Top 11 tips to ace your Email writing skills

Are you writing e-mails the right way? Are you able to win a pitch or convert prospects into customers through your emails? E-mail stands out as a great way to reach your customers, build your business and helps seal deals even today. But it is still a hiccup that many aren’t aware of the right way to construct an email. What then? Keep reading. By the end of these 11 tips I’m sure you’ll be able to rectify most of the mistakes you’ve been doing all these days while writing an email and pen down effective emails.

1. Identify the purpose

Firstly, know why you are constructing the email. Identify your goal before fabricating your mail.

Ask yourself these questions:

1. Why do you want your audience to read the mail?
2. What is there in it for them?
3. What do you want your audience to do after they read the mail?

The answers to these questions become the content of your mail.

2. Use catchy subject lines

Did you know that the average open rate of an email on an average is only 21% - 25%? That means, there is a high possibility that your email doesn’t even get opened most of the time. One of the soul reasons behind this is boring subject lines. Subject lines which start with Regarding, FYI, Request to have far gone become outdated.

Instead, you can use subject lines like:

1. Look out! Here are some cool products that might interest you
2. 3 secrets to getting a higher conversion rate
3. Hold on! You might be missing out on these awesome points
4. Please open me! I bet you wouldn’t regret

On a whole, write subject lines that triggers the audience to open the mail. You can include exclamations, eye catching numbers and even the name of the person your mailing to add a personal touch to the mail.

3. Watch your tone

Be very careful with the choice of words, punctuation, capitalization and sentence lengths. Since we are conveying a point over the internet, there are chances that even a normal sentence gets misinterpreted when any of the above mentioned goes wrong. Be polite. Be humble. Do not over exaggerate any of your statements in a notion to display pride.

4. Keep it simple

Don’t over populate information in your mail. Keep it to the point and make it simple. An ideal email contains anywhere between 50 to 150 words. Remember you’re not writing a blog or an article. Hence, make your point as short and sweet as possible. Also, your audience would’t be interested or patient enough to go through long written emails even if all points added in it are valid. Have that in mind and draft your mail accordingly.

5. Use power words

Target the emotions of the audience and jot your mail in such a way that it sows trust on you. If you want to hit their mark and write an email copy that performs well use suitable power words. Power words are ordinary yet powerful words that catches the emotions of people. Wise usage of power words can bring interest in your audience’s mind and revert to you positively.

Here are few positive power words to try:

Free, genuine, guaranteed, promise, conversion, profit, awe-inspiring, amazing, score, plunge.

But beware! Don’t go overboard with power words as it might make your content look spammy or even insincere. In a nutshell, don’t use power words for the sake of using them. Instead, fit them only wherever needed.

6. Break into points

As quoted before, remember you are not writing an essay but an email. Hence, long paragraphs ain’t going to work out. Use simple sentences and give necessary spacing between lines. Use bold, italics and underline wherever needed to highlight important points. Keep your email minimalistic and don’t pour too many colours in the name of highlighting as this might irritate your audience.

Make use of bullet points or numbering when you are quoting features,advantages etc. Ensure that your email is visually pleasing to read.

7. Proofread

Attention! Here comes the important part which most people miss out. Once you have drafted an email don’t be in an urge to send it immediately. PROOFREAD it twice or thrice. While you may have your spell checker turned on, it's not a guarantee they catch all mistakes right away. I would thoroughly suggest you to take help of an exclusive tool like grammarly to identify any error in your emails.

You can even ask your close associate to examine the mail once and see if all points are being conveyed clear. Or maybe take a break, and read your mail after a while to spot any errors and see if the mail actually makes sense. Check if you have enclosed any attachment required as it is very common people forget to attach necessary files many a times. Check! Always take the extra effort to reach an extra mile in your journey.

8. Closing lines

Close the email by giving a crux of the content. Your closing lines should be in such a way that it makes your audience respond. Doesn’t matter if it is positive or negative, but making your audience respond is by itself a great deal. One of the best practices is - to end with a question and tell you would be eagerly waiting to hear back from them. This imparts your interest in the minds of your audience.

Few examples for closing an email are:

1. To put it in a nutshell,
2. Last but not least,
3. Thank you for your patience. Would be great to hear back from you.
4. Looking forward to your response. Amazing day to you!
5. So what keeps you waiting? Hurry up!

9. Signature

Design a signature exclusively for yourself as this will exhibit high professionalism in your approach. Instead of plain text, try going overboard and editing signatures using templates that are readily available over the internet. You can try templates from HubSpot, mail signature or even canva.

Things you should include in your signature:

1. Your name and your role/designation
2. Contact details
3. Address
4. Your website(if you have one)

10. Respond promptly

Your job doesn't get over when you’re done clicking the send button. Responding to your mail is the most important thing once your audience reverts to you. Be humble with your response irrespective of the reply your audience gives you back.

11. Regular follow-ups

While constantly nagging your target audience for a response isn’t going to work out, a regular follow up might be of help. Set up a time frame for your follow up - maybe once a week or once in two weeks time. Send your emails at the right time of the day. Don’t send to early or too late. Remember, untimely emails never work and never converts.

Conclusion

So, there you are! Keep these tips in mind while drafting your email. Be concise, professional and keep a record of all your emails. Once you know how to pitch and write an effective email, it doesn’t turn out to be a difficult task to reach your target audience.