#10. How To Write Effective Emails That Drive Sales: 5 Best Practices | Podcast

Vira: 0:17

You actually have approximately three to five seconds after someone opens your email to make a good impression in your email.

Alissa: 0:24

Make sure it’s short, sweet, punchy, impactful.

Vira: 0:28

And don’t miss it, or you’ll be put on Santa’s naughty list.

Alissa: 0:55

Hello everybody, and welcome back to email Einstein Vira and Alissa. Here we are two email marketers at an email marketing agency called Flowium. We are so passionate about email marketing, and because we love what we do, we want to share our insights with you. Flowium is one of the fastest growing email marketing agencies in the world. We specialize in providing a premium, full service e commerce, email marketing experience for all of our clients. Our service is tailored specifically for your business and is designed to help increase your online retail revenue by 20 to 50% we are all about delivering the right message to the right person at the right moment. And I’m really excited about today’s episode. I don’t know about you, Vira, but.

Vira: 1:58

I’m so excited. I mean, we are not copywriters ourselves, but we work with copywriters every day, and actually our copywriters team, they helped us with the research for this podcast. So shout out to you guys. Thank you for helping us out. And today, guys, we’ll be talking about the copy, about how to write killer emails that actually drive sales, and opening a beautifully designed email with not so good copy is like opening a treasure chest that’s empty. It does not really hold like true value. And you can spend hours like perfecting your template colors, working on the most perfect hero image and reading articles claiming that a red button confer like converts 32 times better than the blue one, and only to see that your email still does not perform as well as you thought. And the truth is, no one actually cares as much about the colors in your email or whether you use a single or double column layout, what matters is that your emails is get read, your links get clicked, and your subscribers are happy with your products. And we already, like mentioned it in our previous podcast that they say that an email that reads well will be well read, and we could not agree more. But what does it take to craft like the most perfect email that actually works? In this episode, we’ll tackle into what is considered to be the holy grail of email marketing, the copy. So stay tuned. We’ll be sharing our top five tips on how to create killer emails that actually drive sales. And to put some icing on the cake, we’ll also share a few like hacks, and we’ll share a few, maybe like examples from our very own clients, and you can maybe use this tactics to skyrocket your email conversions today. So I’m excited about this.

Alissa: 3:52

I love it. I love it. The copy side of things is always something that I’m super keen on, like understanding and really getting. Unfortunately, I’m not a copywriter. I wish I was. I think in a different life I would be, but I love working with our copywriters, because they have so much solid insight, and a lot of the success that we have in our emails is due to them. So yeah, this will be a really good one, really good one. So before we get started, Vira, thanks for that. We do have our pro tip for today, and this is something that we’ll touch on in a lot more detail later on in this episode, but this is kind of like a two for one tip, so the first one is, don’t ever skip the preview text. This is something that we see so many different brands doing that aren’t our clients, because we would never let our clients do this, and it’s like, it’s the absolute worst. It’s such a missed opportunity. And the second part, or second half, of the pro tip is test the heck out of your preview text. And what we mean by this is, so when it comes to a, b testing, many email marketers are usually pretty hesitant to make big, bold changes in order to discover what does or doesn’t work for their emails, and the preview text is actually a really great place to start. It’s kind of an area where most email marketers miss and because they miss it, customers aren’t missing it. Your subscribers aren’t missing it, but because they’re missing it, they tend to feel a little more comfortable testing that part of your email. So if you do have an. Subject line that’s converting really well. Make sure to try different preview texts that will complement the already successful subject line. It can make all the difference in the world. You could see a huge jump in your open rate. And again, it is a great place to start when it comes to AB testing, if you are hesitant to try. So that’s your pro tip for this week. And yeah, let’s do it. Let’s talk about some some email copy.

Vira: 5:41

Let’s talk good old copy here. So studies show that you actually have approximately three to five seconds after someone opens your email to make a good impression in your email, and your customers are developing that impression of your business as soon as they open an email, and that impression can either, like, help or harm your business. No pressure here whatsoever.

Alissa: 6:08

Yeah, none, none.

