How To Write Emails People Actually Open

You can write the greatest email ever and if the subject line is boring, nobody sees it. Here's how to fix that.

Step 1. Write a subject line that makes them curious

Not clickbait — curious — there's a difference and people can feel it.

Tease the thing — don't give the whole answer in the subject.

Step 2. Write like a person, not a company

Nobody wants an email from a brand — they want one from a human.

Short sentences — real voice — say something true.

Step 3. Give people somewhere to find you

When someone hears about you, they look you up. Find nothing, and they go somewhere else.

One page is enough to start — what you do. Who it's for — what it costs — how to reach you.

Step 4. Give value before you ask

If every email is a pitch, they stop opening. Then the list is of little value.

Be useful most of the time — sell some of the time.

Step 5. Make getting paid easy

Getting paid should be the smoothest part of your business. For most people it's the least enjoyable part.

Take cards — send real invoices with a pay button. Ask for a deposit — keep it in a business account.

Being different beats being cheaper

Competing on price is available to anybody, which is precisely why it is a poor position. Somebody will always undercut you, and the customers who chose you for price will leave for the same reason.

So find another axis — faster — more reliable. Easier to reach. Specialized in something specific rather than adequate at everything. Any of those gives a customer a reason to choose you that a discount cannot replicate.

For an emails people open business, the differentiator is frequently something unglamorous. Answering the phone — turning up when you said. Explaining things clearly. These sound too simple to matter and they are routinely what customers actually complain about missing.

Then say it plainly. A difference nobody knows about is not a difference. It should be obvious within seconds of somebody encountering you, in the words you use and the way you describe what you do.

Where the first ones actually come from

The first customers of an emails people open business almost never arrive through advertising. They arrive through people, and understanding that saves you from spending money you do not have on channels that will not work yet.

Start with everyone who already knows you. Tell them plainly what you are doing and ask whether they know somebody who needs it. This feels awkward for about a week, and it produces more early customers than anything else available to you.

Then go where the need already exists. Somebody is already looking for what you do, and your job is to be visible in the place they are looking rather than in the place that feels comfortable to you.

Be specific when you ask. Do you know anybody who needs this is a question people cannot answer. Do you know anybody with a broken one of these is a question they can, and the difference in response is substantial.

Build them from what you already do

The mistake is trying to design a system in the abstract. The far easier approach is to document what you already do, the next time you do it.

So the next time you complete a standard job, write down the steps as you go. Not beautifully, just accurately. Twenty minutes of rough notes will capture something that would take an hour to invent from scratch, and it will be correct because it came from reality.

Do the same for the things that go wrong. What are the three problems that keep recurring, and what do you do about each one? That page is worth more than any amount of general advice, because it is specific to your actual business.

Improve it when it fails. A system that produces a poor result once has told you exactly where it is weak, and fixing that spot takes minutes. Systems get good by being corrected, not by being designed carefully.

There is more than one way to grow

More customers is the obvious direction and frequently the hardest. It is worth knowing that the alternatives exist, because they are often cheaper and faster.

Charging more for the same work is the most immediate. It requires no additional customers, no additional hours, and no additional cost. For most emails people open businesses, a modest price increase produces more profit than a substantial increase in volume would.

Selling something additional to existing customers is the next cheapest. They already trust you and they already answer your calls, which is most of the difficulty in any sale. Working out what else they need is usually a matter of asking.

Increasing how often each customer returns is the third. A customer who buys twice as often is worth exactly as much as a second customer, and they cost nothing to acquire.

Common questions worth settling early

A few questions come up repeatedly in an emails people open business, and settling them early saves a great deal of second-guessing later. None of them have complicated answers, and most owners work them out the slow way.

The first is whether to specialize or stay broad. Broad feels safer because it excludes nobody, and it usually means competing with everybody. Specializing narrows the market and makes you the obvious choice within it, which is generally the better trade.

The second is when to invest in something better. The answer is almost always later than the urge arrives. If the current version is limiting the work you can take, upgrade it. If it simply looks tired, wait until profit pays for the replacement.

The third is how much to plan. Enough to know your costs and your price, and not so much that planning becomes a way of avoiding the work. The plan improves once real customers start telling you what they actually want.

And the last is whether it gets easier. It does, though not in the way people expect. The work does not get lighter. You simply get better at it, and the things that felt impossible in month one become ordinary by month twelve.

The questions that come up most

How do I get more email opens?

Better subject lines and being worth reading — those two things are most of it.

How long should an email be?

As short as it can be while still being useful. Nobody complains about a short email.

How often should I sell?

Be useful most of the time — sell sometimes. Get that ratio wrong and your open rate dies.

What quietly eats open rates?

Being boring, and only emailing when you want something.

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