6 Writing Tips for a Successful Email Marketing Campaign

1. A Single Goal

Before you start writing your email copy, you have to think about the specific goal you want it to reach. There are dozens of goals you could set for an email copy.

It could be:

offering a discount
announcing a new product launch
celebrating a year with a customer
inviting them to your website
inviting them to a webinar

Whatever the goal of your email copy is, make sure that you choose one and stick to it.

If you decide to say too many things, the recipient might get confused, overwhelmed, and eventually give up on reading it.

2. A Simple Structure

Here’s the thing – people aren’t in love with the idea of receiving emails they didn’t ask for. But, if the content of the email might be interesting to them, they’ll embrace it.

This is why you need to use a simple email structure. It will allow your recipients to:

scan the email
understand what’s it about within seconds
decide whether they want to read the whole thing

To achieve this effect, follow these simple rules:

use subheadings
write short paragraphs
use bullet points and lists

Give the readers a chance to decide whether this email deserves their attention or not. If you send a bunch of text divided into huge paragraphs, they’ll give up on reading it before they even start.

3. A Clear CTA

A CTA (call-to-action) is a very important piece of this puzzle. It’s the final touch to your email copy and a clear invitation for your readers.

If you want them to perform the desired action, you have to tell them exactly what to do.

Include a CTA that is:

dominating the email by design
short and clear
urging and actionable

Also, it would be a great idea to make a CTA button, and turn it into a clickable link that will allow the readers to perform the action in just one click.

So, if your CTA is “Hurry up to check out our final sale!” the link should take them directly to your e-commerce website.

4. Add Visuals

Nothing grabs the attention of a person reading an email like a powerful visual that supports the content. Visuals are great for breaking up the monotony of the email.

Still, you have to be careful with how you choose and add visuals:

optimize images to speed up the email loading time
don’t add too many
make sure the image responds to the content of the email

Visuals should bring the content of the email closer to the recipient and explain what the email is about. It will make them more interested in the content.

5. Test Different Versions

When you’re writing an email copy, you should always aim for one goal and a specific target audience. Still, no matter how well you think you know your target audience, you can’t know what they like for sure until you test it.

This is why you should test different versions of an email copy and measure which one converts better.

So, here’s how you’re going to do it:

choose your goal and your target audience
divide your target audience into two or more groups
for each group, create a unique email copy
change the visuals, the subtitles, design, CTAs, or anything you want

Then, measure the results of each email copy and see which one got more conversions. Then, use that email copy as a model for your future copies and add those features that made it the most effective one.

A/B testing of different email copies for the same target audience can deliver golden data that you’ll use to further improve your email marketing strategy.

6. Polish to Perfection

Your email copy says a lot about you as a professional. This is why you have to polish it to perfection. But what does that mean?

As a professional, you can’t let any mistake find its way to your final email copy. Instead, you have to:

edit several times
proofread every word
remove all grammar and spelling mistakes

If you feel like you need help with this step, check out these websites ratings. Checking accuracy is a step you mustn’t skip.

Final Thoughts

As you can see, writing a great email copy for a successful and strong email marketing campaign can be quite a task. Still, with the right instructions and strong dedication, you can achieve all the goals you’ve set.

Use the tips listed above and start working on improving your email marketing strategy. Create email copies that are powerful, engaging, and memorable.

7 Content Writing Mistakes That Are Bad For Your SEO

Is regular content writing a risky proposition if you can be penalized by Google

Is regularly publishing content risky?

This is the most obvious question that must come up in your mind if I talk about content writing mistakes and how they can negatively affect your search engine optimization efforts.

You may think, if you publish content regularly, and if inadvertently you are committing these mistakes, are you undoing whatever gains you have made so far?

Should you stop then?

It is up to you.

How often you should publish depends on whom you are talking to, but if you want to improve your search engine rankings as fast as possible, you must publish fresh content on your website or blog daily.

The problem with not publishing content is that if you are not publishing, your competition certainly is.

Just as you are trying to out-rank the others, the others are trying to out-rank you.

Just as you want to improve your search engine rankings, the others too want to improve them.

Hence, the question is not whether you should publish content or not, the question is, how much you should publish.

This is my personal experience: publishing lousy content is better than publishing no content but if you get into a policy of publishing lousy content (inferior quality, thin content with plagiarism issues) regularly, you can get your website blacklisted.

