not the occasional goof-ups of its employees. A masterstroke!
- The unmissable subject line: Any email that is prefaced by Yikes is hard to miss. It stands out immediately. Your “bad-boy genes” fire, and you want to know how the other party messed up.
- The facepalm emoji: Just spot-on, case closed.
- The vulnerability component: The human element in the email is what makes it all the more appealing. It shows that Doughp is not out there just to turn a profit. They value what they make. They’re passionate about it, and ergo, vulnerable with respect to it. They really don’t want you to miss out on the experience they are offering.
When the fast-food joint KFC ran out of chicken, they didn’t chicken out. Instead, they just rearranged their letters. (See below) You might argue that it’s a piece of creative stunt; in fact, one feels persuasion itself is only too glad to put on the stuntman’s rags, but that’s a brawl for another day.
3. Graza
In a study on the application of language in advertising, the use of techniques similar to those employed in poetry was highlighted.
“The utilization of mnemonic devices, including rhyme, rhythm, alliteration and assonance provides a significant advantage due to their mnemotechnical effect. This effect ensures that the recipient of the advertisement retains the information more effectively and can retrieve it at the appropriate time,” state Annye Braca and Pierpaolo Dondio in their paper, Developing persuasive systems for marketing: the interplay of persuasion techniques, customer traits and persuasive message design.
Take a look at Graza’s persuasive email template. The subject line employs alliteration: “TENNIS, TUNES, TALENTI, TASTY”
Source: Inbox
It’s Graza’s monthly newsletter. Check out what stood out to us:
- The grammar police copped: In another paper, titled Linguistic patterns in advertising messages, author A Teodorescu points out how advertising copy breaks the rules of English grammar with a view to capture attention. Graza’s email also does that. The use of SOOO and Anyways x 2 are two examples here.
- Variety of CTAs: Variation is also a much-studied phenomenon in language. Just go back to Graza’s diversely-written CTAs. From Woof Woof to Get Dippin’ to Cheers Mate, these fire up the hippie in us all, don’t they? Much has been said about using action verbs in CTAs. That’s useful, too. And practical.
- Positive associations: The Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM), as conceptualized by Petty and Cacioppo in 1986, attempts to understand how an individual responds to a persuasive message. If the individual is motivated enough to evaluate a message critically, they’re more likely to take the central route. If not, then they take the peripheral route. Graza’s products are meant to evoke automatic responses, so the copy contains a number of positive associations, such as beaches, summer tracks, and the Wimbledon. By associating their products with glamor, pleasure, and just good vibes, Graza is encouraging the reader to take the peripheral route.
- Excellent design: Not just how to write a persuasive email, but Graza knows how to design one, as well. From custom typeface to toon figures to checkered dividers to rounded buttons to line sketches, here’s an email that surely burned a lot of calories.
Next, let’s consider the place of humor in email marketing. Humor is a potent persuasion tool. However, it is important to bear in mind that humor as an emotion is something which may only be leveraged against the backdrop of your peculiar brand identity. It presupposes a certain type of brand attitude. You can’t be funny anytime you feel like. Accordingly, let’s consider a brand like Shinesty. Keep reading!
4. Shinesty
Shinesty has to be one of the funniest brands out there. And they’re proud to flaunt it in their emails. Consider the following example. How can you not be led to buy by such a persuasive email template?
Source: Inbox
Before diving into the “excellencies” of this email, appreciate the fact that it’s not meant for everyone. Shinesty’s audience is of a certain kind. Not everyone responds to such emails. We underscore this since we don’t want you to take what works for this email as a template.
Now, obviously, many things stood out to us. Here’s some of them:
- Problem-focused subject line: The subject line, which reads “is it a perma-wedgie?” is not just funny but problem-focused. But wedgies can be serious, notwithstanding their association with humor. So, the subject line gets into the heart of the matter. In addition, Shinesty isn’t serious about their email address either. This email’s address reads: cracking.up@shinesty.com. 🤣
- Customized CTA buttons: CTA copy is widely overlooked by most brands, but Shinesty doesn’t leave anything to chance. We love all the CTAs, not least because they use a first-person POV. And of course, they’re hilarious.
- Two-sided messaging: A two-sided message in advertising is one that highlights the negative aspects as well as the positive aspects of a product. In this email, “Am I naked?” illustrates this. The point is, Shinesty’s panties are so comfy that they don’t even seem to touch your skin, so you’d feel like you’re naked. So, being naked and being comfortable are the negative and the positive aspects, respectively. It’s a very well-known technique.