Vira: 6:10

And I’m like, I’m not just like talking good grammar here, although it’s important email copywriting isn’t just about like improving the subject line or or creating a good call to action or talking to your customers using their language. It’s actually about all of it, and the biggest thing that your copy should do is to be addressing your target audience. And the thing that I will say next might a bit hurt your ego, but it’s one of the most important principles of like copywriting in general, not just email copywriting, but like website copywriting, or articles or stuff like that. People really don’t care much about you or about your business. Honestly, though, they are much more concerned with their own problems, with their like loud neighbors was their back pain was their own aspirations. They don’t really care about you and about what you have to say. So they don’t care about your values, your story, how long you’ve been in the business and stuff like that, unless your story and your product helps them to solve some of their problems, unless your product is a big problem solver, and only in that case, the people will listen to you. So that’s, that’s a big one before you start, like, creating any email, before you start typing away. Just like, stop for a moment and think, like, really think about your customer after that. Just think about how they speak, what words do they use, what like, emotions do your product or service like give them what they care about, like, what keeps them awake at the 3am in the morning? So all these things are very important before you even start working on the copy. And if you aren’t excited about your copy or your final draft, your audience won’t be either. So before you start typing away, take a step back and ask yourself those questions. Ask yourself, who are you writing for? And only after that you can start, like, actually working on the copy. So the next five tips, or five, I don’t know, like five suggestions we will do are quite technical, but before you start doing that, just like think about your customers. So Alissa, what is the number one important thing to know about when you are creating the copy for the email?

Alissa: 8:32

So the first, very first thing that you want to focus on doing is nailing the subject line. And this is pretty huge. I love what you said, Vira, about people not really caring about you or your business. It’s so true. And it’s one of those things that we forget, is that people are just interested in doing or paying interest or attention to what serves them. And it’s not, I mean, that’s not to say that we have a very cynical outlook on the world, but it’s just, listen, you got to get to the point. Cut to the chase. Give people what they want resolve the issue that they’re looking to resolve and move forward. And that’s something that you kind of want to achieve in the subject line as well. So kind of shifting over so your email subject line serves as a first and, sadly, sometimes last impression. 50% of people are opening or not opening your emails based solely on your subject line. So yeah, they are very important. The subject line is very, very important. Sadly, in the world of email marketing, subject lines often get written as afterthoughts. They kind of feel like the last annoying little piece of the puzzle that we have to have but we don’t really care about. And what most don’t actually realize is that in many ways, the subject line is actually more important than the body copy of your email. And I know that’s kind of a loaded statement, but I think after we talk about this little portion of our episode today, you’ll come to understand why we strongly recommend not leaving the subject lines to chance. The best subject lines are short, descriptive and give the reader a reason to explore your message further. You need to find a way for subject lines to feel conversational and voicey while remaining short and sweet. If it feels like it’s coming from a faceless company and not a friend or someone that they care about, it will wind up in the trash. You have to make sure that you’re creating the right tone to. Match your brand, and that’s only half the battle. You’ve also got to entice the subscriber