Become an email GOD: 21 tips to stand out in your subscriber’s inbox and boost open rates, engagement, and sales in 2024

Put on stretch pants and settle in. This is a meaty one. Or, if you’re short on patience today, you can skip right to the goods with this table of contents:

7 Reasons Email is Great For LAZY Creative Types

9 Reasons Email Is So Powerful For Your Business

21 Tips For Emails People Actually Open, Read, And Buy From

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Click to download my free downloadable guide, Non-Sucky Subject Lines

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First, a note on email open rates:

When it came out, everyone freaked out about the privacy feature in IOS 15 and onward that makes it impossible to measure email open rates accurately. If open rates are skewed, does that mean you should no longer focus on getting your emails opened? Of course not. Just because you don’t have a reliable metric for who’s opening your emails doesn’t mean that getting subscribers to open isn’t still job #1. If they don’t open, they don’t read. If they don’t read, they don’t click, buy, or get any value that makes them love and remember you. Getting your emails opened is mostly a matter of writing great subject lines. Here’s a guide to help you write subject lines that get your emails opened, even if you can’t completely see who’s opening them.

And next, a note on “newsletters” vs. email marketing:

In 2023 or so, the newsletter has made a comeback — I’d guess due to the popularity of Substack, which is super easy to use and handy for authors, journalists, and other writers who aren’t necessarily trying to run an “online business” but want to monetize their writing.

There’s a good deal here that won’t apply to a Substack newsletter or anything on a platform that’s not set up for list segmentation, automation, and other tech-y bells and whistles. But whatever platform you’re writing on, I still believe you’ll make more of a lasting, fruitful, and lucrative connection with your audience if you follow my tips to keep your tone intimate and 1:1.

Now then…

When did you get your first email account? Do you remember?

I got mine in 1994. AOL, of course.

Installed the browser with one of those free floppy disks that piled up everywhere alongside Chinese takeout menus.

I can still hear that first, jarring but thrilling “You’ve got mail!”

I’ve been checking my email obsessively ever since.

I say I’m going to check it less. I take the notifications off my phone. But then I keep checking it anyway.

I’m addicted to email and so are you.

If you say you’re not, keep reading anyway. Because the rest of us are still drooling, email-hungry zombies, and if you have a business, email is the way to be in our lives.

I know — there are people out there shouting,
Instagram Reels are the only way to get noticed!
Facebook groups are back, and the only way to get noticed!
Consistent, organic engagement on TikTok is the only way to get noticed!!
Threads is where it’s at, that’s where to get noticed!
Snapchat is still your chance to get noticed! No, really! It’s still great! All the kids are on it!
Y’know, I’m finding Linkedin is a great place to get noticed!

You’ve probably heard all these things and tried a few.

And then, when you don’t get the flood of followers and fans and buyers and high-spending stalkers, I mean easy sales you were promised, you discover something else:

The algorithm!

The algorithm hates you. Don’t take that personally, it hates us all.

It’s engineered to make you feel like a loser until you spend on promoted posts.

It keeps your best stuff from being seen while other people’s meaningless garbage shows up in your feed over and over. (Looking at you, ugly Rumi quote on a sunset background.)

You might be scratching your head right now because you’ve also heard people shout:

“EMAIL IS DEAD!”

Nobody uses it, nobody reads it, it’s all about texting and slack and Facebook messenger.

Really?

Answer honestly: when’s the last time you went a full 24 hours without checking your email?

Even when you said you were off email, you probably sneaked a peek.

Just for a sec-y sec!

…And saw something new from your biggest biz crush/ mentor/ stalkee that you had to open because it was directly to you and it was urgent.

Well, OK. You knew it was to that person’s whole list. But the subject line was so enticing, and their content is always so entertaining and personable, you couldn’t help yourself.

And before you knew it, you were clicking a link in that email and signing up for, or maybe even buying, something.

Because when you use email right, that’s where it goes.

Email isn’t just alive and twerking, it’s YOUR most powerful tool to create sales and influence in 2024 and into the future.

{Cue echo: FUTURE…future…fuuuutuurre}

THAT’S EVEN IF:

• You have a weenie list. (Wanna see mine? Get your magnifying glass.*)
• You think no one wants to hear from you all that much.
• You go through spurts of being a creative superstar, and then get creatively blocked for months.
• You’re ONE LAZY MOFO.