But these are extreme case scenarios. An average website owner or blog publisher knows that plagiarism is a big no-no.

The same is the case with duplicate content.

Although clients who contact me know the risks involved with duplicate content and they specifically mention that their content must be unique and original.

I am saying this because no one wants to commit content writing mistakes knowingly and whatever mistakes are committed, they are either due to ignorance or overzealousness.

Penalization happens in extreme cases.

The negative impact of these content writing mistakes on your SEO can be so slow that you don’t even realize that your rankings are going down for a few months.

It’s only when you view the traffic graph in Google Analytics for 3-4 months that you realize that the slope has been downwards.

It helps to avoid these content writing mistakes. They are very easy to avoid. I’m listing seven such mistakes below.

1. Ignoring search intent when coming up with topics

Here is a small video that explains what is search intent:

Search intent is the “reason” why a search engine user does a search on Google (or any other search engine).

You should be clear in your mind whom you are writing for.

I’m writing this blog post for people who want to avoid content writing mistakes that can harm their SEO.

The objective is clear.

If the objective is not clear, if you have no clue about the right search intent, you are going to end up publishing lots of content with no clear purpose.

2. Not compiling a list of keywords to be used or using too many keywords

I know, the concept of keywords has become a clichéd topic.

Everybody advises you to use the right keywords.

There is an entire industry around helping you find the right keywords for your individual web pages and blog posts.

Compiling a list of your keywords can be easy and difficult depending on the search intent you are trying to target, as mentioned above.

The keywords for this blog post can be “content writing mistakes”, “content writing mistakes to avoid”, “what is bad for my SEO”, and so on.

I often suggest that you have one or maximum two primary keywords and then a collection of five or so secondary, LSI or longtail keywords.

A big problem I have seen with many clients is that they want to use as many keywords as possible in a single blog post.

This doesn’t work.

Choose a single keyword. Choose a related keyword. Then choose a few LSI and long keywords. That’s it.

3. Not writing mobile friendly content

Many years ago, Google switched to “mobile-first” indexing.

This means, when Google comes to crawl your website, it first looks for its mobile version and it first ranks your website according to its mobile version.

If you don’t have a mobile version, this is bad for your SEO.

If you have a mobile version but your content is not mobile friendly, then again, it is bad for your SEO.

When writing content, write simple, shorter sentences.

Simple and shorter sentences are easier to read on mobile phones.

Even for the Google crawler, no matter how advanced AI and machine learning have become, learning shorter sentences is easier.

Capture one thought in one sentence.

Unlike conventional writing, avoid using multiple sentences in a single paragraph.

This reminds me: a few months ago a client was mad at the way I have written content for him.

“Are you writing poetry or blog posts?” his message screamed.

He was referring to the single-sentence paragraphs that I had used because I wanted to give him mobile friendly content.

4. Just focusing on improving search engine rankings

Yes, we all want better SEO but if this is your singular goal, you are going to be neither here nor there.

In Hindi, there is a famous saying, “Duvidha mein dono gaye, maya mili na Ram”.

When you have wrong priorities in life, you neither get worldly comforts and wealth, nor Ram (proximity to God).

Similarly, when you are just chasing SEO through content writing, you neither improve your SEO nor get more business.

Some years ago, Google started using human intelligence to evaluate your content and as a result, decide your search engine rankings.

In this video I explain how your rankings and quality content are interrelated:

Google has modified its ranking algorithm in such a manner that unless actual human beings find your content valuable, you’re not going to enjoy higher search engine rankings.

And anyway, what do you achieve out of search engine traffic if this traffic does not convert?

What is your goal?

Do you just want to improve your search engine rankings and then feel good about it, or you want to generate more business from your website?

Obviously, you want to generate more business.

Higher search engine rankings are just a means to an end: more business needs.

If you simply focus on improving your search engine rankings without paying attention to the meaningfulness of the content that your writing, you’re going to get yourself trapped in a vicious loop.

Make quality content your priority.

Have a clear purpose.

Provide value to your readers.

Only then, think about improving your search engine rankings.

5. Not making your content scannable

Scannable content means, even without having to read everything on your web page or blog post, people should be able to make out what you’re trying to say.

Hence, use headings and subheadings to organize different sections of the main messages that you want to highlight.

If you have multiple points, use bulleted lists.

Of course, as I have already written above, shorter sentences make it easier for your readers to read your content.

