How To Write Emails That Get Read

Want to write the perfect email for your list?

There is no such thing of course, and the ideal message is going to vary from person to person and brand to brand.

That said though, there are certainly some ‘best practices’ to keep in mind when you are coming up with your emails and that can help you to get a better response.

Let’s take a look at some of them…

Write A Story

I once heard the expression that ‘storytelling is SEO for the human mind’. This is incredibly true, and the fact is that the human psyche loves stories.

We have evolved over thousands of years with a culture of storytelling, and we find it very engaging and very persuasive.

So instead of writing about how X technique is highly effective generally, instead frame this discussion as your own personal account.

How has it helped you? Or how has it helped someone you know? How did you feel during that process?

Set the scene and get people engaged – this is far less dry than simply talking in facts and figures.

Be Personal

It’s important that the tone of your messages match the tone and the nature of your business. However, it should also match the medium – which in this case is the email of course.

Emails are inherently more personal and less formal than other forms of marketing because they’re being read in a personal inbox.

At the same time, by writing a more personal message (using the recipient’s name, making sure to use a regular letter structure), you’ll be more likely to reach the primary inbox and therefore to actually get read!

Try not to put any distance between yourself and your audience; make them feel as though you are speaking with them directly.

Provide Value

The objective of any good email should be to provide value. That might be in the form of a tip, or it might mean that you are providing entertainment.

Either way, you need to make sure that your audience feel glad that they took the time to open your message and read it.

That way, they’ll be more likely to do the same again next time!

As well as providing value though, you should also seek to make sure you are providing value in the shortest space of time.

In other words, your messages should be efficient and to the point – you don’t want to take up your audience’s time!

If you want to learn more about writing emails that make money, check out this post here.

OK, now you’ve crafted an email that people will want to read. The next hurdle is to actually to get your email into the Inbox and specifically their Primary Inbox. Let’s look at some ways to help you to do that…

How To Avoid The Spam Filter And Get Into The Primary Inbox

One of the biggest challenges for email marketers over the years has always been beating the spam filter.

The job of the spam filter on most email providers is to prevent unwanted messages from getting in – especially those that might contain viruses, phishing scams or other harmful types of content.

Today this has become even harder though. Now we not only have spam boxes but also ‘social’ and ‘promotional’ boxes that further segregate our messages and make it hard for any of our messages to gain attention.

The good news is that there are strategies you can use to combat both these issues. Read on…

Language

One of the first and most important tips for avoiding the spam box is to make sure you avoid using the kinds of words and phrases that computers associate with spam.

This is similar to the way that Google looks for keywords, except this time the keywords are a bad thing. Examples of words to avoid include things like ‘buy’, ‘free’, ‘discount’, ‘hurry’ and ‘Viagra’.

Hopefully that last one isn’t something you would be writing about anyway!

Many email autoresponders will have a built-in check and will give your email a spam score before you add it to your automation or broadcast list so make use of it. I use Active Campaign and know this definitely has this useful feature.

Structure

If you want to get into the main inbox, then it is not enough to ‘not look like spam’ – you now need to also ‘look like a personal message’.

To do this, you should take advantage of the feature in your autoresponder that allows you to use the recipient’s name in the message.

Likewise, try to structure your message more like a conventional email. That means saying ‘Dear [Name],’ and ending with ‘Best regards,’.

Plus, you also need to avoid including elements that a client will associate with a promotional image or that will make you look less like a genuine correspondence.

That means avoiding using too many hyperlinks – keep it to just one – and it means avoiding using big images.

Sender Reputation

The most important thing to do though, is to make sure that you are focussing on delivering great value over time. If you do this, then people will open your messages and they will actually read them.

This will help to improve your ‘sender reputation’, which in turn will mean you don’t get blacklisted.

And while you’re at it, why not ask your readers to ‘whitelist’ your messages and add them to the main inbox? Sometimes the best solutions are the simplest ones! You should ask them this in the very beginning of your first email to them and hopefully they will do this.

Your reputation isn’t just your own, but also the email autoresponder service you use, and this is why it is probably best to stay away from most self-hosted solutions.

By using a reliable email autoresponder, you are much more likely to hit the Inbox. Yes, you have to abide by their rules and many platforms frown on affiliate marketing, but as long as you are primarily focused on providing value to your readers, you should be fine.

Don’t be pushy and try to hard sell in every email or you could find yourself in hot water with your provider.

But there is nothing wrong with providing good value and then recommending something that can help them to implement what you have taught them.

I find this soft sell much more compelling in the long run and it shows that you are trying to provide something that genuinely helps your readers and that is the key to any good business. If you want to know more about writing good email copy, check out this post.

And, if you want to know more about nurturing your list, check out the featured resource below where you can get a free report about simple list building to expand your knowledge further. If you do download it, please read it and take action and good luck 😊