I check all those boxes. *OK, my list isn’t *that* tiny, I’ve grown it significantly since I first posted this opus, using these list-building techniques.
But it’s still weenie compared to those of my industry peers, and even so…

A series of emails, or sometimes just one single email to my list, has:

• Brought in affiliate commissions of over $100,000 $150,000 $200,000 for one (highly competitive) program launch
• Driven scores of people over to my blog posts to like, share and comment (when they’d barely get a peep on social)
• Sold out a high-ticket workshop in Italy – three four times
• Sold out my high-ticket group program, Shrimp Club, twice three six times and counting (without a single sales call)
• Made my piece for Money Magazine the most shared article of the day when it came out – and kept it on the homepage for days
• Turned total strangers into “all-in” buyers of everything I offer, from other people’s programs to my own $950/hour $1450/hour services (now retired from the menu).
• Kept me a top-of-mind expert and brand for over a decade in my field, while other hot talents around me rise and then fizzle out in the blink of an eye
• Helped make my first book, Tough Titties, a national bestseller (learn my ways here)
• Brought in over $1M in a year in sales (between Shrimp Club, the Hero series, and affiliate promotions), allowing me to make my first million in a year at the spring-chicken age of 50! #latebloomersunite
• Brought in over $11k from a single $49 product – without any ads or pre-promotion. Just one email. 

That’s me, checking sales in my inbox, from the one email when I first ventured into selling something of my own in 2017. Why didn’t anyone ever mention how fun it is to see sales that came in while you were asleep? Oh wait, everyone said that. I get it now.

That was back when I introduced my first product, 60-Minute Makeovers Copywriting Mini-Course. (Later updated and beefed up to a $99 product.) Since then, galvanized by the possibilities of selling to an engaged email list, I’ve launched more products: Inbox Hero, Story Hero, Launch Hero, bringing in $170k in my first “Lazy Launch” of Inbox Hero and up to $250k per launch after that. Added to the Hero series in 2024: Book Launch Hero!

All this is without any ads. Or webinars. Or Instagram Lives. I’m lazy, remember? Imagine what I’d do if I weren’t.

If you want to see my emails that worked best (including the one that sold the $49 product) so you can steal my subject line style, grab this…

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Non-Sucky Subject Lines
My 33 Most-Opened Emails,
Plus 4 That Tanked…
**With TEMPLATES To Make Your Own!**

Download The Non-Sucky Subject Lines.

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So why is email so great for lazy, inconsistent creative types like me (and, I bet, you)? 7 reasons.

(#5 is my favorite.)

1 – Email doesn’t require fancy graphics. (In fact, they’re not recommended!)

According to Convertkit — the provider I recommend — a plain text email gets better open and click-through rates than any fancy-shmancy layout.

Think about it: plain text is what we use with our friends. So that’s the style we get excited to see. Plus, we don’t want to open emails that take time to load. And yes, as of around 2023, the “newsletter” has made a comeback — but I still swear by the personal touch of plain text.

The fanciest I get in my emails is a logo, some bold sub-headers, an image here and there, and the rare gif.

(E-commerce sites and bigger businesses are a different story. I expect pretty images and a slick layout in those.)

2 – You can make email “rinse and repeat.”

An autoresponder series to new subscribers — also called a newbie sequence, a welcome sequence or an onboarding sequence — is the email gods’ gift to laziness. It means, you can set up a series of brilliantly-written, smartly plotted emails to go out…

in the right order…

automatically…

…to every single person who opts in to your list. Each person gets the royal treatment from you from the get-go, without you lifting a finger once you’ve put it together.

With the right email service provider, a newbie sequence is so simple to put together that it’s a downright CRIME AGAINST LAZINESS not to.

More on that later, but if you want help setting up your welcome sequence, I’ve got just the thing:

3 – You can recycle your best stuff

So you struck genius with one particular email and feel like you’ll never be that smart again?

Stick that very email into your welcome sequence (more on these soon) so that new people get it, too. Why should they miss out just because they were late to your email party?

4 – It doesn’t have to be epic.

An email doesn’t have to be long, it doesn’t have to be a big idea.

Even when you can’t think of anything to write that seems worthy of a blog post, there’s always something to say in an email. One single tip. One question. One quick story to leave them thinking. That’s all you need in order to send out a broadcast and keep yourself present in their inboxes and lives.

Remember: Nobody ever unsubscribed because your email was too short.

5- You get to be you.

(Yeah, that’s me. Check the pants.)

Isn’t that what every lazy entrepreneur really wants, underneath it all?

To get paid for being you, and for talking about what you want to talk about? To earn money doing things you’d do for fun?

I’d write to my friends for fun. I always have. I might not feel like writing a well-structured thought piece, but I always feel like dashing off a note to say hey, or to complain about the noise upstairs.

