RE:markable is the weekly email about emails. Dropping the latest email marketing news, updates, insights, free resources, upcoming masterclasses, webinars, and of course, a little inbox mischief.
Before we dive in, please can we get one thing straight?
Email copy is not just copy.
It’s not your website. It’s not a press release. And it’s definitely not a 15-paragraph essay about your product’s features that you hope someone will lovingly scroll through.
This is a different beast entirely! You’ve got a tiny window of time and space to spark something,; curiosity, a click, an emotion, a reaction, or best-case scenario: a conversion to your goal.
Yet somehow, email copy is still one of the most misunderstood, underutilised, and poorly executed parts of most email marketing strategies.
So, if your idea of email copy is slapping together a subject line and squeezing text between a few Canva banners… this one’s for you.
Let’s fix it.
Let’s start with the most overlooked truth:
Your copy is your email.
From subject line to preheader, from header to CTA button, even down to the little unsubscribe text at the bottom, it’s all copy, and it all matters.
But YET, most brands still lean hard into image-heavy layouts and half-baked paragraphs.
In email, you don’t have time to waffle. You’ve got milliseconds (yes, literally milliseconds) to make an impression and less than that to earn engagement.
Your audience is scrolling with one finger and a half-charged phone on the loo. Welcome to the inbox.
This isn’t your About page.
This isn’t a blog (though, hi 👋).
This isn’t even your ad copy.
Email copy needs to be tighter, punchier, and strategically structured.
Remember: skim-friendly, aligned to your audience, and most importantly, human.
If you only take one thing away from this guide, let it be this:
People decide what to do with your email before they even open it (and they process who it's from, if they have time to read it, if they care, if they like you, if they assume what they can expect from your email - all before hitting deleting).
Let’s break that down, every email has an “inbox preview,” which includes:
The ‘From’ name: Is it personal? Brand-led? Trustworthy? Is this a new name? Is it just there to try to 'catch attention'?
BIMI (that’s your logo appearing in inboxes): Recognition matters - if you can do this, I would!
Subject line: Short, emotional, valuable, different, links to the preheader, links to what the subscriber is thinking, doing, interested in, considering, etc or boring and predictable?
Preheader: Are you using it as a hook or just repeating the subject line or header/text from the email? (Spoiler: don’t repeat here)
Nail this preview combo, and you’ve already won half the battle
Here are a few of the most useful frameworks you can use in your email copy - they can be applied to B2B & B2C!
Copy isn’t just words or what you write when you 'need to get an email out'. It’s a conversation. A connection. A chance to make someone feel seen.
So before you hit “send”, ask yourself:
Would I open this?
Does it feel like a real person wrote it?
Is there a reason to care, feel, act?
Email isn’t dead BUT bad email is. Copy is what brings it back to life.
If you’re ready to stop winging it and start winning with email…
RE:markable is the weekly email about emails. Dropping the latest email marketing news, updates, insights, free resources, upcoming masterclasses, webinars, and of course, a little inbox mischief.