to open your email in some kind of way, so the promise of an offer or another perk can work, but sometimes a cliffhanger in the subject also works pretty well, too. We also tend to use solid unanswered questions as they can sometimes engage a curious subscriber that’s looking to learn more. I’ll go through some examples in just a bit. But you also want to make sure that you’re leveraging basic human desires and curiosities using strong, exciting and even unexpected when appropriate, of course, versions of action verbs. Make sure you limit your punctuation to keep the short and sweet theme. In some cases, a good strategy is to be provocative. But I personally, and Vira, I think you might agree with me on this, is this, this shouldn’t necessarily always be your go to strategy, because there is such a thing as overkill. So if you’re overly provocative, it comes across as kind of cheap and sort of sleazy, which you really, really want to avoid. But if you do end up providing a subject line with controversial messaging, you will, at the very least peak interest. So again, that’s kind of like on a need to basis and only if it matches the sort of tone and kind of identity of your brand and who your business is. For those of you that are feeling a little more advanced, feel free to go ahead and personalize those subject lines with the name of your subscriber. That tends to work really well. Usually, it’s easy to catch someone’s eye when you when they see their own name in an email subject line, like, hey, how do you know my name? You know and then you end up clicking on it. And if you do want to go a step further, you can get crafty with the use of emojis, but we recommend doing this with caution. Different operating systems render different versions of emojis, or no emojis at all. So it’s important to test and do your own research when it comes to who you’re sending your emails to what emojis you’re using, whether they’re rendering correctly or if it’s just going to make your subject line look really weird. And then when you do have the green light to use them, emoji should supplement words, rather than replace them all together, just to make sure that your messaging isn’t lost. So some examples of that kind of use the tips that we’ve talked about over the course of the last couple minutes. So one of our clients, they sell nicotine gum, and a subject line that we’ve used in their email before is, what if that really was your last pack? So it’s like, one of these, like, Oh my gosh. You know, it almost makes you I don’t even chew nicotine gum, but it makes me want to check my pocket to find out if it was my last pack and I don’t even have it. You know, another one of our clients who sells they’re like crystals that you can kind of personalize as memorabilia. One of those subject lines is make your memory sparkle. Another one of our clients who sells masks specifically for athletes and people who train kind of at a higher level, they’re one of their subject lines is your deal just exploded, and then in parentheses, it says, In a good way. So that’s kind of a good example of using a verb in, sort of, like a kind of provocative, different, sort of, like, whoa, kind of exaggerated way. So that sort of piques interest, you know? So you want to make sure that you’re focusing on those kinds of things, and again, short, sweet, to the point, try and grab the subscribers attention as much as possible. Subject Lines are super important, so just make sure you don’t make it an afterthought. Make it one of your first thoughts when you’re writing an email, and make sure you spend the time that’s necessary so that you can actually engage your subscriber and get them to open your email, because really, it all starts with the subject line. The greatest email in the world is absolutely worthless if it never gets opened. So it’s kind of, I mean, no pressure, but it’s kind of all weighing on that subject line. If you have a terrible subject line, but an incredible email with beautiful copy, body copy and beautiful design, it’s going to get missed because your subject line was really poor. So that’s one of the biggest things that we focus on, is just making sure that you number one, nail that subject line.