For years, I’ve said, “I wish I could get paid to write emails.”

It finally hit me: Oh, wait. I do.

Thing is, I wasn’t putting real energy into emails as an engine of my business. I thought I had to wait until I had a new blog post to write to my list.

I thought there were two kinds of emails: the kind I wanted to write — random life stuff — and the kind that makes money. I didn’t realize they could be one and the same.

6- Email doesn’t punish you for slacking off.

Don’t get me wrong: if you ghost your list for weeks or months on end, they can punish you — by unsubscribing.

(I once sent a text to the wrong number and got back an all-caps “WHO THA F IS THIS I DON’T KNOW U SON.” That’s what your audience will do if you go away for too long. Especially if you don’t have a strong relationship with them.)

However! All you have to do is stop posting on Instagram for a week or two, and you’ll see a huge dropoff in likes. The algorithm will punish you by showing your post to fewer people, less frequently.

Email, on the other hand, doesn’t get all judgy on you.

Even if you’ve slacked off for a couple of weeks, your email shows up in your subscriber’s inbox in the order in which it was received.

7- It’s so effing cheap.

Being lazy doesn’t mean you’re cheap, but the qualities of lazy and cheap tend to be kissing cousins.

Maybe because lazy people want to save their money for lazy luxuries, like taking Uber all the way to Salisbury, Connecticut instead of two trains and a taxi. (I did that recently. Worth every penny.)

2023 reports show that email marketing STILL provides an average 3600%-to-4200% return on investment. In other words, for every dollar you spend on email marketing, you earn up to 42 dollars in return. ¹

So stop fretting that you didn’t get in on crypto when it was cheap as rock salt and sell when one bitcoin could purchase a luxury sedan, and get in on the high ROI of email instead.

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Why is email so powerful for marketing?

Lazy or not, email is everything. Here are 9 reasons why email is unbeatable for getting your customer’s attention and building a lasting, loyal, and profitable relationship.

1 – Email is where they’re raising their hand to hear from you.

If you’re in someone’s inbox, it means you were invited in. This person signed up to hear from you. Yes, it was probably because they had to hand over their email for something free. But if you’re still getting in there, it means they’ve made a decision to let you stay. You’ve survived the unsubscribe. This person has consciously said, “Yes, I want to hear from you.”

And once they’ve clicked open your email, you’ve got their attention. That is, if you’re doing it right.

2 – Email gets you into bed with your audience — LITERALLY.

Yes, literally. Because 58% of adults check email in bed.² They check it first thing in the morning and just before they go to sleep. Your message is getting under their duvet and right into their sleepy subconscious.

3 – …And that’s not the only place it goes.

According to a 2022 statistic, 59% of adults check email on the toilet.³ We won’t get into the mechanics of why, but that’s some first-class access you’ve got to someone’s attention.

(Of course, you and I both know it’s more than the number reported. Another report suggests that most people who said they don’t check email on the crapper are…well, full of it.⁴)

4 – Email is your smackdown to jerky social media algorithms.

Ever try posting something on Instagram or your Facebook business page and gotten zero likes? It’s not because your post sucks. It’s because nobody’s seeing it. Organic reach on these platforms has changed, and not in your favor.

If people don’t engage with your post, no one sees it. But if no one sees it, no one will engage. Email doesn’t torture you with this Catch 22.

In fact:

Email reaches 79% of the people you send it to (this is the global average for inbox deliverability, which is way lower than yours should be if you follow best practices).⁵ On the other hand, Instagram’s average organic reach has dropped to about 13.5% [2024 update: 9.34%!!! 👎] and Facebook’s to 8.6% [update: 4.32%!! 👎]max⁶. Ugh.

I can vouch for these meager stats. Even back when FB was the place to reach my people, when I’d post a new blog link on my Facebook page, I’d get a pitiful number of FB likes on a really good day. Now? Forget it. And Instagram? The engagement has gone way down.

It’s disheartening, even though I know it’s because people don’t see it. I’m always grateful I have email to get my stuff in front of people who want it.

{Flips hair}

5 – Email is distraction-free.

No dings. No boops. No squirrels.

Especially on mobile, which is where 55% percent of emails get opened, ⁷all your reader is looking at is the email.

Nothing else appears in that window. No new post from someone else, no dots of someone typing, no new comment – just the email YOU SENT.

That’s a huge bonus when your audience has a short attention span. And if they’re alive in the 21st century? They. Have. A short. Attention span. So, stacked up against any other social platform, email wins.

6 – Email is intimate. Like undies.