6. Not using your keywords and hence, not talking about the main topic within the first 100 words

There is a reason why most of the SEO experts advise you to use your main keywords within the first 100 words of your webpage or blog post.

Google is not always going to crawl your web page or blog post.

The crawler has just a few seconds to make sense of your content.

Sometimes there is lots of source code before it can even reach your main content (for example, you are using lots of WordPress plug-ins).

The connection may get lost before it can crawl everything.

The point is, there is no guarantee that Google is going to access your entire link.

Hence, you should pack everything important within the first 100 words.

At least use your main keywords creatively so that the Google crawler can make sense of your main topic.

Then, even if the crawler leaves your web page halfway, it will have some idea of what you’re trying to convey.

7. Not taking your meta title and description seriously

Examples of meta title and description.

Recently, a client paid me separately for writing meta titles and descriptions for 25 web pages.

Your meta title and meta description appear in search results.

They also appear when someone posts your link on his or her social media timeline.

Your title is very important.

People are prompted to click your link on Google when your title is compelling.

In the search results, if your click-through rate is low, you begin to lose your current rankings.

Hence, if you want to improve your present search engine rankings, you need to convince people to click your link when they come across it in search results.

This happens through a compelling title.

The same goes with your meta description.

This is the text that appears below your listing.

People first read your title, and then for extra convincing, they read your description. Then they click the link.

Since they are not visible to your visitors when they visit your web page or blog post (because they are part of your source code) , sometimes, clients don’t take these two attributes seriously, but they are very important and they can have a big impact on your overall search engine rankings.

Concluding remarks on the common content writing mistakes

The primary purpose of publishing quality content on your website is to help your visitors as much as possible.

Even when you want to improve your search engine rankings, you want to do so that they can easily find the content that can help them.

Hence, whether you want to improve your conversion rate or your SEO, the sole purpose is to provide helpful content that people can use to make better decisions.

If you focus on this, and then make sure that your content is easily accessible and all the vital information is present on your web page, it is easier to avoid these common content writing mistakes that are bad for your SEO.

The Importance Of SEO Copywriting In Search Engine Marketing

How does SEO copywriting help you in SEM? Why is it important?

As mentioned above, how you define search engine marketing depends on your strategy.

You may want to completely depend on improving your organic search engine rankings.

You may not want to spend a lot of money and effort on high quality content, but you quickly want to increase your search engine visibility and you’re ready to pay for every click that you get.

Normally this happens when people are not aware of the benefits of improving their organic search engine rankings through strategic SEO copywriting and instead, they want to go for a quick fix.

Paid advertising is costly. You are paying for every click.

The search engine users know that since you cannot improve your rankings naturally, you are paying to increase your visibility.

Hence, trust factor is lower compared to organic SEO.

I’m not saying that you should refrain from paid search engine marketing altogether.

In fact, you can make strategic use of it.

But you shouldn’t make it into a major search engine marketing strategy.

The ultimate goal is to improve your SEO organically, and this is where SEO copywriting can help you.

Below I am listing a few reasons why SEO copywriting is important for your search engine marketing strategy whether you want to pay for your visibility you want to improve your SEO organically.

SEO copywriting reduces your PPC costs

When you pay Google for your search engine placements, you have a PPC arrangement.

There are also other modes of advertising, but this is the most prevalent one.

You pay for every click.

Your listing appears in the “sponsored” section.

Google declares it openly that you are paying for the placement and your content is not appearing in the search results because of its inherent quality and relevance.

This happens with every search engine. I’m using the name of Google because it is one of the most used search engines in the world with more than 97% market share.

So how does effective SEO copywriting reduce your PPC costs?

In two ways:

Through actual reduction in the amount of money you pay per click.
Through improving your ROI – you generate more business per click.

It is in Google’s interest that more people click your sponsored link because you are paying for every click.

But then, after a while, it will be counter-productive because paying for every click will prove to be so expensive that you may have to deactivate your campaign for a while.

Google doesn’t want to kill the goose that lays golden eggs.

Hence, it rewards you by reducing your PPC rate if your placement generates more clicks.

The amount of money that you pay is inversely proportional to the number of clicks you can generate.

Through efficient copywriting, you can make more people click your paid placements and as a result, end up paying less to Google.

Suppose, initially you pay $ 0.5 per click for your current placement.

The copy of your ad is really good and it encourages more people to click your advertisement.