Vira: 14:06

Yeah, and I mean, the subject line should definitely be in line with that tone and the voice of your brand. But if you’re feeling like adventurous, you can do all kinds of stuff with your subject lines. I just recently received this email saying, like, come on, it’s Friday and you’re killing time anyway. And I was like, yeah, it’s Friday and I’m killing time anyway. I might as well open this email.

Alissa: 14:28

Exactly.

Vira: 14:29

It’s just like, this email previousis just, like, popped out because it was, it was different. It was different. Or, or emails like dead jokes. I’ve got them, and I love that joke. So like, yeah, I couldn’t don’t skip the preview text is our second, like, biggest, biggest advice. And I don’t know if you guys have realized that or not, but 35% is sender or from name and the subject line that’s known as an envelope of the email. But many also display preview text, and some people, just like don’t realize that this text will be displayed in on the customer’s screens, whether or not they will set it up. It’s not all about subject line. The pre header text goes hand in hand with the subject line, and it can actually play a huge role and whether subscribers engage with your email or not, and preview text subject line, you can see, like this little line saying having trouble viewing this email. So this is basically because this is, like the most common pre header up manually, it will automatically pull the having trouble viewing this email as your preview text. And that’s like.

Alissa: 16:38

A worst.

Vira: 16:39

I know it’s a big no no in the industry. Why? Why wouldn’t you use the space? Why would you let the system pull it out automatically? So your pre header text is like a peanut butter to your subject line, jelly. It’s like Tom to your subject line. Jerry, oh gosh, I can. I can do, I can be doing this, like non stop. It’s like fifth to your subject line chips, like someone, someone, please stop me. It gives you actually a chance to go more in depth on your subject line without compromising the length of your subject line. So go ahead and make the most of it. So here are a few cool examples. So you can basically use the pre header sells like the thing. They are sending sunscreens and swimsuits and like stuff for the beach. So the subject line is beach, please. And I’m having hard time pronouncing it, because in this in this sentence, it’s mean, like, like beach, like, like the sand, beach, right? So the subject line is like, beach please. And the pre header tags meet the beach jogger, crisp, lightweight and build for a lazy day and epic adventure. So I mean, it has this little like, humorous twist on it that makes it pop up in your in your inbox, and the subject line is short and catchy, and it does not actually reveal the content of the message. But when you combine it with the subject line, it actually works like a magic so I really like this, this example, and you can also So that’s a big one as well. And actually, Groupon has nailed it. They sent this email, and the subject line was like, the deal that makes us proud. And the preview text was like, unlike our nephew Steve, I really like that is Steve. I know. I hope it’s, I hope it’s a fake Steve. They’re actually using this Steve guy quite, quite often. So yeah, so you can do like, a little teaser of the sale that you have, or something like that. Or don’t do teaser. It’s also a good strategy. If the incentive is good, you can actually talk about the incentive in your preview text. So here’s the good example. So the subject line, dinner is on us tonight. Enjoy, I don’t know, like 100% off or whatever. And the pre header text can be ABC, delivers the best products, like straight to you, so you’re basically giving them the whole essence of the email in that subject line and the pre header text, but the customer will still want to open that email to learn more about your offer, right? So many subject lines experts will tell you like to tease, but if your offer is good, like that. Just like, talk about it. Just do it like, instead of, you won’t believe this deal. Do something like, are basically using it as an Hey, here’s here’s the deal. Come and use it. So never, expander of your subject line. never, ever, ever skip preview tags, because that’s a big one, and you can skyrocket your open rates, like, tremendously if you use this tool correctly. So Alissa, tell us about the third kind of tip on how to write a killer email that actually drives sales. And I know that it’s a big one, and that’s something that is hard for me, because I love to talk a lot. I love to write long emails. So tell me more about the tips number three, yeah.

Alissa: 20:14

And I’m with you on this. This is definitely a tough one for me too, which I think is why I’m not a copywriter, because I don’t know how to do this. So tip number three is kiss, k, i, s, s, keep it simple and strong. This is why I’m not a copywriter, because I am terrible at this. So one of the questions that a lot of people tend to ask is, why? Why is it actually important to follow email length best practices? And Vira kind of touched on this earlier in the episode, where you have pretty much three to five seconds of someone’s allotted attention when they open your email for them to determine whether they’re going to continue reading it or whether they’re just going to delete it or just hop out of that email. So you want to make sure that you’re doing everything that you can to sort of take advantage of those three to five seconds in order to encourage them to continue. So one of the most compelling reasons for email marketers to stay competitive is, did you know that there are around 290 billion emails sent daily last year in 2019 and that was before we had like coronavirus, and people were home and people were hanging out and running out of things to do like this was even before all of that. So I can’t even imagine what the what the numbers look like for 2020 but you want your messages to reach your target audience, but it’s clearly not easy with a crowded inbox. And I mean, there are so many I’m OCD about this kind of thing. I open everything, but do a little teaser of what you there are tons of people that I know who have like, like my will be talking in the email. husband, for example, he has something like 7984 unopened emails in his inbox, and it drives me nuts, but.

Vira: 21:58

That’s me. We must be sisters because I’m the same.