Email is one-to-one. If you write your emails correctly they’ll feel like an intimate, me-to-you or us-to-you message each time. The other platforms, on the other hand, are one-to-many.

Here’s how you can visualize the difference:

Think of social platforms like Instagram as a big, noisy club. You can shout to a group of people and maybe they’ll hear you, but they’re still looking around at who’s hot, who’s dancing, who’s barely wearing any clothes, and who’s paying attention to THEM. They wander off and dance with other people. That’s what you do in a club. It’s not a place for a heart-to-heart.

So what does that make email?

Email is you and your subscriber, sitting together in your subscriber’s living room. All their attention is on you. And they feel special that you came over to their place. They might even serve you some cheese.

In their undies.

7 – Email can be custom.

Bespoke, if you want to get fancy.

It lets you send your email about dogs only to dog people, your email about cats only to the cat people, and your email selling ferret costumes to…well, weirdoes. Make that, the weirdoes who haven’t already bought a ferret costume from you.

It lets you accommodate people who say, “I’m not interested in puff pastry classes, but I do want to hear from you when you’re teaching sauces and marinades.”

Tip: use a provider that lets people easily opt out of specific email topics. I switched Talking Shrimp to Convertkit because it offered that feature. It means way higher open rates and fewer unsubscribes when I’m promoting something.

8 – Email gives you more information about your people. (Without creepy spy drones.)

You can see who clicked on what. Who’s interested? You can mail to just that group. Who didn’t open the email? You can send it to them again. Or send them a new one. This is called “segmenting.”

Segmenting is powerful. When I send emails to a self-selected segment (a group of people who’ve clicked a link to indicate that they’re interested), I see an average 41% spike in opens.

9 – Email lets you stand out just by being human.

Most businesses, big and small, aren’t clued in to this idea. They think they have to be buttoned-up and businessy to be professional.

Fact is, a dose of personality — and even human error — is way more compelling.

The bedding company Brooklinen knows this. Back in 2017, they sent out this oopsie of an email just before a Thanksgiving, which my husband forwarded to me with a note, “Oops. Mark made a boo boo.”

…Except, at closer inspection, it wasn’t really a boo boo.

I doubt there was even a “Mark the Digital Marketing Intern.”

It was a smart trick to get us excited (oooh, someone messed up) and, of course, to click on the sale — like someone had accidentally left the bank vault open.

Brooklinen never answered any of my emails about results of this email, probably because they don’t want to let us behind the curtain. But I have no doubt it was one of their highest-converting ever.

Whatever you think about the sneakiness of this, it’s a great example of something that would only work in email. Not on Facebook, not on Instagram, not in an ad.

Email. Email is everything.

Of course, it’s not all email that wins the day.

Most email ends up in the great dumpster fire of unopens, deletes, and unsubscribes.

After all:

We get a buttload of it.

As of 2022 there are 333.2 billion emails sent daily. That’s expected to go up to 361.6 billion by the end of 2024.⁸

The average office worker gets 121 emails, but people like us — let’s call us “entreprenerds” — often get more. Because we’re subscribed to ALL. THE. LISTS.

Most of that email gets ignored and piles up in the junk bin and unread pile.

Why? Because most email is boring. Salesy. Dry. Cookie-cutter. It’s white noise, it’s ignorable, it’s deletable. It’s written according to our notions of “this is what an email is supposed to be.” It’s stiff and corporate. Or, it’s old-school salesy-sleazy.

But not yours.

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Let’s make sure yours doesn’t suffer that junk-bin fate, with these 21 steps. I present:

21 Ways To Write Emails That Get Opened, Read, And Clicked Like Crazy

…so people love you and buy from you like you’re a gelato stand in the flames of Hell

Note: most of these suggestions are designed for personality-based businesses. This is email marketing for freelancers, consultants, bloggers, life coaches, business coaches, wellness experts, service providers, and other solopreneur types.

Some of this works for bigger businesses and even e-commerce businesses, as well, but those are often more visually based.

In the end, you have to think what kind of email you’d want to get from someone like you. And go with that. Now then, those tips:

1 – Make your email feel like an EFAB (Email From A Bestie)

Think about the way you shuffle through your snail mail. Junk…junk…junk…ooh, something from a friend!…junk…junk…

You chuck the catalogs and coupons and credit card offers, and get excited about that one piece (so rare) that’s hand-written, with a return address you know and an honest-to-goodness stamp.

That’s the same thing we do with our inbox. Junk, junk, junk — ooh, someting from a friend!

If your emails feel like they’re coming from a bestie (rather than a business), more people will be excited to open them.