- The hilarious footer: Shinesty’s footer is a hoot! It deserves to be quoted in full: “This extremely tasteful, hand crafted, organic, non-gmo, vegan, gluten free email was designed by Car and written by Paige.” Does it get any funnier than this? This is one of the less crass instances of Shinesty’s use of humor.
We’ll study one last persuasive email example, before moving on to a few expert tips on how to write a persuasive email.
5. L’Oreal Paris
It’s one thing to write persuasively, another to design persuasively. In our last example, we explore what goes into designing a persuasive email template. For that, check out this email from L’Oreal Paris first.
L’Oreal Paris exudes power, empowerment, and confidence. That’s their brand attitude. Their tagline “Because you’re worth it” was the first tagline to highlight self-confidence in the history of advertising. Does their email design also show this? Let’s find out.
- One-action-at-a-time strategy: You can only persuade if you let the viewer focus on one thing at a time. An unbusy design keeps the viewer busy. L’Oreal confines their content blocks to one viewport at a time. It almost has an immersive quality to it. Each viewport has just one type of content and just one CTA.
- Brand-identified images: Iconic images, A-listers, and a TikTok sensation, these persuade the recipient that they’re worth it. If you’re the right audience, you’d want L’Oreal to feature Kendall Jenner right at the top. The photos are also brilliantly shot; as professional models, the featured icons easily exude confidence and power. In this respect, it’s interesting to point out how persuasion leverages illusory superiority. The term explains itself. You praise to persuade. Advertisers use “authority-based endorsements,” a phenomenon known as the Captainitis effect.
- Visual appeal: L’Oreal rules the visual department. From those vignetted dividers to bold typography to Dark themes, the email is an eye candy. The black-and-silver combination is classy.
- The TikTok effect: No other social media channel has proven to be so persuasive as TikTok. (Sorry, Zuck!) You just have to drop those two alliterating syllables to get tongues wagging. By leveraging TikTok in their email, L’Oreal has won the battle of persuasion criminally easily. In featuring Kensington Tillo’s, not Kendall’s, favorites, L’Oreal is being real with a vengeance.
That wraps up the examples part. We’ll leave you with a few expert tips on how to write a persuasive email.
10 Tips on Creating A Persuasive Email Template
- Know your tribe: You want to persuade, but persuade who? Do you know your audience well enough to dare to persuade them? The fuel of persuasion is stored in the other party’s tank. So make sure you know your audience like the back of your brand.
- Attract from the get-go: If you want to capture attention, do it quickly. Master the headline. It ought to grip the reader. Don’t rely on words only; leverage emojis, exclamation points, even numbers, why not? Bespoke Post did it with their subject line.
- Embrace colloquialism: In other words, write informally. Write as you speak. Doesn’t matter whether you’re a hip brand or not. Keep it cool. Save the formal style for the legal bit at the end.
- Be as concise as possible: That’s David Ogilvy’s advice, no one less. You can get there by trying this 15-minute exercise created by Eddie Shleyner, founder of Very Good Copy.
- Embrace persuasive design: Keep it simple, make it appealing, don’t forget visual hierarchy, and leverage white space. For more on persuasive design, read up on the process of persuasion.
- Break up with ChatGPT: We mean it! Do NOT use AI. AI can’t persuade. The best copy is created, not generated.
- Get acquainted with cognitive biases: The human mind is biased as hell. Read up on the different types of biases. Use them. Some of the well-known biases include the cognitive ease bias, the anchoring effect, the Von Restorff effect, the peak-end rule, etc.
- Exploit the Rule of Three: Here’s Pay: “Things in threes have a natural cadence and rhythm. They’re memorable, they flow easily in our minds, and they’re sticky. (See what I did there?)”
- Highlight the benefits: How will the would-be customer benefit from your product/service? Let them know. Apply social proof.
- Be aware where the customer is: Before hurrying to write an email, consider at what stage the customer is. Are they exploring? Are they ready to buy? Expecting a post-purchase email? Be certain about the funnel, and craft copy accordingly.
Copy that? Then Let’s Start Persuading Together!
Now you know what goes into making a persuasive email template. We’ll take a cue from our own book, and inform you that we deliver over 3,000 email templates per month. So far, we have successfully persuaded over 5,000 agencies in more than 60 countries. If you want a taste of it, get in touch with our email experts pronto!