Controversial opinion: email marketing isn’t going anywhere.

Four billion people use email daily; over 50% of marketers send 2-3 emails daily. Marketing emails convert, inform, and build relationships — not just with customers, but also with employees. And clear, strategic copywriting is at the heart of email conversion.

Whether you execute a 10-part promo campaign, a monthly newsletter, or a team update, you must master email copywriting principles. Pinpointing your audience’s needs, call to action, and personalization opportunities is key.

This guide breaks down the jargon to offer you practical tips and examples. We discuss email types and key components to optimize and throw in 8 expert tips for successful email copywriting.

What Is Email Copywriting?

Email copywriting is a mix of strategy, planning, and content creation required to send business emails.

Recipients include customers, employees, sales leads, and other stakeholders. Likewise, your email copywriting can serve different aims, such as:

Boosting customer metrics including sales, engagement, satisfaction, and retention.

Increasing conversion for events, job applications, and other opportunities.

Strengthening 1-to-1 relationships with stakeholders such as sales leads, vendors, and investors.

Updating and engaging your staff.

Giving legally-mandated information to customers, such as purchase receipts.

Successful email copywriting helps your external and internal communications thrive. With a consistent and data-driven approach, you can attract new customers and boost employee engagement — leveraging a channel that professionals use for nearly a third of their working week.

However, emails require a different structure and style compared with, say, social media posts or chat messages. They must feel like a personal letter, and be clear and skimmable to cut through the noise in the attention economy.

5 Types of Email Copywriting

The structure, tone, length, and content of emails vary depending on their end goal. Here are 5 key types of email copywriting:

1. Transactional emails

Transactional emails communicate critical information to customers. They either require users to take action (e.g., change their password) or are strictly informational (e.g., event registration confirmation).

Transactional email examples:

✅ Payment confirmation

✅ Terms and conditions change notification

2. Nurturing emails

Nurturing emails engages current or prospective customers so they move along the sales funnel. They offer useful or entertaining info to subscribers interested in your expertise, but not ready to buy.

A nurturing email could be as low-maintenance as a “seasons greetings” e-card or as data-backed as a white paper summary.

Nurturing email examples:

✅ Internal company events round-up

✅ Summary of recent blog posts

3. Promotional emails

Promo emails are nurturing emails’ hard-sell siblings. They convert readers with calls to action (CTAs) such as “Book now” or “Browse our collection”. They’re also highly focused.

For instance, you may promote a specific event or product while creating urgency with sales discounts and time limits.

Promotional email examples:

✅ 1-to-1 advisory session with the founder

✅ First month free offer

4. Triggered emails

Triggered emails shoot off automatically, a set amount of time (e.g., 15 minutes) after a certain event (e.g., a user abandons their online cart.)

They’re short and sweet, reminding recipients what they’ve done (e.g., “You left these products in your cart!”) and encouraging them to take the natural next step (e.g., “Check out before stocks run out.”)

Triggered email examples:

✅ “You just downloaded our white paper. Now, book a call with our rep.”

✅ Discount on just-viewed product

5. Retargeting emails

Retargeting emails rekindle relationships with inactive prospects. For example, you may have had a positive demo with a lead before they went AWOL.

Whether manual or automated, retargeting emails are extra-personalized (e.g., including the date of their last interaction) and suggest next steps (e.g., “Read our latest report.”)

Retargeting email examples:

✅ ”We made updates to the product you were interested in.”

✅ 1-to-1 catch-up with account manager

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