Most of these next steps will help with achieving that feeling of EFAB — Email From A Bestie.

2 – Write to ONE PERSON.

Your subscribers are reading your emails by themselves, not in a group. And it takes them out of it if you say,

Hey everyone, hope you’re all having a great Friday. I’ve been thinking of you people all day, dying to let you know about this.

Instead, you want to talk to your subscriber like she’s the only one on your list:

Hey Matilda, hope you’re having a great Friday! I’ve been thinking of you all day, dying to let you know about this:

To help with this, when you sit down to write, don’t picture a mass of people, and don’t picture a business.

Even if you’re business-to-business, your email won’t be read by a business. It’ll be read by a person. Remember that.

Do picture one person. Picture them opening your email and reading it. I say, pick a best friend you’d write to anyway, but pretend that person has the needs of your customer.

And then go all EFAB on ‘em.

3 – Know your “coat of arms.”

You’ve seen a coat of arms, or family crest before. It’s an old-timey thing: a design, originally on a shield, that used a few significant symbols of a family’s history.

A lot of schools have them. My high school had one. It was all-girls. Our mascot was the Beaver. Behold, our crest, with a sweet stack of beavers.

There’s also a book and — I think — an oil lamp? Symbols of hard work and intelligence. Go Beavers!

The point is, what are your recurring themes?

What are you obsessed with, what would you pay money to do or eat all day? Pets, spouse, kids, the things you’d post about the most on social media – those are your personal trademarks.  The ideas and things you’d go to battle for. Your coat of arms.

On my coat of arms, you’d see my husband, Steven, New York City, Bravo reality shows, watermelon chunks, spaghetti, and a hand cupped to an ear (because I love eavesdropping).

I return to these topics again and again in my emails.

Your recurring themes will be the things and ideas your email subscribers come to identify with you, which is what makes them feel close to you. (And want to work with you and buy from you.)

Know those themes — go ahead, jot down 4 of them now — and keep coming back to them in your emails.

4 – Get tease-y with your subject lines. (The curiosity gap.)

Some people call it a curiosity gap. Some, an open loop.

The idea is, evoke curiosity. Use a subject line that leaves us guessing in some way. There’s information missing, and it’s irresistible to our puzzle-solving human brains.

That’s why you don’t want to give away the whole story in the subject line.

For example, here’s a line with zero curiosity gap or tease factor:

SUBJ: Bananas have the most potassium.

With a line like that, we’ll agree, yes, bananas do have the most potassium. But we won’t open that email.

Here’s one that’s trying to evoke curiosity, but not quite nailing it:

SUBJ: Why bananas have the most potassium.

We don’t care why, because they just do. Still no curiosity.

Instead, how about:

SUBJ: What’s cheap, delicious, and stops leg cramps?

With a line like that, there’s a curiosity gap. Even if we think we know the answer, and we’re saying, “Oooh, I know, I know! It’s bananas,” we’ll still open to see if we’re right.

Most of my most-opened subject lines use a curiosity gap. I am always an email tease.

Some examples:

• Is there something I can take for this?
• The thing that might’ve almost happened to me
• There goes [FIRST NAME]’s weekend

Want to see my most-opened subject lines? For the top 33 and help making your own, grab this…

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Non-Sucky Subject Lines
My 33 Most-Opened Emails,
Plus 4 That Tanked…
**With TEMPLATES To Make Your Own!**

Download The Non-Sucky Subject Lines

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5 – Don’t use title case in the subject line.

That’s a tipoff that it’s a newsletter, not a personal email.  Example:

SUBJ: This Problem You Have Is Keeping Me Up At Night

Even if the line is intriguing, the capital letters at the start of each word (a format called “title case”) screams “I’m a newsletter!”  We still might open it, but we’re not as disarmed as we would be if it were typed like this:

SUBJ: This problem you have is keeping me up at night

That feels like it’s from someone we know. Remember, even if we KNOW it’s an email blast, we like the illusion that it’s just to us. See this wink-y response from a subscriber:

Translation: “I know this email about your trip is to your whole list, but it let me suspend disbelief and pretend it was just to ME. I read the whole thing, and then followed your call to action.”

Bingo. That’s just the kind of response we want.

Now, you’ll see marketers you know who go against this tip and many others. (You can, too. They’re suggestions, not federal laws.) But keep in mind that those people might have leeway because they’ve long established themselves in your inbox.

For instance, my friend Ash Ambirge is well-known for her great marketing emails.

She always uses title case. Because she can. We’ll still open it because it’s from her.

6- Play around with punctuation in your subject line.

