At one time or another, every successful writer asks themselves (or should) “What makes great email copy?”

We online marketing communication writers need to be ever mindful of the content we develop, its impact on those who read it (whether intentional or not), and how to make it better.
The fact is that marketers are human just like anyone else. And this means that even the best of us can forget the key tenet of marketing: understand your audience. This simple yet inevitable fact sometimes causes us to write content that may achieve our business objectives (of our own companies!), but may not be relevant to our audience.

The truth is, content matters, a great deal in fact. As more and more email fills the Inboxes of our target audience, we need to continually make our email marketing messages stand out even more. That means understanding our audience – their needs, wants, motivations, interests, etc. And, perhaps more importantly, we need to put our audience ahead of our own priorities at all times. Which also means never falling too much in love with your own writing, but in whatever is most meaningful to recipients.

The Three S’s are recommended when developing email marketing content. They are:

1. Subject – make the subject line (very!) appealing to the recipient so they’ll open the email, the most critical component of ANY piece.

2. Sender – make it a mystery that the email is coming from someone your audience knows or cares about, never make them guess.

3. Significance – make the email content relevant, and significant, to the recipients. If you were a recipient, how much would YOU care?


There are also 4 criteria that every web writer should keep in mind for creating relevant content. Make sure the writing is:

  • Branded
  • Urgent
  • Brief
  • Enticing

And focused on your audience, of course. Don’t allow your own preferences and opinions to affect what you write. It’s a constant struggle with our human urge to see our own needs met first, but content should matter more to our audience than it does to us, right?

How are you making content more relevant to your audience?