Knowing why people buy
People always buy things for a reason. By considering the reasons why people make purchases as you write email copy, you can hone in on what makes a customer click Buy. People generally buy things for four reasons:
Personal gain: A product or service will help them reach personal goals or desires.
Logic and research: Customers have done their research, and this product seems like a logical fit to meet a particular need.
Social proof or third-party influence: Customers’ friends have told them that the product or service is great, and they want to be part of it, or they see a large number of people doing something and want to do it, too. Nothing attracts a crowd like a crowd.
Fear of missing out: People have a genuine fear of missing an opportunity or of being the only person not to have something important.
Consider which of these motivations you think will drive your customers and then address that reason in your email copy.
Writing effective email subject lines
Because most people spend only three to four seconds deciding whether to open an email, the subject line is the most important piece of email copy you can write. A good subject line piques interest and entices a customer to open the email. Then your email body copy can do the rest to drive engagement.
Subject lines can be tough nuts to crack. One company has its marketing team write 25 subject lines for each email and then choose a favorite to use in the email campaign. This operation may be time consuming, but the company continually receives higher-thanaverage open rates for its industry and higher-than-average email engagement. You may not have the resources to write 25 full subject lines for each email, but it’ s a good idea to consider several options for each send, especially triggered sends that you’ ll use over time.
You can use three types of subject lines to give people different reasons to open an email. We discuss these types in the following sections.
Curiosity subject lines
Curiosity subject lines pique the interest of subscribers and encourage them to click to find out more. For example, Kate Spade, a clothing retailer, sent an email to its subscriber list with the subject line, Ready for your close up? That email contained an offer for Kate Spade’ s jewelry products and used a curious subject line to increase the number of people opening the email.
Benefit subject lines
Benefit subject lines clearly state the reason why subscribers should open the email and the