What would you write to a friend? You might not put a period on the end. You might not even capitalize the first word.

SUBJ: This is so you.

Vs

SUBJ: this is so you

There’s nothing wrong with a complete sentence, but an unpunctuated subject line gives the sense of informality. It feels casually dashed off, which makes it personal.

If your audience is older or your relationship with them is more formal, then go ahead and stay formal. But remember that just because you’re in a more traditional, possibly stuffy industry doesn’t mean you can’t break the rules and stand out. I ignore all my emails from my bank. If they were suddenly a little more personable and casual, I’d probably notice and open out of curiosity.

Plus, more and more, even old fuddy-duddy Gen-X-ers are leaving out the punctuation in texting, which is the most intimate platform of ‘em all.

So, to give your emails the feel of a text, here’s a tip (in text form to remind you how most of us write those):

7 – Axe the brackets around your company name. ⛏

A lot of newsletters use these.

Here’s an example:

SUBJ: How to get more clients [Superduper Marketing Inc]

Don’t know about you, but I find myself skipping over those in my inbox, because my mind automatically categorizes them as “not a personal note just to me.”

It is OK to use the brackets on occasion for extra info you want them to pay special attention to:

SUBJ: The big bonus I promised you [Open now – time-sensitive!]

But do that only when it’s crucial to the specific message.

8 – Use an informal salutation – or none.

A formal greeting signals “we’re not friends.”

Examples:

• Greetings, valued customer.
  This reads as business-y at best. Really, it feels like an invading alien. “Greetings, earthlings.”
• Hello, Matilda,
  This feels cold and formal (read it out loud, you’ll feel snobby and aloof).
• Dear Matilda,
  This isn’t terrible but it feels a little old-fashioned and formal for a regular email.

After all, you wouldn’t write that to a friend you speak with all the time. In a birthday card, maybe. But not in an everyday email.

I recommend something informal like,

• Hey Matilda,
• Hi Matilda,
• Matilda!

A nameless greeting can work, too. It’s what we’d write to a friend:

• Hey –
• Hey there –
• Yo –
• Oh, hey –
• What’s up!

Or you can skip the greeting altogether, which I do on occasion, especially when a story starts with someone speaking or in the middle of the action, which feels weird to have a “Hey there, [NAME]” in front of.

Now that newsletters on platforms like Substack are hot, you’ll see a lot more messages that don’t use a first name, because they can’t, and no salutation, because that’s the style.

9 – Make the preview text exciting, not redundant or businessy

The first words of your email will show up as a preview in the inbox. So don’t make them the same as your subject line like this:

And don’t make them “[BUSINESS NAME] Newsletter [BUSINESS NAME] Newsletter”

Here’s one that landed in my inbox. I did not open it.

Do make it an intriguing line, something that makes the reader want to know more:

What if the first lines of your email are boring?

I’ve got you.

By default, the preview text will usually be the first lines of your email. But if you want it to be something else, any good email service provider should let you customize the preview text.

Here’s what you can do with this:

Suppose you have an email with a very newsletter-y line at the top*…

Instead of that line being the preview copy, which looks like this…

You can make the preview show only the meaty part, like this…

Remember, we already know the email isn’t just to us. But we still like to feel like it’s a personal email when we open it. Any boring “housekeeping” items in the preview signal to your reader that this is junk, they can skip it.

And if you’ve made this “boring preview text” mistake before, don’t feel bad. It’s not a cardinal sin that’ll have people racing for the unsubscribe link. But why not give your email every advantage you can?

Note that practically everyone has useless preview text sometimes (or always). I’ve blurred out the ones who wouldn’t appreciate being a “don’t,” but some are online biggies. And one is me! I didn’t know I could fix it.
Fix this, and you’ll have an edge over even the top marketers in your space.

*”Genius School” is not an actual thing, at least not that I know of. I made it up for the sample email. But if you’d like me to create a Genius School and want to pay a ton to attend, hit me up. If you’re already on my list, you have a direct line to me. You are, right? If you’re reading this, then that means you want to write better emails — and if you want to write better emails, you should be reading mine. Did I mention? I’m kinda known for them.

10 – Use plain text, not a designed “newsletter” template

A designed, polished newsletter template with more images than copy is great for fashion and other retail businesses that rely on visual appeal.

But otherwise, you might be relieved to know that a plain text format will probably perform better for you. It has higher deliverability rates and feels more like an EFAB (again, that’s Email From A Bestie)

You can always stick in images. In fact, you should! And that leads me to:

11 – Stick in occasional images and make them clickable.

