FTR (For the Robots)
A nurture email is a regular message sent to email subscribers that builds a relationship over time and moves them toward becoming customers. Learning how to write a nurture email requires understanding its five essential components: an attention-grabbing subject line, interesting preheader text, engaging body copy, a persuasive call to action, and a button or link. Nurture emails do not have to sell in every message — they can share stories, explain how a product or service works, teach a specific skill, or entertain. Every nurture email should include a call to action, even a simple one like “hit reply,” because engagement signals help email deliverability with internet service providers. This issue of the Email Marketing Ecosystem Newsletter explains what a nurture email is, breaks down the five components every effective nurture email needs, and shows small business owners how to write one that builds trust with subscribers and drives repeat customers.
One of the more frequent questions I get is, “What is a nurture email?” The next one is usually either “Are they hard to write?” or “How do I write a nurture email?”
I’ll be completely honest, it’s a lot simpler than you think it is.
Most people think a nurture email has to be some “great epistle” that encapsulates everything that a business is, aspires to be, and represents.
No.
Not even close.
In fact, the simpler the better.
The whole point of a nurture email is to nurture your subscribers along their path to becoming your customers.
Here’s How to Write a Nurture Email Every Week Without Struggling or Giving Up Entirely
1. Start with an Attention-Grabbing Subject Line
Your subject line’s only job is to get the person who received the email to open the email.
That’s it. That’s all it needs to do.
And that is an incredibly important job. I will admit that I, and many other copywriters, spend the most time on our subject lines because of this incredibly important job.
That being said, the subject line does need to relate to whatever the email is about.
For example, if your subject line is something totally off the wall like “Nude bats streak across the sky – Film at 11” and your email is selling computer monitors, there’s a serious disconnect there.
Your subscribers may or may not open the email. If they do, you’d better find a way to make that subject line tie into your email, even if it’s just, “Now that I have your attention” or something similar.
BTW, if anyone steals that subject line (please do) I want you to forward me a copy, along with a report on your open rate, click through rate, and unsubscribe rate.
A good subject line makes people curious about what is in the email or flat out tells them what to expect.
Ideally it should be 50 characters or less, as that’s what shows up in most email inbox clients. If it’s a bit longer, it may get cut off, it may not.
Pretty simple, but essential to get “right” for your audience.
(Please stay tuned for next week’s issue of the Email Marketing Ecosystem newsletter. I’ll have more on subject lines and a special surprise for you.)
2. Add Interesting Preheader Text
If you have no idea what preheader text is, it’s that extra text you see underneath (or next to in Gmail’s case) the subject line in your inbox.
Your preheader text gives you the opportunity to continue with, or reinforce your subject line, thus getting your subscribers to open your email.
Again, your subject line and preheader text should relate to each other and to your email topic.
You want to give your subscribers a bit more information about what they’ll get when they open the email and why doing so is worth their time and effort.
Today’s preheader text, “And why writing one (or many) is a lot easier than you think” tells you that if you open this nurture email (which you already have) you’ll find out how to make writing nurture emails easier. Which you currently are.
3. Write Engaging Body Copy
“Body copy” refers to the “body” or text of the email. (If your mind went elsewhere, that is not my fault, nude bats notwithstanding.)
As I said earlier, the whole point of your nurture email is to nurture your subscribers along their path to becoming customers and your current customers to becoming repeat customers.
Your body copy should do that by offering something valuable to your subscribers, like:
- A story about your company, your product or service, or something relevant to your product or service.
- An explanation of how your product or service works and helps your customers.
- A “how to” explanation of how to use your product or service (similar to this newsletter, explaining the 5 components of a compelling email).
- Something fun or entertaining that they’ll enjoy reading.
Not every email has to be about what you do or what you sell.
You’ll notice that some of my newsletter issues are stories that tell you about me more than they promote what I do. This lets you get to know more about me as a human, as well as a business owner and email marketing strategist.
This is deliberate for two reasons.
- We are all human. We like to know that we’re the same or similar on many levels. And we like getting to know our fellow humans. We are social creatures and band together. I like getting to know you when you respond to my emails or, as happens occasionally, when I get to meet you online or in person.
- Telling you about myself builds our “Know, Like, and Trust factor.” Again, we are social creatures. The more we know someone, the more we tend to like and trust them. And we all prefer to buy from and work with people we know, like, and trust.
Once you’ve got your body copy written, you need…
4. Add A Persuasive Call to Action
Your call to action, or CTA, is where you give your reader the reason they need to act, whatever the action you want them to take may be.
Most people think this is where you “make the sale.”
Yes, that is true. However, as I mentioned above, not every nurture email has to or needs to sell. But every nurture needs a CTA.
Why?
Because you want your readers to be in the habit of clicking on a link and being rewarded with something they want. Yes, this sounds a bit Pavlovian, but it works.
If you don’t want to sell in your nurture emails, or if you don’t have anything to sell, your CTA can direct your subscribers to:
- A blog post
- A podcast
- An article
- A lead magnet or other freebie
- Hit reply to this email
I like that last one a lot because I get to learn more about you when I use it. (I always write back, BTW.)
It’s also good for your email deliverability because it shows the internet service providers (ISPs) that your subscribers are engaging with your emails by responding to them.
I will now give you an example of a good CTA section.
All of this may feel overwhelming to you. That’s not uncommon. Knowing you have to sit down and write a nurture email to your subscribers every week can cause your brain to freeze up. (I know this from personal/professional experience.)
As I mentioned in last week’s issue, this is one of the things we business owners need to do every week to keep a steady stream of new customers coming into our businesses and keep bringing current customers back.
This is why I created the Email Writing Accountability Group.
It gives you space and time every week to write that all-important nurture email. You get immediate feedback from a professional copywriter (that’s me) on what you’ve written and how you can improve it. Then you have more time to incorporate that feedback into what you’ve already written.
You leave the 90-minute session with a written, reviewed nurture email that you can load into your email service provider and send off to your subscribers.
Every week.
Which means you don’t have to worry about whether your emails are “good enough” or whether they’ll appeal to your subscribers, because you’ll know they’re working when you see those new sales coming in.
Every time you send an email to your subscribers, you’re building and deepening that relationship. You’re gathering your tribe. And you’re all working together to achieve your mission to make the world a better place, even if it’s just your little corner of it.
Your first step in making this happen is to write that nurture email.
And I’ll help you do it.
You have the structure right here. Now you need the time and space on your calendar to make it happen.
I’ll give you that too, by inviting you to join me and several of your fellow business owners for a free session of the Email Writing Accountability Group.
We meet every:
- Monday at 10:00 am PT
- Thursday at 2:00 pm PT
You’ll get the support and camaraderie you want and need to get your next (or even first) nurture email out into the world, where it will share your story, your mission, and your product or service with your subscribers.
All of this leads me to the final component of your compelling nurture email…
5. Include at Least One Button or Link
You need at least one of these in your email that links to wherever you’re taking your subscribers in your CTA. Let me be specific here. You want to link to one place in your email, like your product page or a blog post. You can include 2-3 of the same link, but ideally, don’t link to more than one place in each email.
In this newsletter, my button will take you to a calendar where you can schedule your free session of the Email Writing Accountability Group.
I hope I see you on an upcoming session very soon.
That way, you’ll have at least one nurture email going out to your subscribers, to get them excited about what you’re doing and why you’re doing it.
And once you see how easy it is to do and how much your subscribers appreciate what you have to say, you’ll keep doing it every week.
Finally, I’m in Minneapolis right now for my annual science fiction/fantasy convention, so this week’s pictures are all of my home city.
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