The Simple Rule for Writing Emails That Connect with Your Audience

Want to send marketing emails that feel like you're talking to your best friend? Follow this simple rule to spark an instant connection with subscribers and become their new biz bestie.

Today we're talking about how you can create a connection with your subscribers — the kind of connection that means you're getting excited replies to your emails with people saying, “Oh, I don't usually read marketing emails, but I never miss yours.” The kind of connection that fosters a list that is dying to hear from you and can't wait to buy your next offer.

I call it the 1:1 Rule. It’s really all about taking advantage of the one-to-one nature of email marketing. Because even though you may have thousands of subscribers on your list whenever, you send an email it's really a conversation between two people — you and the subscriber reading that email.

It doesn't feel like they're reading something that went to a thousand people. It feels like they're reading something that came from you. And the key to getting people to feeling close to you from your emails is to remember that and to take advantage of that one-to-one message.

So here's a few quick tips for how to do this:

#1: Make sure that you're emailing to one person

When you write an email, address your email to one person. Don't start with “Hey guys!” and call out the fact that you are sending this email to hundreds or thousands of other people. It takes you instantly out of the one-to-one feeling. 

Instead, you want to greet the one person that's reading your email. Say “Hey [First Name]!” or  “Hey friend” or just say “Hey!” However you’re greeting people, make it focused on one person. Don't act like you're talking to a big room. Just email that one person that's reading. 

#2: Send your email from one person 

Include a name in the From Name and in the sign off of your email. You don't want your emails coming from some nameless brand that feels really big and impersonal. You want to make sure that your subscribers feel that there is a person on the other end of this email. 

Even if you do want to send emails from your brand name, make it from “[Your Name] at [Your Brand] so that people still connect with the person that is sending that email. If they would hit reply they would know that there is a person on the other end reading their email.

Having a name associated with your emails of an actual person helps to create a much closer personal connection. Whatever name you're choosing to send from, make it consistent across all your emails. Make sure that all your automated emails are coming from that same name, make sure all your sign-offs have that same name, and make sure that people start to recognize that name and associate it with you.

#3: Format your emails like personal messages

There's also some things you can do with your formatting and your content to help create a connection when people see your emails. Whenever you're writing an email to your list, think about how you would actually send an email to your bestie. 

Take your subject lines for example. For your subject line, you probably wouldn’t write it in title case (where every word in the subject line is capitalized). You would probably do it in sentence case — where just the first word is capitalized — or maybe you would do it all in lowercase and be super informal.

You can do that with your emails as well. Because title case subject lines kind of feel like a headline and they stand out in the email inbox and scream “Marketing Email Inside!” 

Where something that's a little more casual feels like something that you would send to someone you actually know.

Another thing you can do with the formatting is to send your emails in plain text formatting. Plain text formatting is kind of what it sounds like. It's just a plain text email. It looks a lot like an email that you would send one to one from your personal email.

(That's opposed to having like a really designed template with like HTML and code and all these different photos and graphics and icons and things that you can get from like MailChimp and some of the services that have those pre-made templates.) 

A plain text email has a lot of advantages. It looks like an email that you would get from someone you know, it doesn't look like a marketing email. It also can help with your deliverability too. Some of those really big templated emails with lots of code and lots of photos and lots of big things of them can end up in the spam or promotions folder because the email inbox reads them as though this is a marketing email.

So keep your email simple, keep it plain, and focus on the content and create a connection through that.

#4: Share who you are to spark connections

Another thing you can do to create that connection with your audience is to actually include photos of yourself in your emails. Help them start to associate a face with that name.

So maybe you share a photo of what you did this last weekend, maybe you share a photo of your kids or your pets. You just start sharing snapshots of your life with your list and help them feel like they know you because you're actually sharing who you are by giving them a look at who you are behind the scenes. 

Sharing stuff like this could do a lot to create a connection with subscribers because they actually start to know you and they'll start to see commonalities they have with you. That's when you start to get those fun replies back when your audience starts to connect with you on a deeper level.

I hope that helps you create more meaningful connections with the subscribers on your list!