If you’re using email marketing to promote your business, you need compelling email copy. Email marketing can be very effective at getting customers to take action – whether it’s clicking on a link in your email or actually making a purchase on your site – so you want to make sure that you capture the attention of your readers right away and keep it until the end of the promotional email.
How To Create Strong, Actionable Promotional Emails
Kick Things Off With A Strong Subject Line
One of email marketing’s most important roles is to make an impression, and there’s no better way to do that than by catching readers’ attention early on. The subject line of your email can either help or hurt your chances of getting read, so don’t be afraid to experiment with different approaches.
What are some good examples of quality subject lines? Let’s take a look at some subject lines that Anyword’s AI Copywriting Platform churned out.
First, we have a subject line for a new makeup product. Anyword’s predictive analytics is able to tell us that this subject line will best resonate with a female audience mostly in the 25-34 age range.
This example makes the case for sprinkling in your brand or company’s personality right off the bat in your subject lines. “Put your best blush forward” is both a play on the classic idiom and a more unique way of highlight a new product.
But even if you are looking to take this route, it’s still important to give your reader or subscriber some direction. In the example above, the subject line kicks off with an action verbs. So, if we change this subject line to still keep the personality, but lose the call-to-action? We see a drop in our Predictive Performance Score, and the likelihood that this copy would resonate with younger audiences also decreases.
Now let’s move on to sports. For these soccer cleats, the AI took a more hard sale approach.
As we can see, this subject line is split more evenly among male and female, and falls in a similar age demographic as the makeup product above. But what happens when we take out the CTA “Get 20% Off”?
The Predictive Performance Score for the subject line drops, and the copy was less tailored toward a specific age group.
To summarize, here are two essential best practices for your subject lines:
- Include a strong power verb
- Show personality without losing any sense of urgency
Keep It Brief
Brevity is key in promotional emails. When subscribers open your email, you have mere seconds to grab their attention and convince them to click-through and learn more about your brand or business. A good rule of thumb is that if an email takes more than 10 seconds to read (you should read it aloud), you’re losing people. The best way to ensure you’re keeping it brief? Test, test, test!
Add Personalization
Don’t send mass emails out into the ether and expect them to be effective. Personalization is important because it shows your recipients that you care enough about them to connect with them personally. The easiest way to do that is through name recognition and addressing each recipient by name in your copy. Also, don’t forget to keep their needs top of mind as you write.
Use Power Verbs
Power verbs shouldn’t just stop at your subject line! One of the most important things you need to know about writing promotional emails is that they are meant to sell. This means using active verbs in your copy. Active words drive action and compel readers to respond quickly. Power verbs are particularly effective in email promotions because they tell your audience exactly what you want them to do next—and that’s open your email!
Don’t Shy Away From Emojis
Everyone knows and loves them, but some companies avoid using emojis because they think it makes their emails seem unprofessional. That’s old thinking—emojis are super effective at grabbing people’s attention and keeping your subscribers interested.
Use A Mobile-Friendly Layout
Your promotional emails need to be accessible from anywhere, on any device. Therefore, you should use an email marketing service that is mobile friendly. These platforms are set up to work on different devices and with different email systems, so it’s easier for you (and your recipients) to read and interact with your promotional emails.
Don’t Forget Your CTA
Like we mentioned for your subject lines, make sure your promotional email is actionable. Include a clear call-to-action that tells your reader what they should do next. This will keep readers engaged and make it easier for them to follow through on your recommendation.
A Deeper Dive Into Strong Call-To-Actions
And speaking of CTAs, we feel that this simple word or phrase is one of the most important parts of your promotional email. Without a CTA, you direct your reader or subscriber essentially to do nothing. And for brands looking for conversions and sales, that kind of dead end is far less than ideal.
So, if there’s anything you take away from our guide on how to create a strong promotional email, let it be that no email succeeds without a stellar CTA. And never fear — we’re here to make sure you craft the best possible call-to-action for your content.
Top CTAs to Use
To get a better idea of which CTAs might work best, we analyzed ad data to see which phrases came out on top. Here are the top five CTAs based on click-through-rate:
- Check Out
- Sign Up
- Get Ready
- Shop Today
- Find Out More
To put things in context, “Get Ready,” “Shop Today,” and “Sign Up” solidified the top three spots, averaging 3X higher CTRs than the other two.
Depending on the content of your promotional email, these strong CTAs can be useful for anything from commerce promotions to subscription services. Decide which one makes the most sense and incorporate it into your copy.
But these CTAs are not the end-all-be-all. A strong CTA hinges upon the action verb you choose to kick it off with. So, we’ve compiled a list of strong power verbs to get you started on your CTA journey:
- Act
- Explore
- Experience
- Claim
- Compare
- Discover
- Follow
- Help
- Imagine
- Test
- Shop
- Subscribe
Strong CTAs In Action
To make their promotional emails even more unique, a lot of brands and companies even choose to personalize or customize their CTA. This means thinking outside the box when it comes to the traditional call-to-action structure of:
Action Verb + Offer
However, this doesn’t mean to abandon this formula altogether — just think of more interesting ways to go about it. What does this look like in action? Let’s take a look at some companies that go the extra mile with their promotional email CTAs (and use phrases and words we recommended above).
Rifle Paper Co.
SeatGeek
thredUP
Vogue
Nudestix
TIME
CurlSmith
Leave It All To Anyword
As we can see, companies take several different approaches to their promotional emails. From fun, unique CTAs to bright, colorful imagery, promo emails are unique to each use case.
But what if we told you that Anyword’s AI Copywriting Platform could take care of all the copy needs of your promotional emails? Yes, that means subject lines, body copy, and yes, CTAs.
This AI writer has a tool specifically designed for creating entire promotional emails (minus the imagery). Have something really exciting to share with your customers? A new product? A flash sale? Use Anyword’s platform to generate your email copy from scratch — all in just a few clicks.
And of course, Anyword won’t let you walk away with an email that’s just going to get lost in your customer’s inboxes. Along with each subject line you generate with Anyword comes a unique Predictive Performance Score. These “grades” give you an inside look into how your copy will perform. This means you can have an idea of its conversion potential — before you even send out your email. Pretty neat, right?
Get access to our Promotional Email tool and much more with a free, 7-day trial. Sign up today.
