How to Write a Marketing Email With SUCCESS
Posted: Sun Jan 19, 2025 8:07 am
We’ve talked about B2C email marketing best practices, tips, and strategy, but what if you don’t even know how to write a marketing email? In this article, we’ll take a step back to cover the basics of good B2C email marketing messages with our version of Chip and Dan Heath’s SUCCESs framework.
The SUCCESS Framework
The Heath Brothers explained the SUCCESs framework for effective communication in Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die. The last ‘S’ is in lower case because their framework only included six factors.
But there’s a seventh factor that’s critical to communication in email marketing, and, conveniently enough, it begins with S. The first six are:
Simple
Unexpected
Concrete
Credible
Emotional
Stories
We add the essential feature of good email marketing to our framework: every email should be as short as possible.
How to Write a Marketing Email With the Success Framework
You don’t have to meet all of these criteria for every email, but the more boxes you can check, the better. Here’s how to apply them when you’re writing a marketing email.
The Importance of Vivid Information
Before we get into the details of the framework, there’s one critical concept that runs throughout it. That concept is vividness.
Research shows that people are more likely to notice and recall vivid information. That makes them more likely to use the information when making judgments and drawing inferences related to the message.
Vivid information is:
Emotionally relevant and engaging. Stories are more emotionally interesting when they happen to people we know or have strong feelings for. Focusing on the “needs, desires, motives, and values” of the people in the story also increases emotional interest.
Concrete and imagery producing. The more specific details you include about the bangladesh whatsapp data people and the situation, the greater the reader will empathize with the people in the story. That leads to a more significant emotional impact.
Immediate. The more immediate the information is to the person receiving it, the more involved the reader will feel. For example, information about a labor shortage in the reader’s country and industry will be more powerful than information about a labor shortage in another industry or country. And a case study about someone in the same role will be more vivid than one about someone in a different position.
Vivid information is so powerful that experts caution journalists to be careful about how they use it. It exerts a strong influence on people’s judgment. Suppose, a journalist chooses to focus on vivid information at the expense of other types of information that may be more relevant to the decision-making process. In that case, their articles may lead readers in the wrong direction.
Vividness is critical for effective email marketing, so as you incorporate the characteristics suggested by the SUCCESS framework, remember to prioritize vividness whenever possible.
Simple
You probably already know that an effective email should generally stick to one call-to-action. Similarly, it should focus on delivering a single message. As the Heath Brothers put it, “when you say three things, you say nothing.”
For each email, determine the most essential point you need to deliver and the action you want readers to take. Write the first draft, and then check to see whether you’ve included anything extraneous.
Of course, this won’t apply to all emails (e.g., newsletters that share links to industry news). But when possible, keep it simple. Prune your emails until nothing but the essential remains.
Unexpected
After making it through the spam filter, the first step to email engagement is getting recipients to open your email. The Heath Brothers write that breaking a pattern is the easiest way to capture your audience’s attention. That means you need an eye-catching subject line. Unexpected subject lines will be counterintuitive or surprising.
Then, keep their attention by creating curiosity gaps. Arouse readers’ curiosity by drawing their attention to something they don’t know. Then, don’t give them the rest of the information right away. Lead up to the information that fills in the gap and drive home your message along the way.
Concrete
Concrete language and imagery are more accessible than abstractions. So Made to Stick recommends using “terms of human actions [and] sensory information.” For example, compared to “hang on to what you have instead of taking a risk to get something better,” the adage “a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush” is easier for readers to grasp.
Made to Stick cites a study called “Can the Availability Heuristic Explain Vividness Effects?” later in the book to demonstrate the importance of providing vivid information to enhance perceived credibility. But the study also found that vivid arguments are better at capturing attention.
Credible
Unsurprisingly, your emails will be more effective if people believe them. Social proof, data to back up your claims, and appeals to authority are helpful. The Heath Brothers also cite research showing that including vivid details increases the perceived credibility of a message.
