If you’re a copywriter, or thinking about starting copywriting.
Then chances are pretty high that you’ve heard 1, 5, 10, or maybe even dozens of copywriting gurus tell you that email marketing is the single best, easiest, and fastest way to get rich as a copywriter.
But is it true? You’re about to find out…
Hey Posse, what’s up? It’s Alex.
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Now in this blog, we’re going to break down this idea that becoming an email copywriter is the BEST, EASIEST, & FASTEST way to get rich as a copywriter…
Is it true? Or hype?
How much can you realistically expect to make as an email copywriter?
And the most important part of the whole video…
What you NEED TO DO – absolutely need to do – if you want to be an email copywriter who can charge a lot of money for your services.
This is something that not enough people are talking about, and unfortunately, it sets a lot of copywriters up for failure.
So make sure you stick around for that.
Now the first question on everyone’s mind…
What Is The Highest Paying Copywriting Job?
Well, my answer is probably going to disappoint you…
IT DEPENDS.
Yup, sorry. There is no one-single-best or highest-paying job out there as a copywriter.
I know copywriters who literally charge over $200k to write ONE sales letter.
I also know copywriters who charge their clients tens of thousands of dollars a month for just consulting – they aren’t actually writing a single word.
And yes… I know plenty of copywriters who are earning $350-$500k a year writing a handful of emails a month.
Anything can turn into a very high-paying, lucrative copywriting gig.
If – and this is important – if you have the skills.
The more skilled you are, and the more ROI you can generate for your clients, the more you can charge.
This is true no matter what “type” of copywriting you’re getting into.
Now with that said…
I will say email copywriting is probably the easiest way to break into this high-earning potential.
Charging upwards of $200k for a single sales letter – or hundreds of thousands a month for consulting – is something that only A FEW elite copywriters ever get to.
I’m not saying that it is impossible.
But it’s harder and more time-consuming to reach that caliber.
Writing emails, on the other hand…
Is something you can learn and master relatively quickly compared to other services…
And because email marketing is such a valuable asset to businesses – it is one of the more profitable services you could offer.
But just like any other service, there is an income scale.
For example…
Say you’re a copywriter who specializes in writing emails for clients. Let’s say you’ve been doing this for a few years and you’ve gotten really good at writing emails that have pretty good open rates and pretty good CTRs.
At this point, you could definitely start charging more for your email copy…
But let’s just be totally honest, you’re going to have a hard time finding a client willing to pay you $10k a month to write them a handful of emails.
It’s much more probable that they will pay you a lower monthly rate and then MAYBE if you’re really good, they will agree to pay you royalty fees.
But let’s look at a different scenario…
You’re an email copywriter, who writes pretty great emails, just like in the first scenario…
But ON TOP of writing amazing emails, you take your services a step further….
You offer to load and send these emails FOR your client…
You become a specialist at checking for deliverability, tweaking, and optimizing…
And you offer to maintain the health of the list…
WHOA.
Suddenly you just went from someone who writes pretty good emails, to someone who is TAKING CHARGE of a business’s most profitable asset.
Depending on the caliber of your client and how much experience you have at doing this, you can easily get to the point where you’re bringing in $10k a month as a BASE RETAINER…
Plus still getting those royalty fees we talked about earlier.
And here’s where it gets really good…
When you are in charge of every aspect of your client’s email list – YOU are the one who is testing and optimizing the emails you write.
This means you are getting direct feedback on what’s working and what’s not…
Which means you are CONSTANTLY getting better at what you do.
And making your client more sales…
Which means the money YOU bring in will get higher too.
This is exactly how I was able to work with ONE client for 7 years – and consistently bringing in $20k a month.
Because I wasn’t *just* a copywriter.
I was an email marketer who happened to be great at writing copy.
THAT is the distinction.
So…
How do you take your copywriting skills to the next level and become a full-fledged email marketer for your clients?
Well as you probably guessed, it takes more than just being able to write good emails.
6 Ways To Improve Your Email Marketing
Here are 6 things you need to understand if you want to be an email marketer.
#1 – Tracking Metrics
The first thing you probably want to start paying attention if you write emails is your metrics.
Your metrics act as direct feedback on how well your emails are performing.
There are a ton of things you could track and monitor, but in general, I’d recommend tracking:
- Open rate
- Click through rate
- Bounce rate
- Unsubscribe rate
- And overall ROI
Tracking these metrics is one thing…
But knowing what to DO with that data is quite another.
So how do you increase your open rate, CTR, and overall ROI?
Improving your copywriting skills – and constantly making tweaks to write better subject lines and CTAs is one way… of course.
But another thing that can surprisingly boost your metrics is…
#2 – Optimizing For Deliverability
This is a HUGE part of being a good email marketer. I can almost guarantee that you won’t be charging the big bucks until you understand deliverability.
Why?
Well, think about it…
If you’re writing GREAT emails for a client…
But they have “poor deliverability” and are being flagged as spam or promotion…
Then no one is going to be reading those emails.
