Are you tired of putting time and effort into writing emails only to get no conversions? You need to get your email marketing strategy squared away, but, all that pressure to create an email that raises your conversions and clickthroughs can be overwhelming. Here are 5 steps to get you started.

Step 1: Imagine that You're Only Speaking to One Person

Whether you’re optimizing your email or just writing the content, you should always do so as if you were speaking directly to one person in your target audience.

Imagine your ideal customer standing right in front of you and use the same language that you would use in-person. Speak (or in this case, write) to your one reader as if you already know them.

This can be tricky to tackle at first, but it will get easier over time as you understand more about who your ideal customer is.

One easy way to sound more conversational is to use second person pronouns -- “you” and “your”. This is a simple adjustment that makes the email about the reader, not your company.

Step 2: Use the Right Tone to Connect with Your Audience

Another area to nail down before you start optimizing is the tone of your emails.

Conversational and informal tones work well for adding a personal and fun approach to your emails; this is the best way to connect with your readers on a deeper level. A more formal tone should be used in serious communication, or if the brand’s image is also more formal.

You also have the option of using a promotional tone. With this, impactful visuals filled with bold calls-to-action are all that’s needed to convey the right message.

Step 3: Avoid Large Chunks of Text

Movable Ink found in Q2 of 2016 that 68% of emails were opened on a mobile device, so it’s essential to break up your writing into smaller chunks of text that work on small screens. To do this, use no more than three (short) sentences per paragraph. Anything more and you’ll make it too difficult for your reader to absorb the information. 

With that in mind, let’s talk about how to break up your text even further for maximum readability.

Step 4: Use Bold, Italics, or Bullets for Emphasis (But Never Excessively)

Subheadings, bold or italic formatting, and bullet points allow readers to quickly scan your email before digesting it completely. But you don’t want to distract the reader with too much formatting, as this will make your email hard to read and may turn off readers immediately.

The key is to highlight only the most essential elements. These points of note should align with the original goal of your email instead of distracting readers with off-topic information. 

Step 5: Timing is Important

While timing doesn’t exactly have to do with writing better emails, it is important to ensure that your emails are actually read -- and a big part of that has to do with timing. According to data uncovered by Kissmetrics, here’s how a 24-hour day breaks down:

• 6AM–10AM: Readers tend to open emails relating to retail promotions and events
• 10AM–Noon: Most employees are busy at work, not checking their personal emails
• Noon–2PM: Readers catch up on the news and their favorite light reading during lunch
• 2PM–3PM: Another low activity time when readers are busy working
• 3PM–5PM: As the hectic work day takes its toll, workers become interested in emails that relate to financial services
• 5PM–7PM: This time works well for holiday promotions but is otherwise still considered a working period, as all other types of emails go unnoticed
• 7PM–10PM: Readers, relaxing after their work day, are more likely to open promotional emails that include discounts on clothes and other retail purchases
• 10PM–6AM: As day shift employees sleep and late shift employees work, the majority of email marketing efforts will prove ineffective during these hours