The study mentioned earlier on the effect of vividness found that vivid information increases the perceived credibility of a message. Small details, like a short description of a boy’s Darth Vader toothbrush, increased the impact attorney arguments made on a journey.
The SUCCESS Framework
The Heath Brothers explained the SUCCESs framework for effective communication in Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die. The last ‘S’ is in lower case because their framework only included six factors.
But there’s a seventh factor that’s critical to communication in email marketing, and, conveniently enough, it begins with S. The first six are:
Simple
Unexpected
Concrete
Credible
Emotional
Stories
We add the essential feature of good email marketing to our framework: every email should be as short as possible.
How to Write a Marketing Email With the Success Framework
You don’t have to meet all of these criteria for every email, but the more boxes you can check, the better. Here’s how to apply them when you’re writing a marketing email.
The Importance of Vivid Information
Before we get into the details of the framework, there’s one critical concept that runs throughout it. That concept is vividness.
Research shows that people are more likely to notice and recall vivid information. That makes them more likely to use the information when making judgments and drawing inferences related to the message.
Vivid information is:
Emotionally relevant and engaging. Stories are more emotionally interesting when they happen to people we know or have strong feelings for. Focusing on the “needs, desires, motives, and values” of the people in the story also increases emotional interest.
Concrete and imagery producing. The more specific details you include about the bangladesh whatsapp data people and the situation, the greater the reader will empathize with the people in the story. That leads to a more significant emotional impact.
Immediate. The more immediate the information is to the person receiving it, the more involved the reader will feel. For example, information about a labor shortage in the reader’s country and industry will be more powerful than information about a labor shortage in another industry or country. And a case study about someone in the same role will be more vivid than one about someone in a different position.
Vivid information is so powerful that experts caution journalists to be careful about how they use it. It exerts a strong influence on people’s judgment. Suppose, a journalist chooses to focus on vivid information at the expense of other types of information that may be more relevant to the decision-making process. In that case, their articles may lead readers in the wrong direction.
Vividness is critical for effective email marketing, so as you incorporate the characteristics suggested by the SUCCESS framework, remember to prioritize vividness whenever possible.
Simple
You probably already know that an effective email should generally stick to one call-to-action. Similarly, it should focus on delivering a single message. As the Heath Brothers put it, “when you say three things, you say nothing.”
For each email, determine the most essential point you need to deliver and the action you want readers to take. Write the first draft, and then check to see whether you’ve included anything extraneous.
Of course, this won’t apply to all emails (e.g., newsletters that share links to industry news). But when possible, keep it simple. Prune your emails until nothing but the essential remains.
Unexpected
After making it through the spam filter, the first step to email engagement is getting recipients to open your email. The Heath Brothers write that breaking a pattern is the easiest way to capture your audience’s attention. That means you need an eye-catching subject line. Unexpected subject lines will be counterintuitive or surprising.
Then, keep their attention by creating curiosity gaps. Arouse readers’ curiosity by drawing their attention to something they don’t know. Then, don’t give them the rest of the information right away. Lead up to the information that fills in the gap and drive home your message along the way.
Concrete
Concrete language and imagery are more accessible than abstractions. So Made to Stick recommends using “terms of human actions [and] sensory information.” For example, compared to “hang on to what you have instead of taking a risk to get something better,” the adage “a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush” is easier for readers to grasp.
Made to Stick cites a study called “Can the Availability Heuristic Explain Vividness Effects?” later in the book to demonstrate the importance of providing vivid information to enhance perceived credibility. But the study also found that vivid arguments are better at capturing attention.
Credible
Unsurprisingly, your emails will be more effective if people believe them. Social proof, data to back up your claims, and appeals to authority are helpful. The Heath Brothers also cite research showing that including vivid details increases the perceived credibility of a message.
The study mentioned earlier on the effect of vividness found that vivid information increases the perceived credibility of a message. Small details, like a short description of a boy’s Darth Vader toothbrush, increased the impact attorney arguments made on a journey.