And if no one is reading the emails you send…
Then your client isn’t going to be seeing good open rates or click-through rates.
And it’s not because your subject line isn’t catchy enough…
It’s because no one is seeing it!
So this is where a more advanced skillset comes into play.
And why it’s so important to use deliverability and metrics tools.
- GlockApps
- SendForensics
- Snovio
- Sendgrid
- And the list goes on and on…
There is no shortage of tools to help you track your deliverability and metrics.
Not to mention an even bigger number of things that could be harming your deliverability:
- The domain you’re using
- From names
- Subject lines
- Email copy
- Links
- Pictures
- CTA
- Spam words and more importantly – the % of spam words in relation to the rest of your email.
- And even just a history of landing in spam makes you more likely to land in spam again!
So deliverability is this big beast that every email marketer is trying to master.
The key is to just START tracking them…
And you continue to test and tweak until you see better deliverability.
Admittedly this can take some time and lots of trial and error before you start to see any changes…
But this is why email marketers can charge more than someone who JUST writes emails…
See the difference?
Alright, so those are two of the biggest things.
But there are more things you’ll need to know as an email marketer…
#3 – List Segmentation
Aka – splitting your list into smaller groups – or “segments”.
Many businesses will have multiple segments.
But if not, this is something you can do for your clients and it will make their email marketing efforts way more effective.
List segmentation works because instead of sending the same email to every single person on the email list…
Who likely joined the email list for different reasons and have different goals and interests…
Then you’ll never be able to please them all – right?
But if you separate the list into segments, then you can start to send very specific emails that are most relevant to what each segment is most interested in.
This increases your open rates AND conversions.
#4 – Maintaining List Health
This is something that A LOT of people – email marketers and business owners alike – tend to overlook.
But it can do wonders for improving your metrics.
The health of your list really comes down to how many people on your email list are “active” versus “inactive”.
An inactive subscriber is someone who hasn’t been opening your emails. For whatever reason…
Maybe your emails are going to spam, maybe they just aren’t interested anymore so they’re deleting them, or maybe they’ve blocked you, or worse – flagged you as spam.
Believe it or not, allowing these “inactive” subscribers to just pile up on your list does A LOT more harm than you’d think.
According to Victor Amin, a data scientist at SendGrid:
“Well-maintained lists consistently have higher engagement rates than older, neglected lists. Make sure you’re removing addresses that haven’t been engaged in a long time and segment your list by engagement.”
As your list of inactive subscribers gets higher, your open rates will get lower…
And as your open rates get lower and lower – it makes you look like spam to the algorithm Gods.
Which, yup, hurts your metrics even more.
Periodically “scrubbing” your list and removing inactive subscribers every 90 days or so is a great habit to get into that can really improve your metrics.
#5 – Copywriting Basics
Okay, so there is a lot to be said about numbers 1-4 on this list, but let’s be honest…
The best tracking, and metrics, and deliverability ALONE won’t get your client results.
Nope.
You also need to be able to write great emails! I mean, obviously, right?!
Before you even start worrying about all of the other stuff on this list, first you really need to master the art of writing engaging and persuasive emails.
Really great emails have the same things in common:
- They are written conversationally.
- With storytelling, anecdotes, and relevant sidebars that your reader can relate to.
- They have personality AND they are personalized to the reader.
- They deliver REAL value.
- So it’s not just stories and ramblings… there is a point, a lesson, or other value derived from it.
- They have a great subject line that captures attention.
- They have a good hook in the intro of the email to keep people reading.
- They have a call-to-action that makes it crystal clear what the reader. should do.
- They’re formatted for readability.
- And perhaps the most important part…
- They build a memorable brand experience for the subscribers.
Great email copy will ALWAYS be at the core of how well your email marketing performs.
So while it is extremely important to know and consider everything relating to metrics and deliverability…
Never estimate how important the copy is!
If you want my email marketing tips – including real-life examples of emails in action, the 7 emails you must be sending your list, how to build & monetize an email list, so much more…
Then download my FREE Email Marketing Cheatsheet.
You can find the link for it in the description box below.
Okay, you’re not done yet…
The last and arguably most important part of email marketing is:
#6 – Test, Tweak, Repeat
This is what is going to set you apart as a great email copywriter who can charge clients THE BIG BUCKS.
Good email marketers are always testing, tweaking, and trying to improve the performance of their emails.
A/B testing subject lines to find what resonates most with your audience…
Tweaking the messaging of previous campaigns to see if you can beat its performance…
Testing different ways of delivery – does your audience like more storytelling or a more direct approach?
Do GIFs help your CTR or harm it?
A good copywriter and email marketer should never stop learning, honing, and improving their skills.
If you want to learn even more about email deliverability – and my top tips on writing emails that will double your conversions…
Then check out more tutorials here on my blog!
Until next time, I’m Alex. Ciao for now!
