Do you remember when you were in school and learned how to craft the perfect essay?

You started at the beginning with a thesis statement, lined up your arguments in support of your points, did your research, and came to a conclusion. In retrospect, it seems easy, but the process was one that took time to master.

The same could be said of email communications: We all assume because we get lots of emails and most of them are short and sweet, we all know how to write an email that hits the message out of the ballpark. But that’s not so.

There’s an art and science to mastering email, which takes time and practice to perfect. Don’t work on your email crafting and you’ll bomb: You’ll lose subscribers and your message will get lost and muddied. But figure out the sweet spot with email communications and you can do much more than get clicks. You can boost call to actions, increase sales, and generate enthusiasm around your brand.

The Elements of an Email

Every email campaign is made up of separate and distinct elements. Of course all those pieces—the list, the subject line, the optimal ability on multiple devices—work together, but they also have an individual impact on how many people respond to the email.

Probably the biggest catalyst for action is the email’s subject line; in fact, about one-third of all people will dive into your email just based on the subject line. And you can dive down deeper into the impact of that subject line: The first six words are where you most likely hook people in or lose them entirely.

Of course, if you trigger a junk mail filter, all your email hard work will be for naught. That’s also true if you don’t test your emails on multiple devices to make sure they’re readable and accessible. And experts have studied email response rates, so they know what words work better and which do not.

Why Personalization Matters

One thing that everyone agrees works is personalization: The more you use the information you know about your email subscribers to your advantage in communications, the more they’ll open and interact with your emails. You should also record and analyze the data about past emails, using test groupings to figure out what times lead to better open rates, click-throughs, and conversions.

This complements personalization, but segmentation also impacts how much people are likely to stay active and engaged with your emails. Build on your initial data, which may likely just be an email address, to collect age, work, or any other relevant characteristics to your business and your brand. That will help you craft emails that are explicitly clear about how you’re hoping to benefit them; without that “what’s in it for me” information, you’ll get unsubscribes.

As you work through crafting the rest of your emails to make them highly relevant and engaging, use the tips in this graphic. They’ll help you take those necessary communications from blah to outstanding in no time.

More Email Design Resources 

• Responsive Email Design Guide: How-To, Examples, Tips & More
• How to Create Influencer Outreach Emails that Work
• 7 Email Marketing Best Practices for Better ROI!
• The ABC of Email Management: 15 Email Tools and Tricks That Will Help You Improve Your Productivity
• Email Best Practices from Campaign Monitor