How to write a marketing email people actually open and read
Most marketing emails get deleted in under a second. The ones that don't share five things in common — a sharp subject line, real personalisation, brevity, a single clear call to action, and a personality worth reading.
Email has been a marketing channel for decades, and it's still one of the highest-return ones you have — when it's done well. The problem is that your audience's inbox is a battlefield. Dozens of brands compete for the same few seconds of attention, and a generic, salesy email gets deleted before it's read.
So how do you write an email people actually open and act on? The strong ones consistently get five things right. Here's each one, with examples.
Your email isn't competing against silence — it's competing against every other email that landed today. "Good enough" gets archived. You have to earn the open, then earn the click.
Write a subject line that earns the open
Your subject line does the heaviest lifting in the whole email. If it doesn't land, nothing else you wrote matters — the email is never opened. It needs to be intriguing enough to pull a click and short enough to read on a phone. Match the tone to your audience: a playful line for a younger, casual list; a clear, solution-led line for a serious B2B one.
A few that work, and why:
- Groupon: "Best of Groupon: The Deals That Make Us Proud (Unlike Our Nephew, Steve)" — unexpected humour that makes a routine email impossible to ignore.
- Sephora: "LAST DAY for 3x points" — urgency and a concrete benefit. You feel you'll miss out if you don't open it.
- BuzzFeed: "Shhh…It's A Secret!" — pure curiosity. You have to open it to find out what the secret is.
Get genuinely personal
Personalisation makes an email feel relevant rather than mass-blasted — and relevant emails get opened. The key is segmentation: don't send the same email to everyone on your list. A busy parent and a young trend-led shopper have different needs, so a back-to-school offer and a new-arrivals drop should go to different people.
Write in the second person, too. Plenty of "you" and "your" keeps the focus on what the reader gets, which is far more compelling than talking about yourself. Modern email platforms make this segmentation easy to automate — and AI tools now help draft variations per segment in minutes, which is exactly the kind of leverage we build into clients' marketing automation.
Get to the point fast
A marketing email is not the place for a wall of text. Make your point almost immediately — no one scrolls through paragraphs to find the offer. Lead with the benefit to the reader, then keep it tight. Brands like Bluefly do this well: a clean layout, minimal copy, and visuals carrying the message, because people respond faster to images than to text.
One clear call to action
Every marketing email needs a call to action — without one, there's no point sending it. Use a single, action-led prompt and make the next step unmistakable. Strong, simple options:
- Get started
- View deals
- Let's talk
Resist the urge to stuff in five different links. One email, one job. Competing calls to action split attention and lower the chance of any of them being clicked — the same discipline that makes a landing page convert. (For the on-site version of this, see our CTA design tips.)
We'll find the gaps in your funnel in a free audit.
We map how your emails, ads and website work together to turn attention into revenue — and show you exactly where it's leaking.
Let your personality show
A clear purpose doesn't mean a dull email. The brands people actually look forward to hearing from have a voice. Colourpop Cosmetics, for example, gets the offer and the call to action across while staying light and relatable to its young audience — it doesn't take itself too seriously, and that's the point.
Generic emails are invisible. When a reader is getting dozens a day, personality is what makes yours the one that gets opened rather than swiped away. Write for your customer, give them something worth their time, and the results follow. If you want help building an email programme that earns its place in the inbox, our team does exactly this.
Frequently asked questions
How do I write a good marketing email?
To write a good marketing email, lead with a subject line that earns the open, personalise the content to a specific audience segment, get to the point fast, and include one clear call to action. Keep paragraphs short, write in the second person, and let your brand's personality come through so it stands out in a crowded inbox.
What makes a good email subject line?
A good email subject line is short enough to read on a phone and compelling enough to earn a click — through curiosity, urgency or a concrete benefit. Match the tone to your audience, avoid sounding spammy or all-caps, and make it clear enough that the reader knows roughly what's inside before they open it.
How long should a marketing email be?
A marketing email should be as short as it can be while still doing its job. Make your main point and offer visible almost immediately, support it with a strong visual, and resist long paragraphs. Most readers skim, so brevity and a single clear call to action will out-convert a wall of text every time.
How many calls to action should an email have?
A marketing email should generally have one primary call to action. One email, one job. Competing prompts split the reader's attention and lower the chance any of them gets clicked. If you have several things to promote, send separate emails to the relevant segments rather than crowding them into one.
Why are my marketing emails not getting opened?
Marketing emails usually go unopened because the subject line is weak, the content isn't relevant to the recipient, or the sends aren't segmented. Sharpen your subject lines, split your list so people only get offers that suit them, and make sure your personality and value are clear — a generic blast to everyone rarely performs.