Alissa: 22:02

It’s like, I don’t I don’t understand that. Like, how can you do that? But anyways, that’s besides the point. Crowded inboxes are a thing. It’s a very prevalent thing, and as the email marketing industry grows, it becomes increasingly essential for you to be able to craft elegant messages that engage and convert it’s not enough to just make sure that your copy contains all the information you want to share. The way you present your copy is super, super important, too. One of the easiest ways for you to improve your email is to trim the length subscribers are more likely to finish reading a message and respond favorably if they’re not bombarded with multiple text, heavy paragraphs. And I mean, that’s kind of how people are with everything, like, even if you’re on social media and you’re reading a post, if you start to read it and there’s that little link at the bottom that says, more. How many of you actually click on that more button? How many of you actually have the patience to read through an essay, long post, versus like someone who writes two to three sentences explaining how they’re feeling or what’s going on in their life, you know? So we want to make sure that we’re starting to do the same thing with emails too. Although we have a lot to say as different brands and in the E commerce world, you want to say exactly what you need to say, and anything else, just cut it out, because it’s not necessary. So with all that in mind, what is the ideal length? So most people don’t actually read emails in the same way that they read books or other print media. Instead of reading every single word from left to right, most emails recipients, they actually scan text. So what they do is their eyes go over the copy and the images that are included in the emails, and they typically follow an F pattern, which is actually really interesting. I did not know this before I did some research on this. So the majority of your subscribers typically go straight to brightly colored CTAs or parts of the email that they find interesting. Many of them will actually skip over introductory sentences. And so it’s interesting to think about it’s it’s not about just the content of the copy, but how you’re actually structuring the copy and how much of it you’re actually including in your emails. This is, really is not the only thing that you have to focus on as an email marketer. After opening an email, like Vira had said, a lot of people will take way less than a minute to even look at the contents of your email, so you only get precious seconds to catch a subscriber’s attention, enough to get some kind of click through or some kind of action from that email. So what do these facts actually tell us? Sticking to an ideal length of an email is way less important than actually making the email scannable. However, if you combine the two both strategies, you’ll probably be able to yield the best results. So make sure that you don’t overwrite your emails, because the people reading your emails will be thinking about tons of other things and a million different things going on in their life as they scroll through so again, that scanability aspect is really, really important. Make sure you get in fast, convey your essential information, and then just get out quick. If you do have multiple pieces of information to get across, make sure you break them up into separate paragraphs so it’s easier for customers scanning your text to get the gist of what you’re saying. One of the things that I love to do, personally in emails, and especially in the emails that I that I have created for clients, is including text over very. Simple images, because it tends to break up the copy, it makes it more eye catching, and it allows for more scanability. So email readers are mostly scanners. Some of your subscribers won’t read every single word in your marketing emails. Instead, what they’ll do is they’ll skip to parts that they’re interested in, or completely disregard the message if nothing catches their attention. You can adapt your digital March marketing strategy to work with low attention spans, apart from employing design and layout techniques to make your marketing emails more scannable, you can write shorter but more impactful messages, and that’s kind of what we want to drive home, is making sure that the relevance and the impact is there. You don’t need 3000 word essay in order to get across what’s going on in your brand or what the message you’re trying to convey. Make sure it’s short, sweet, punchy, impactful, and also fits with scanability, because when people are reading your emails again, they’re just reading them and scanning them for things that are actually, actually interesting to what they’re trying to achieve in their lives. So that is number three, making sure that you are keeping it simple and strong. Kiss and Vira hit us with number four, because this is also a huge one that people get really, really concerned about.

Vira: 26:57

And that’s something that honestly I didn’t know about before I started working in the email marketing industry. So number four is avoid email spam trigger words and phrases. So yes, that’s the thing. In the industry, there is a list of the words that they don’t recommend you to use in the subject lines, and that was a big surprise to me. So you can be writing those like perfect subject lines, and you can create the most like engaging copy. It can be just like a beautiful design, but will people even like see your email in their inbox, or it will be automatically flagged as spam. So believe it or not, there is, like a list of 400 something words and phrases that raise my word for email providers. Yeah, and you’ll often find this words in emails that people mark as spam. And typically this words can be grouped into six broad categories. And I found it, I think it was somewhere in Klaviyo blog. I might be wrong. I found it like a while ago. So the six groups are like manipulative, needy words, sleazy words, cheap words, statements that are too good to be true, and shady words. So what does it mean?

Alissa: 28:10

I love that.

Vira: 28:10

So for example, for the manipulative words, I still can pronounce this word. So phrases like act now, last chance, by now, this won’t last. It’s like try to minimize this kinds of phrases. It doesn’t mean that you can’t be using this kind of messaging at all, but at least try not to have this kind of subject lines in each and every of your emails, like needy subject lines like that are sounding like desperate or like claims that are exaggerated, like all caps or multiple exclamation points. I’m honestly very like, guilty of using like all caps and multiple exclamation points in my Instagram messages, my DMs.

Alissa: 28:57

Yeah.

Vira: 28:57

And stuff like that, but that might not be the best strategy for your emails. So sleazy, try not to be, like, too pushy, like cheap words, everything, all of the synonyms of the word, like cheap, like inexpensive, free, free money. Oh, free money. Don’t, don’t ever put free money into your subject line or even into the body of the copy statements that are too good to be true, like lose three kilograms in three seconds. Or, like, shady things, like.

Alissa: 29:30

I haven’t heard that one yet.

