The biggest problem that email marketers face nowadays, is not marketing automation, or segmentation, or list management, or even just sending the actual email, it’s how we as marketers communicate and write our emails to our customers, subscribers, and readers.

With the implementation of Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) and fines ranging between $1,000,000 and $10,000,000, we as marketers have to be more careful than ever before about how and what we communicate through email.

No matter what though, your customer wants to be communicated to in a way that makes them feel like they are the only one in the world that matters to you. They want you to spend time thinking about how and what you communicate to him or her.

Email is about relationships, because after all, an email is ultimately a message from one human being to another.

And these relationships are some of the most important assets in any business. They are crucial in driving and sustaining growth, yet rarely are relationships considered when crafting marketing messages.

Unfortunately, because of this absence in our thinking, we as marketers have ruined this relationship time by focusing too much on sales (sex) and not enough on loyalty (love).

Customer loyalty is created not by viewing ads or reading promotional information, but by interacting with a company, in particular, a person.

Even inanimate email communications can be brought to life: read the story of Little Moo, “The little robot that could”.

This said, the first rule to adhere to when writing your marketing email is:

Aim to develop a relationship, not one-night stands.

Rule number two and probably the most difficult one for marketers is:

Don’t be self-promoting.

The sure way to lose your reader is to fixate on the wrong subject: your company. No matter what you are communicating, your email should always be about the reader. Make “you” your most used word. Your reader’s favorite subject is him or herself. Consider your real life relationships… no one likes an egomaniac.

Next, be sure to elicit feelings.

Your reader processes information through emotion first and reasoning second. So great writing should stimulate the limbic system (the sub-cortex section of the brain—the center of desire and motivation).

Specifically, arouse your reader. Great writing features cliffhangers. Builds curiosity. Foreshadows. Surprises. Do whatever you can to make eyes dilate and hearts pound.

Sounds challenging? Well it is; writing is hard. Even for accomplished writers and professionals.

To help you get it going, write as if you were writing to a friend. Start typing a draft the way you would speak to a friend, or better yet, your mother or father-in-law (we tend to be more polite with them…). This means writing in the first person voice.

Be conversational. Speak human being and have fun.

You should also end your emails by indicating how the reader can reach you directly (if you’re sending an email, you’re responsible for it, and ultimately you should be easily reached for any questions or comments your readers may have). Including your name and photo makes it all that much more personal.

By the way, if you’re saying to yourself that “there’s no way you’re going include your contact information”, because you don’t want hundreds of people contacting you, know that the likely-hood that people will actually contact you is less than 0.2%. If that is still too high, then you might want to reconsider your audience segmentation strategy.

From a practical point of view, keep the goal of your email top of mind by answering this three-part question: What are you trying to communicate, to whom, and how will they benefit from the information presented in the email?

Structurally, remember to keep things simple because most readers (and by “most” I mean “all”) will spend only between 2-6 seconds scanning your email. Time is of essence so stick to the following:

1. A headline that piques our curiosity
2. A sentence or two (remember rule #2 — it’s about them, not you)
3. An image that embodies what you are communicating
4. And a call-to-action (CTA) with a link to a landing page that complements your email

Oh and about that call-to-action… try to be a bit more original and clever than a simple “learn more” or worse yet, a CTA without an action verb such as “more info”.

Another rule that sadly marketers often break is: never ever lie, be deceptive, or manipulative. Not only does it show how much of a jerk you yourself are as a person, but more importantly, it also makes the company look bad. The likelihood of losing the reader, subscriber or customer over this sort of bad behavior is very high, and they won’t speak well of you, ever.

Lastly, listen to your audience. They’re sending you valuable feedback both directly and indirectly. If your emails aren’t getting increased opens and clicks, something is not resonating with them. It’s now time to start asking some serious questions, specifically about your content and segmentation strategy.

In conclusion, there’s an old adage that human resources go by that is of value for email marketers: “hire for skills but fire for attitude”.

If you can’t connect with people, you won’t be able to do business with them. And without them, you have no business. So make sure to always make your customers, subscribers, and readers feel like they are the most important person in the room.