From Subject Line to CTAs, here’s the most effective way to write every part of a marketing email.
If you’re reading this, you’ve probably read and written your fair share of emails. With internal teams, close client contacts, and troubleshooting requests, it’s easy to treat emails like you treat texting: short sentences, misspellings, no punctuation, etc. But what happens when it’s time for you or your team to write a marketing cold email? The texting strategy goes out the window.
No need to panic! In this short guide, I’ll break the dreaded marketing email down by its component parts. We’ll discuss what to write and why for each section. I’ll even include word count ranges and examples to help showcase effective writing.
Get started writing your next successful email campaign with these breakdowns:
Subject Line
The subject line is the short blurb of text that shows before your email is opened. You can think of it like a tiny overview for the eventual content of your email.
As the only part of the email that you can (nearly) guarantee your audience will read, the subject line is the most important thing to write. Put another way, the average open rate of marketing emails across industries is only 22.61%. That means that, if you’re in the 78% majority of unopened emails, the only thing your audience managed to read was your seven-or-so-word subject line.
Even though there’s pressure to get it right, many email marketers will say to keep your subject line short. Most marketers say to aim for seven words, including the product name. Think of it like a billboard: how many words can your reader digest while hurtling down the highway at 65 mph? In this case, you want to think about how you can outline the gist of your email in a short enough way that it intrigues your reader as they parse through hundreds of similar emails gathering in their inbox.
With that brevity in mind, here are two examples of a subject line pitching a fake brand of running shoes:
- Bad: The RunStarX is the lightest running shoe on the market, endorsed by top athletes, in any color you like.
- This example is much too long and scatters the email’s focus with unnecessary product features.
- Good: Run a test lap in the RunStarX.
- This example is short, introduces the product, and hints at the content of the email.
Preheader
If the subject line is a mini overview of your email, the preheader is a window into the actual content of the email itself. The preheader is the text that appears right after the subject line, most of which is readable before a user actually opens the email.
Preheaders are especially key for mobile users. Have you ever checked an email on your phone, just to see the preheader copy get cut off with an ellipsis (…)? In my opinion, this is a lazy mistake some marketers make. Rather than write a unique preheader, they copy and paste the introduction of the body copy into the preheader section, which then gets cut off for the reader.
To create a strong preheader, make sure the preheader 1) is a complete sentence, 2) gives your reader a nugget of information regarding the content of the email, 3) is short, less than 10 words if possible, and 4) it references the subject line.
Let’s use that same running shoe example:
- Bad: November 12, 2024: As of today, we’re dropping our newest shoe model the RunStarX.
- This preheader is too long and reads too much like an opening sentence.
- Good: Our athletes are out here breaking records.
- This preheader is short, relates to the subject line, and hints at more email content to come.
Headline
Your headline is the large text that introduces the body content of your email. The headline might be the second-most important part of your email, as it will either attract or repel readers who engaged with your subject line.
Headlines have to accomplish two goals: 1) Assure the reader that the interest you created during the subject line/pre-header phase will be rewarded with relevant information and 2) Include product or service-specific information that doesn’t repeat earlier content. Now that we know our reader is engaged, it’s time to get specific about our product/service and its relevant story; any equivocating at this stage will lose our reader.
Aim for 7–15 words for your headline. Anymore and your designer will be stuck trying to squeeze a paragraph of large-font text into the top of your email.
Back to the well:
- Bad: The RunStarX Will Make You Really Fast.
- We’re repeating information hinted at in the subject line, making this title quite boring.
- Good: Could the Lightest Fibers in the World Break the Fastest Mile Time?
- Although a touch long, this title expands upon the hints established in the subject line and preheader. Now we know there was a product test, and our reader will likely want to see what happened.
Body
The body of the email will take up the bulk of your word count and should contain all the important points you or your client want to get across to your reader. Now that our reader has made it all the way here, we can finally talk about our product/service and tell our product story.
The body of the email is completely dependent upon the stage of the marketing funnel you’re working in. As a general rule: the higher in the funnel, the shorter the email body; and vice versa.
What makes a good email body vs a bad? This will rely on the strength of your brief, your copywriters, and your messaging, but the best thing you can do is tell a unifying story. Following the RunStarX example, I would want to tell a story about how our shoe enabled our brand athletes to break some records. While telling this story, it’d be easy to throw in product features, images, and any other compelling information.
CTA
What do you want you reader to do? Your final CTA should answer that question. Whether you want your reader to buy your product, call a sales rep, or maybe just stay tuned for more information, you’ll want to use a CTA to filter the very interested customers from the not-so-interested customers.
Typically, CTAs are in button format and therefore should only be 2–4 words. If instead your CTA relies on an anchor text link or broader form fill, it could be an entire sentence long.
A strong CTA will: 1) be actionable, 2) be short, and 3) avoid cliché.
Here’s the final say from our friends selling the RunStarX:
- Bad: Check out our link.
- Check out what link? And why? This CTA is too vague to get me to click.
- Good: Try on a Pair
- This CTA tells me exactly what I’m getting from my click: store information so I can see if I like the product.
At Weber Associates, great email copywriting is only a small part of our services. Our teams of account managers, designers, and copywriters have a combined 90+ years of experience creating concise, relevant content for our B2B audiences.
What can we create for you?