Vira: 29:32

No, yeah, I might or might not have just invented it. So, like, shady phrases, like something that is, like, ethically or legally questionable. So, like, don’t ever mention words like collect child support, like billing, casino social security number. Don’t ever mention like phrases like social security number in your subject line or in the copy of your email. Oh, and also like medicine, like Xanax, Vicodin, Viagra. This are the big red red flags as well. So now spam filters, they have become more advanced in the recent years, and that does not mean that if you use like this word or this phrase, you will be automatically sent to the spam folder of your subscribers. But you have to understand how to use this word, so you have to use them responsibly. If you like, pack a ton of spam keywords in your email. If you like, use all caps, bright red font like gazillion of exclamation points. If you already have, like, a really, really low deliverability rates, yes, in this case, you will be affected by the. Spam filters, but if you like, use them responsibly, it’s always worth taking a second pass and making that extra effort to make sure that you will not be flagged by those words. So work on your deliverability, work on your subject lines. It’s always worth taking a second pass and making extra effort to replace those, maybe, like, easy fillered words with some more, like, interesting choices. So use them, but make sure to use them, like, wisely this words, yeah, so that’s, that’s a big one. And I, honestly, I had no idea that that was the thing for the industry before I started working in email marketing.

Alissa: 31:24

Well. And one of the things that I’ve actually done for my clients before is they had a disclaimer at the bottom that had, like, a so it was for a supplement that they were that they’re selling, and it was around, like, money back, warranty, whatever it was, something like that, where it was, like, very spammy. And one of the things that we did is we ended up actually create using that wording and keeping it in the email, but we put it in an image, and then we just put that in the bottom, so then it stopped flagging as spam, but we were able to still maintain that warranty, like 30 day guarantee, or whatever it was at the bottom, which is spammy, but we could still keep it because it was a corporate requirement. It was like part of their legal team, it had to be in the email, but it was flagging and lowering their deliverability. So that was a workaround that actually one of our Klaviyo pros figured out, and it helped a lot. The deliverability completely changed. We were able to kind of maintain the legal side of things pretty well, and, yeah, we weren’t spammed anymore, which was awesome. So that is a workaround. Like, if you absolutely have to, have to, have to include something like that, like, this was an exception, but for the most part, is, as Vira has mentioned, like, don’t do it. Just don’t do it. It’s not worth it. It’s really not.

Vira: 32:38

Ok, Alissa. So number five, this is another big one. And yeah, so what is the tip number five?

Alissa: 32:45

So number five is make your email easier to read and act upon, and we’re specifically talking about call to actions. So what is a call to action? Most of you will probably know what this is, but a call to action, or a CTA is a button or link that prompts readers to click. So this is where you get your click through rates from. So if you think back on emails that you’ve received from brands that you really like or really support, how do they typically entice you to read further or kind of move to the next stage of reading the email onto the next step, either on their website or whatever it is, sometimes they use really cool images and really compelling copy, but they always also use precise call to actions, whether it’s linking in the text or an actual button. So usually CTAs use bright colors, thoughtful placement, but typically the best ones use precise, actionable verbiage that actually attracts your attention. So it’s it’s very specific, and it tells you exactly what to do. So a few examples would be like, see the new looks, or start my trial, or register now or take 50% off. These are very specific action items where the email is basically telling you what to do next. So I’ve seen emails in the past, and in my early, early days as an email marketer, I’ve created emails without a CTA. It’s not great because you’re just basically sending a static email, and it’s like, Here’s my email. And have a good day. You don’t get anything out of it.

Vira: 34:12

Pretty much. Yeah.