Get this: our brains process images 60 thousand times faster than text.⁹

So to stop those skimming eyes and make things fun, I sometimes give readers a clickable image in addition to text links.

12 – Send yourself a test email, and view it on your phone.

Want to see how your email looks to the majority of subscribers? (Yeah you do.)

Then check it the way they will: on mobile. That’s where most of us check email throughout the day.

You’ll discover all kinds of things that look different from the way they do on desktop.

• The preview text is laid out differently.
• Less of the subject line shows up — often, cutting off your most important words.
• Passages that looked like short, readable 2-liners on your desktop look like War and Peace on the relatively tiny phone window.

…And so on.

You’ll be glad you checked.

13 – Put plenty of “you” into the email.

This time, I’m not talking about your personality. Though we want plenty of that, too. I’m talking about the word “YOU.” Also, the person’s name. Those words act like smelling salts to your reader.

In fact, emails with personalized subject lines get an average 26% higher open rate.¹⁰

Here are a couple of places I used personalization (yes, my test emails go to “Matilda.”)

FIRST NAME IN SUBJECT LINE

FIRST NAME + “YOU” IN SUBJECT LINE

FIRST NAME IN BODY OF EMAIL

Ever notice how you’re drawn to people in real life who use your name a lot? (And maybe touch your arm?)

Doing that in an email has the same effect. It’s flirty, personable, intimate. Even when they know on a rational level that you sent it to thousands of people, it makes your reader feel special.
Get creative. (Some ingenious ideas they won’t see coming here.)

NOTE: Don’t do this with every single subject line. It gets tiresome. Your subscriber becomes blind to it. Space it out.

14 – Have a welcome sequence.

Imagine you see an ad or post offering an irresistible freebie.

It’s from a marketer you don’t know, but you want that free tip sheet. So you pop in your email and download the thing. You don’t even notice who it’s from. You’re too excited to find out the 5 Secrets To Achieving World Domination In Under A Month.

A week later, you get a promotional email from some random marketer. It’s the one whose thingy you downloaded, but you’ve already forgotten them. You think, “I didn’t sign up for this person’s emails.” And you immediately hit unsubscribe.

(It’s like if someone asks for your number, then sends you a booty text a month later. WHO DIS?)

But you don’t want that to happen to your emails! You worked hard on that lead magnet to get the person’s email. You want to keep the subscriber. Right?

The best way to do that is to have a welcome sequence. It’s also called an opt-in sequence, a nurture sequence, a newbie sequence, an onboarding sequence, a courtship drip. (No one calls it a courtship drip.)

And it’s a stellar way to build know, like and trust with your new subscriber.

What it is:

A welcome sequence is a specific email automation that starts as soon as someone signs up for your list.

It reminds them that you’re the one who sent them the freebie, helps them get to know you, and delivers them extra value so they don’t forget you. And, hopefully, it gets them to take the next step and buy from you!

If you’re not using a welcome sequence when people sign up, you’re leaving money on the table and subscribers on the floor.

You’ll also get extra high open rates for your welcome sequence, which improves your overall deliverability.

Here’s a peek at a welcome sequence I send out.

Check out those tasty open and click-through rates:

Get this: Welcome, or newbie, emails generate 8 times more revenue than the average promotional email.¹¹

NOTE: I’ve noticed that the welcome sequence is wildly underused. Which means it’s a handy edge for you!

Even many copywriting experts whose emails I sign up for don’t show up in my inbox for weeks after that first “confirm your subscription” email. WHO DIS?

My Talking Shrimp welcome sequence changes all the time. I walk you through every email in it, plus what you should put in yours, in my welcome sequence workshop.

15 – Scrub your damn list.

I know. Ouch.

But this is something I wish I’d done ages before I finally did. For years, was paying for subscribers who didn’t open my emails. I mean, come on, I sign up for membership sites I don’t enter, magazines I don’t look at, a neglected Audible subscription and who (or Hulu) knows how many other wasteful recurring charges.

It’s nice to cut at least a few bucks from the monthly statement, which is what happened when I first pruned my list down to the next less expensive level in Convertkit. Hey, I’ll fill it back up.

But this goes beyond saving a few shekels.

I didn’t realize that because those people were lowering my open rate, they affected my deliverability rate. Which lowered my open rate more.

That’s happening to you if you’ve got a bunch of people on your list who don’t open. So send out that email to the cold subscribers and see if they want to stick around. Some will, and they’ll even start opening the emails again.

So you do some damage to one number: the size of your list. In return, you get to see your open rates spike right away.