After a while, Google begins to charge you $ 0.45 per click for the same position.

This way, Google will go on decreasing your PPC if more people click your ad.

This is one way copywriting brings down your search engine marketing costs if you are paying for your placements.

The other way is by increasing your ROI.

In a PPC campaign, you use aMr landing page.

If you get 100 clicks from Google, you expect to make at least 5 sales.

If your SEO copywriting is not convincing, you may make 2-3 sales per 100 clicks, or even less.

If your copywriting is convincing, you may make even 10 sales per 100 clicks.

Hence, the success of your PPC campaigns depends on how convincing and well written the copy on your landing page is.

SEO copywriting organically improves your rankings for your main keywords

You need to resort to paid advertising on Google because you don’t have good organic search engine rankings for your main keywords.

If your links naturally appear in the SERPs, then there is no need for you to pay for the placements.

Just imagine – if you go for paid placements, you are paying for every click.

Referring to the above example, if you are paying $ 0.5 per click, for 100 clicks, you will be paying $ 50. For 1000 clicks, you will be paying $ 500. And so on.

But what happens if you organically improve your search engine rankings?

People can find your links among the top results and when they click your links, you don’t pay for those clicks.

Hence, whether you get 100 clicks or 10,000 clicks, your cost doesn’t increase.

In fact, it is free traffic.

Can you easily increase your rankings for your primary keywords?

Not if you have great competition.

For example, if I want to improve my search engine rankings for “SEO copywriting services”, it may be very difficult because top content writing and copywriting services are already ranking quite high compared to my website.

So, what do I do?

This brings us to the next topic…

SEO copywriting organically improves your rankings for longtail and related keywords

While you continue with your effort of improving your rankings for primary keywords, you should first focus on improving your rankings for longtail and related keywords.

Hence, instead of aiming for “SEO copywriting services”, I may aim for “The top 10 benefits of SEO copywriting”.

If you’re running a real estate business in Mumbai, instead of trying to just improve your rankings for “real estate business in Mumbai” you can write content around “Why it makes sense to work with a local real estate business in Mumbai”.

Longtail keywords may not directly bring your business, but they increase your visibility and then this visibility brings you business.

If you publish informative content covering your longtail keywords, other websites and blogs have a reason to link to your website or share your link on their social media timelines.

This brings you the much needed visibility.

When people link back to you, it also improve your search engine rankings for your primary keywords.

Effective SEO copywriting brings down your bounce rate

Your bounce rate has a direct impact on your search engine rankings.

Your bounce rate tells Google whether you have valuable content on your website or not.

If people immediately leave your website after finding your content in search results, it tells Google that people are unable to find what they’re looking for, for the keyword they are using and finding your content.

Here is a small video that explains the relationship between your bounce rate and search engine rankings:

Hence, your content begins to lose its current rankings for the keyword.

Again, I will give my own example.

If someone searches for “best SEO copywriting services in my area” and comes to my website and within a few seconds goes back to Google to carry on the same search, Google downgrades my current rankings for the search term “best SEO copywriting services in my area” because it assumes that my website doesn’t have relevant information for the topic.

On the other hand, for the same search term when someone finds my link and goes to my website and spends some time going through my web page and even explores other webpages for a few minutes, it tells Google that my website has relevant information and consequently, it upgrades my rankings for the same search term.

This is how your bounce rate affects your current search engine rankings.

Relevant SEO copywriting gets you more backlinks

Getting authoritative backlinks is an inalienable part of your SEM.

What motivates people to link to your content?

Relevance. Value. Engagement. Topicality. Authority.

All these attributes can be incorporated through relevant SEO copywriting practices.

Concluding remarks

SEO copywriting is a big part of your search engine marketing strategy.

It renders a direction to your SEM.

It brings down your costs.

It gives you lasting search engine visibility once you have been able to convince Google that your content is relevant for particular keywords and search terms.

Looking for insightful blog posts on content writing, and SEO copywriting? You will find them on Credible Content Blog. Updated almost daily. Fresh, unique perspective.

How To Optimize Content Writing For Google Discover?

What is Google Discover?

How does Google Discover work?

Content visibility on Google Discover may have a shorter shelf life

How do you increase your chances of being featured on Google Discover through quality content?

Publish content keeping the mobile readers in mind

Write and publish content that is easy to categorize

Write and publish useful, purposeful content

Use good quality images when publishing content