Alissa: 34:13

Exactly. And the buttons are more effective than the actual links, typically, because they’re eye catching. They’re very clean. They’re a very simple way to improve your conversions as well. And recently, there was a test done where using button based CTAs increased click through rates by 28% over linked based CTAs. Not to say that links should not be used because they are effective, but CTA buttons tend to be that kind of more exciting. Like, hey, press this button. You know, people always want to press the button, so you give them a button to press. So a few quick tips on how to get more action from your call to action. So making sure that you’re using action oriented tests like I’d mentioned before. So things like, get the discount, reserve your spot, try it out for free. It’s like very specific, telling you exactly what you’re going to do once you click the button, making sure that your button text is large and legible. I’ve seen really terrible call to actions where it’s like, in like the bottom, like left hand corner, and, like, you can’t even read what’s in the button, and at that point it’s like, just don’t put don’t even bother. You know, if it’s not this big, precise, clear image that people are seeing that’s going to make them excited to press it, there’s no point. Make sure that it’s short. And we’ve talked about this a lot throughout this this episode around copy, but just making sure that it’s short and sweet. Try it for free, reserve your spot very like two to five words max, and it’s like, this is what you do, and that’s it. We’re not talking about it any further, because that’s what your body copy is really for, is to support and lead up to that final action item. You can also try using first person. So like, instead of get or reserve your spot or try it for free, you can say, like, get my free trial, or start my free trial, things like that, where it just makes it a little more like, hey, this belongs to me. So when I click the button, the action that’s going to happen is mine. So it kind of helps the subscriber gain ownership over it, and then also making sure that you’re creating urgency. So the high sense urgency, CTAs that I’ve used in the past with clients typically tend to garner higher click through rates, even sometimes just using the word now builds some urgency. So something a few examples would be like 50% off today only RSVP now, shop now those kinds of things. These are very, very basic examples, but it’s just so that you can get an idea. Even the most basic of basic examples are still going to get you results. Your CTA should be clear and exciting, and it should be fun for the subscriber to jump on an offer or learn more about what you’re talking about in your email and kind of like what Vira was talking about in the last point about the spam words. If your CTAs ever start to feel pushy or sleazy or misleading or kind of creepy, just make sure you dial them back. And don’t be afraid to test these CTAs. If it doesn’t feel like something’s working, try another CTA. And if you’re stuck between two that you really like create an AB test so that you can see for yourself what works best for your brand and your subscribers. The beauty of what we do is we’re in email marketing, and marketing is all about testing and seeing what’s going to work best for your brand. So just make sure that you kind of have a little creativity, and really don’t be afraid to try different things when it comes to the CTA, especially.

Vira: 37:24

And talking about the creativity. I remember one time I received this email and they have the CDA this like, red button. And they said, Do not push the button. Yeah. And then they had this little letters, like, do you really want to spend the rest of your life, life wondering? And actually, I I’m pretty sure that CDA worked really well for them, because everyone like, make, make sure to push that little button when they had, like, Do not push the button. So don’t, don’t be afraid to be creative with your CTAs. And just like Alissa said, test it out. It does not cost you anything. Like to do the 50/50 AB test, just like to see what your customers respond to.

Alissa: 38:06

Yeah, I love that. Yeah, that’s a good one. That’s definitely a good CTR, I need to try that with my clients.

Vira: 38:12

Do not push.

Alissa: 38:13

So we do have a big announcement to share with you all, but before we do, we’ll just kind of recap everything that we went through. So today we talked about five different kind of brief tips on how to write killer emails that actually drive sales. So the first is making sure that you’re nailing the subject line.

Vira: 38:32

The second one was, do not skip preview text.

Alissa: 38:35

The third is keeping it simple and strong. Kiss, k, i, s, s.

Vira: 38:40

And the next big one, the fourth was, avoid email spam trigger words and phrases.

Alissa: 38:45

Yeah, which is huge. That’s so huge. And the last one is make your email easier to read and act upon, specifically when it comes to your call to action. So there you have it. How to write killer emails that actually drive sales and Vira if you want to start us off with our announcement, we this is like, huge, huge, huge one.

Vira: 39:03

This is a big one. We are getting two q4 guys, as you know. And this is like the biggest, the biggest quarter in the year, the busiest for us in email marketing, the busiest for you in E commerce, I’m sure. And we are preparing for the Cyber weekend. We are preparing for the Christmas sales, new year sales and stuff like that. And actually, Klaviyo has invited us to contribute with our content to the cyber weekend prep rally. They will have this almost like an online course. And Klaviyo is preparing this like three week a week, email, video course designed to help you in E commerce to prepare for the unprecedented cyber weekend. And yes, this will be the biggest cyber weekend ever. And this is just like. This is crazy. We are still trying to process this information. So this is the course that you cannot miss. You cannot miss this like Cyber weekend. So they have. Klaviyo has invited us to contribute with our content. And it’s a big, big honor for us.

