I don’t need to tell you that emails are important. We live in the age of the email.
With over 200 million messages being sent every day, your email may be one of the only things you ever have to say. As a Marketer, your email is your chance to persuade – to convince – the reader to do, think, or believe something.
It’s likely that you’ve already been asked to write an email to promote a product or service. But have you ever thought about how you would persuade someone to buy your product or service?
Let’s explore how to write a persuasive marketing email.
Focus On The Reader
When you write an email, you must keep in mind that it’s being read by someone. So rather than using jargon and complex language, you need to simplify your message.
Instead of writing, “As a business owner, you need X to run your business smoothly.” The reader doesn’t need to be familiar with X – they know what business they’re in and what they need to do to succeed.
Instead of writing, “As a business owner, you need X to run your business smoothly. Why should you choose our product/service?” The reader understands the importance of having X in their business.
When you write to persuade, you are not writing to instruct. You are writing to entertain or interest the reader so that they’ll remember your message and act on it.
Use Summaries
As you’ve probably noticed, most email clients nowadays display only the first few lines of an email. Whether it’s Twitter’s ‘Compressed’ view or Facebook’s ‘Instant Articles’, the aim is the same – to give the reader a quick overview of the message.
Now is the chance to add value. One of the primary purposes of the summary is to grab the reader’s attention – to make them want to continue reading the email. So rather than just a few lines of text, you can write a few paragraphs explaining the main points of the email. That way, the reader will get the most out of it.
Make It Personal
To write a persuasive email, you need to relate to the reader. One of the best ways to do this is to write in the first person.
If you’re writing to notify a potential customer about a new product or service, you can begin, “Dear Valued Customer,” or “Hi there!”
This strategy is called ‘The 3 Ps’ – Person, Presentation, and Performance.’ The idea behind the Personal Merchandising approach is to make the reader feel like they’re interacting with you directly, rather than just receiving an email.
The performance parts of the Personal Merchandising approach include:
- A clear call-to-action (CTA)
- An easy to follow path to purchase
- High quality images
- A personalized email signature
- Pro-forma documents attached in the email
- Free shipping
- And more
When you write a persuasive email, you are writing to convince, inspire, or entertain the reader. To get the most out of it, write in the first person and use all of the above tools.
Keep Your Language Direct
With the exception of very formal letters, business emails should be straightforward and to the point. As a rule of thumb, try to avoid using long, complicated sentences – your reader should be able to understand your message without skipping or glossing over a word.
If you find that you’ve written something that’s hard for the reader to understand, they may end up tossing your email without even reading it. So for the best result, use straightforward language and avoid using jargon. The simpler the better. Your readers will thank you for it.
Use Stats And Other Data
While your primary goal is to write something that will make the reader interested in your product or service, you can add credibility by including statistics and other data. For example, if you’re writing to notify potential customers about a new product and are citing Customer X’s purchase of Y as an example, you can write, “Based on our research, we’ve determined that Y is the best in its category, and it works with our product, Z.”
The bottom line is people need facts to make decisions. If you want someone to act on your email, include solid evidence that they’ll benefit from doing so. Even if you’re just writing to entertain or interest your reader, including these details can add credibility.
Use Visual And Digital Aids
If you’ve got a large number of emails to write, or you’re simply running out of ideas, include a few visual or digital aids. For example, if you want to illustrate the ease of use with your product, you can write a quick tutorial on how to navigate it or how to perform certain functions. Or if you want to show the reader an example of the kind of results that they can expect, you can send them a case study or include a video demonstrating the product in action. Writing a persuasive email doesn’t have to be hard. Simply follow the above tips, and you’ll be able to write an email that will persuade your reader to do, think, or believe something.