When I first did this, my top regular broadcast numbers jumped from 40% max to 55%. 

(One got 64% including resend to unopens – more on that next.)

Keep that in mind when you look at my open rates in this guide, which reflects the old, bloated-with-cold-subscribers list:

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Non-Sucky Subject Lines
33 Most-Opened Winners + Templates
To Help You Write High-Converting Emails

Download The Non-Sucky Subject Lines

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ps – You know what? The smaller list just feels like I got a good haircut. A sassy bob.

16 – Resend to unopens.

Want to increase your open rate with a few clicks? Here’s how:

By resending an email to all the people who haven’t opened it.

It may seem naggy. But let’s face it: almost no one opens all your emails. Even my own mom has told me, “I saw an email from you. I haven’t gotten to read it yet.”

And, almost nobody will notice it’s the same email.

Here’s the trick:

1. Wait 5-7 days. If you re-send right away, you’ll hit people who just haven’t gotten to their emails yet. And then they’ll be annoyed to see two of the same email from you, if they open both.
2. Give the duplicate email a new subject line. Then, people really won’t notice. And if they do open both, that means you’ve got a pretty dedicated reader, and chances are, they won’t be annoyed. Or, you can use the old subject line with a Re: and a “sending this again” message, like so:

CAVEAT: Don’t do this all the time, or people will get annoyed. Save it for special emails you really need people to open.

17 – Play with emojis in your subject line.

Maybe don’t do it all the time. But once in a while, try sprinkling emojis into your subject line.

This one stood out in my inbox on Halloween:

And these did really well for me:

Emojis in marketing emails have become way more commonplace since I selected these, but it can still help your email pop. Can’t beat a row of ducks for standing out in a sea of plain text.

All that said, if you really want to stand out…

18 – *Sharpen your writing.* ✏️

Start with a bang.

Tell stories. Good ones.
(For help coming up with stories to tell your list, download Story Goldmine for FREE)

Cut out unnecessary words.

Be conversational, not stiff and formal.

Use original detail instead of vague, bland-as-porridge cliches.

Use powerful active verbs, not passive ones.

Great writing is the true secret to great emails. (And judging from most of the emails out there, that really is a secret.)

*This one’s a non-negotiable. No matter what business you’re in.

If you want some quick help to sharpen your writing, grab my 5 Secrets to Non-Sucky Copy. It’s free.
You’ll find a host of my favorite writing resources here, along with all my freebies.

Download The Non-Sucky Subject Lines

19 – Always have a call to action.

Even when you’re not writing to sell or promoting anything, give your readers something to do.

• Check out this podcast I’m loving.
• Are we connected on Instagram? Come find me there.
• Hit reply and tell me ____.
• What’s your biggest struggle when it comes to ____?
• Whenever you’re ready, here are 3 ways I can help you.
• Got questions about this? It’s our specialty. Hit reply and ask away.

(I recently asked readers the worst gift they ever got, and the replies were spectacular. One got a used bar of soap. Even a passive-aggressive hint gift should be new in the box.)

People love to be helpful, and they love to engage. The more they interact with you and your emails, the stronger a connection they’ll feel.

20 – Measure and celebrate your results!

One great thing about email is, you can see what works. The results are immediate and tangible:

Higher open rates, clicks on your links, replies, sales, compliments, requests to work with you.

Jane, who’d attended back-to-back presentations I gave on copywriting and email, wrote to tell me she’d put some of the tips to work and seen an immediate jump in open rates, from an average of 20% to around 30% and up to 40%.

ps — 21 – use the ps.

Many people scroll right to the ps. It’s a good place to give a link again, or anything you want to tell them. Yes, you’re rewarding for skimming. Hey, however they get to the bottom of your email, they should get a reward.

I almost never sign off without a ps.

pps – did you skip right to this line, Naughty? Go back up and read a couple of tips for your email. You’re missing all the good stuff.

But here’s your reward for getting to the bottom, however you got here. IT’S FREE.

Download The Non-Sucky Subject Lines

Now you.

– What could you be doing better with your emails to your list?
– Which of the tweaks I listed above are you going to try first?
– Is there anyone whose emails you open whenever they hit your inbox?
– What was your cheesiest email address? (I once had cliffhangaz at aol.)

TELL ME IN THE COMMENTS.

*Note that convertkit links are affiliate links. I like and recommend it.

1. supplygem.com 
2.  marketwatch.com 
3. ppm express
4. phrasee.co
5. returnpath.com
6. Social Insider
7. hiverhq.com
8. statista
9. blogs.sas.com
10. campaignmonitor.com
11. experian.com