Alissa: 40:09

Yeah, where it’s I mean, it’s huge for us, especially because now we kind of get to share the digital stage with some other incredible and amazing email marketing agencies that really do a good job when it comes to what we love, which is email marketing. We can’t wait for you guys to see the video tutorials that we’ve put together for you, and we will be talking about streamlining the campaign creation process. And we’ll also share a holiday email strategy. So again, as Vira has kind of driven home, and we will continue to drive home through to 2021 this truly is the biggest e Commerce event of the year, as well as this. Being the biggest e commerce year of the year. So make sure that you don’t miss it. This is going to give you tons of tools to kind of prepare for what is seemingly going to be a pretty hectic e commerce holiday shopping season. Make sure that you click on the link in the description where you can sign up. It’s the klaviyo.com/marketing-resources. And if you just want to go on to the Klaviyo website to kind of do some exploring, you can just search for the prep rally. It’s the it’s called the cyber weekend prep rally, and Klaviyo is hosting it. So make sure that you check it out. Make sure you don’t miss it, make sure you register, and then that way you can be privy to some of the content that we’re putting out there too. So yeah, we’re really excited. This is huge, huge, huge, huge for us, which is awesome. So guys as always, don’t forget to subscribe and share this podcast with your friends. If you do have any questions at all that you’d like us to feature on our podcast episodes, make sure that you send them in at flowium.com/ask if you do want to get involved in a community. Make sure that you join us at flowium.com/community, we have a group where we have a ton of people who kind of engage with each other, ask questions. Everyone’s very interactive. It’s awesome, and it’s almost kind of like what Vira and I get to do on this podcast live for you guys, but on a more digital space. So make sure that you do check it out, because it is super useful. All the resources that we did use today to create our podcast can be found on our website at flowium.com/podcast, under each episodes page. So if you do want to kind of backtrack and hear some other episodes, if you happen to miss one one week, you can also check it out there. If you’re new to Klaviyo or wanting to try any of the suggestions that we’ve mentioned today out for yourself. This can be a super helpful resource. We also offer a course where we cover everything you need to master Klaviyo. And you can access this course by visiting the Products page of our Flowium website. And again, it’s just flowium.com if you’re interested in getting some more advice on how to establish a solid email marketing strategy for your particular e commerce store. Make sure that you visit us at flowium.com/contact, you can sign up for a free consultation. It won’t necessarily be me, Alissa or Vira specifically, but someone like us will be able to kind of go through what you have going on for your brand and kind of give you some feedback and and kind of consult you on on what the next steps look like for your email marketing strategy. To super useful tool, and it’s free, so highly recommend going through it. So make sure you check it out.

Vira: 43:11

Okay, cool guys. So next, next week, we will start talking about the holidays, because the holidays are coming. Holidays are coming. When do they start playing this Coca Cola advertisement?

Alissa: 43:27

I was in college when they played it. It was a while back.

Vira: 43:31

I mean, they are still, they are still doing some cool advertisement every year. So I’m like, waiting for that Coca Cola advertisement every, every freaking year. So yeah, this year, holiday season is going to look very different, for God’s sakes. This year looked very different from all of the past years. So in next episode, we will be talking about what to expect for holiday season 2020, a year where e commerce is taking the holiday season by storm. So don’t miss it. It’s going to be a really, really good podcast. We put a lot of research, we put a lot of thinking into this end to this podcast. So come and join us on our next podcast, and don’t miss it, or you’ll be put on Santa’s naughty list. Oh, I mean, I’m in Christmas mood already. I started. I’ve started playing Christmas music in like, August, so I’m so ready for this episode.

Alissa: 44:19

This weekend, we were listening to Michael Buble’s Christmas album, which I feel.

Vira: 44:24

About time. That’s about time.

Alissa: 44:26

It’s just, it’s got to do it. Sometimes you just got to do it.

Vira: 44:29

Just like, This guy just like, disappears from, like, from January to probably, like, late, late October.

Alissa: 44:36

Yeah, yeah.

Vira: 44:36

He hides somewhere.

Alissa: 44:38

And then he’s back, yeah.

Vira: 44:39

And then he’s back.

Alissa: 44:42

I love it. I love it.

Vira: 44:43

Michael Buble on our episode.

Alissa: 44:44

Yeah, I like it. We should start our next episode with some Buble, that’s a good one. Well, thank you guys so much for listening, and we’re super excited for next week. Make sure you wear your Santa hats. Holiday season, 2020, what to expect, and thank you guys again. Have a great one.

Vira: 45:02

Thank you. Have a good one. Bye.