Writing emails can be difficult at times. It can also be uncomfortable. How should I phrase this message? Is my email too long and wordy? What am I trying to accomplish here..?? All of these are questions that you may be asking yourself when writing an email to a prospect and/or customer. 

Writing emails doesn't need to be difficult! All you need is a system! If you are reading this, you are in luck. We have a system that has worked well for us and we know it will work just as well for you. If you follow the 4 steps that we have outlined below, we are confident that you will find that writing emails is not only easier, but more effective.

If you like what you read in this post, don't forget to subscribe to our blog updates by filling out the "subscribe to our blog" form at the bottom of this post. Also, don't hesitate to comment on this blog post. We love hearing from our readers!

How to write the perfect email - 4 Easy Steps

These 4 easy steps will make writing the perfect email a breeze

1) Define a clear goal for your email

Defining a clear goal for your email is going to speed up the entire process right off the bat. Goal setting is important for any process but especially when writing emails. By setting a clearly defined goal at the beginning of the process, everything that you put into that email will be centered around accomplishing that specific goal. 

Some examples of goals for your email could be: 

1. Turn a prospect into a marketing qualified lead
2. Collect feedback from current or former client
3. Educate both customer and prospects
4. Nurture and existing lead

It is important to set 1 primary goal for the email. You can add secondary and tertiary goals for emails if you so choose but keep in mind that setting additional goals for emails can cloud the primary purpose of the email and make your emails less effective as well as more difficult to read/comprehend for the recipient. 

2) Personalize when and where appropriate

Personalizing emails is an essential part of creating the perfect email. Email Personalization Golden Rule: Send emails from REAL PEOPLE! Not your company. People want to work with and buy from real people. Sending an email from a real person not only gives the recipient a point of contact for future correspondence, it also gives a personal feel to your message. Be sure you personalize your emails based on information that you know about your email recipient(s). Use the info that you have on them to your advantage.  Bottom line, personalization drives results: 

• Leads who are nurtured with targeted content produce a 20% increase in sales opportunities
• 40% of consumers buy more from retailers who personalize the shopping experience across all channels. 
• Personalization emails improve click through rates by 14% and conversion rates by 10%

As you can see, personalization is key to getting the most out of your emails. Whenever you can, personalize your emails! 

3) Focus on engagement

Engaging your email recipients drives results. Peer and simple. With every email that you send out to your prospects/customers, one of your main focuses should be engaging them. A great way to engage your prospects/customers through email are: 

1. Linking images to a potential offer's landing pages: If you have an offer (eBook, free consultation, white paper) that is relevant to your recipient(s), be sure to link to it. Content offers are fantastic tools for engaging your email recipients and continuing them down the buyer's journey. 
2. Adding a CTA to your email signature: What better place to encourage someone to take action than at the end of an email message? If you have already engaged them enough to read your entire message, there is a much higher probability that they will click on a CTA... right?
3. Hyperlinking the appropriate copy in the email: Don't forget to use hyperlinks to link to relevant content such as blog posts, specific content offers, or other resources that will educate and inform your email recipients. 
4. Modifying the preview text with engaging keywords and phrases: Be sure to use relevant keywords that are going to engage the potential reader! It is also really important to include those engaging keywords and phrases in the subject line.
5. Increase your reach by allow your email recipients to share your email content via social media: Be sure to include social media share buttons in your emails! This will allow your recipients to share your email and in tune, increase your reach. 

Last but not least, be sure to clean up your email plain-text version. At times, the email may not display properly for everyone that receives it and by cleaning up the plain-text version of the email, you will insure that there is a version of your email that everyone is able to read. 

4) Test and analyze

Testing and analyzing your email efforts is how you are going to learn what speaks to your email recipients and what subjects, calls to action, images, and content offers are the most effective. A few key metrics to pay close attention to are: 

1. Delivery rate: Is your email getting to the contacts that you want it to get to?  
2. Open Rate: Is a great metric and will help you figure out how effective your subject line is. 
3. Click Rate: Are people engaging with your emails? Are they clicking on the CTAs and hyperlinks that you have placed in your email? A relatively high click rate is a great sign that you have created an effective email. 

Thanks for reading how to write the perfect email - 4 easy steps! We hope these 4 easy steps help make writing emails easier and more effective. Want to make you website more effective? Learn how to turn your website into a lead generating sales machine by downloading our free eBook, An Introduction to Growth Driven Design by clicking the link below!