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Top Copy Resources for Beginners and Beyond, Part 2: How to Write Email Sequences, Subject Lines & Opt-In Copy + Copy Inspiration, Copy What Not to Dos, and the Ever-Important CTA

Author

Kimberly Houston
January 31, 2025

In Part 1 of this post, I covered the fundamentals – things to nail down before writing a single line of copy – along with other resources to help you write attention-grabbing headlines, an uber-effective website, and landing page copy that converts.

Today in Part 2, I’m sharing the best copy guidance I’ve found for understanding email marketing overall, writing email copy & email subject lines, plus copy inspiration resources, copy things NOT to do (so important), and finally, how to write those ever-important CTAs.

Some of these resources come from my own blog on these topics, but most of them are OPR, i.e., other people’s resources, specifically, those that break down copywriting in a way that everyone can easily access, understand – and apply.

*A note about the links in this post: All the links in this article are operational as of the publishing date of this post, but you know how it goes … sometimes links break or become outdated, so if you’re reading this sometime in the distant future, I can’t guarantee they’ll work. 😊

Email Marketing

The Complete Guide to Email Copywriting

In Part 1 of this post, I shared Jacob McMillen’s Complete Guide to Website Copywriting, which I think is one of the best completely freeeee resources out there for learning how to write web copy that converts – especially if you’re just getting started and going the DIY route.

Today I bring you Jacob’s The Complete Guide to Email Copywriting (2024 Edition).

As it says on the tin (AKA, the signup page), this guide will “teach you everything you need to know to consistently write high-converting email copy.”

You’ll learn how to:

· Grab attention with great headlines

· Increase open and click-through rates

· Create wildly effective sequences

· And gain a stronger understanding of email marketing

Check it out here:

Email Welcome & Promo Sequences

If you’re conducting any kind of business online, you likely already know the importance of having an email list and marketing to that list, however you define “marketing.”

One person whose emails I’ve been reading, enjoying and learning from for 6+ years is Tarzan Kay. There are some great free email resources to be found at Kay’s website, here.

Scroll about halfway down that page, where you’ll be presented with the opportunity to grab some value-packed freebies, such as:

WRITING YOUR FIRST PROMO SEQUENCE?

[You have to opt-in, AKA, share your email address to access this resource]

Not Sure what goes in a WELCOME SEQUENCE?

[You have to opt-in, AKA, share your email address to access this resource]

Check out these stellar free resources (and get on Tarzan’s email list) if you want to learn from a leading email expert whose emails are highly engaging, entertaining and full of instructive takeaways.

More on Welcome Emails (because that’s how important they are)

If you have an email list or newsletter, then you already know the critical importance of sending a welcome email the second someone signs up to your list.

But what should you say in that all-important first ever contact with your new subscriber?

Here are some templates and ideas to get you started.

And if you’re really feeling ambitious want to supercharge your email marketing, a welcome email sequence of 4-6 emails is an incredibly effective asset to create.

Here’s how to do that (including what to put in each email of your welcome series), also from Active Campaign:

Email Copy Tutorials So Good You Can’t Believe They’re Free

I’ve paid darn good money to take Copyhackers’ excellent copywriting courses over the years, which I consider the gold standard of copywriting training.

Much of their free content is just as valuable, especially if you’re a business owner who wants to improve your copy skills rather than a copywriter for hire, like moi.

And as we can all probably agree, one of the best skills you can learn as a business owner, solo operator, or other person who wants to promote something, is the skill of writing compelling email copy.

These video tutorials by Copyhackers will show you how. There are accompanying transcripts as well, if you’d rather read than watch videos.

Email tutorials include:

· How to write a lead-nurturing email

· How to write a welcome email

· How to write a cold email

· How to write anticipation-building emails

· How to write the last email in your sales email sequence

· How to improve your email open rates

And more …

Really Good Emails: A Database of Great Email Examples from Top Brands

When I was writing copy for the apparel brand, Champion, I mostly wrote PDP pages (aka, product detail pages), but I was sometimes tasked with writing emails for the brand as well.

Of course, writing ecommerce emails is different than writing other kinds of emails because they’re typically pretty image heavy.

That said, you might be shocked – shocked, I tell you! – to find out how much time, effort and attention goes into coming up with the perfect messaging for every single ecomm email, as scant as the copy may be.

One resource I often turned to for inspiration?

Really Good Emails, or RGE for short.

RGE is like a database of great email examples from top brands divided into categories including Abandoned Cart, Customer Service, Customer Appreciation, Engagement, Follow-Up, Post Purchase, Onboarding, Welcome Emails, Product Launch, Promotion, and lots more.

Even if you don’t need to know how to write ecommerce emails, there’s a lot you can learn about successful email campaigns from RGE:

2 Quick Tips for Better Email Opt-in Rates

If you want to optimize your website or landing page for better email opt-in rates, there are many things you can do …

… so very many.

But one of the simplest & quickest is to improve the copy on the opt-in form itself, using language that:

👉 Conveys the benefit to signing up for your list

👉 Demonstrates personality

I wrote something on LinkedIn about how to do this. In that post, I shared four examples of opt-in copy that incorporates a clear benefit to signing up, while using non-generic, personality-centric language.

Check it out here:

How to Get More Clients, More Consistently, Using Email

In the blog post linked here, I share the story of a client who hired me to write an email sequence, with the goal of getting more sessions booked, more consistently, for her photography business.

Spoiler alert: It worked!

But first we had to figure out what specific hesitations potential clients had to booking a photography session (and it wasn’t the normal stuff, like price), so these hesitations could be addressed persuasively in the email course.

Luckily, my client had collected lots of voice of customer data (something we should all do at every opportunity!), which we used to determine the beliefs that needed to be dispelled so that potential clients would be eager to move forward.

Read all about it here:

Master Email Marketing in 7 Days: Free Course

Here you go … a F*R*E*E course to help you master email marketing in 7 days (according to what it says on the tin).

I went through this 7-day course myself a while back, and I recommend it.

I’ve done a lot with email for clients over the years, but I wouldn’t consider myself a “master,” and I certainly learned a few new things from this no-cost course.

The course shares “Tried and tested real world strategies. No filler. It’s two decades of experience boiled into 7 practical lessons.”

Lessons include growing an email list, segmentation, anatomy of a successful email, improving open and click-through rates, and more.

And you can’t beat the price!

[You’ll also find a gold mine of other fantastic email resources once you click through – teardowns of emails from well-known brands like Casper, Warby Parker, Slack, Headspace, Nike, Spotify and others, along with articles, free handbooks, and lots of other email goodness. Enjoy!]

Email Subject Lines

The #1 Free Subject Line Rating Tool

Here’s a great tool that lets you test email subject lines. (FYI, there are many subject line testing tools out there, but I haven’t seen one as easy to use as this one.)

Because we all know how important subject lines are to getting our emails opened.

And we also know how important getting our emails opened is to most anything we’re trying to accomplish online, whether it’s sharing a free resource with subscribers, selling a product or service, asking folks to read our free content, or just about anything else.

I used this tool to test the subject line, The Taylor Swift Guide to writing emails that sell, and it scored a 92 out of 100. Who knows how accurate it is, but I’ll take it. 😊

Check it out here:

300+ Best Email Subject Lines' Collection to Increase Your Email Open Rates

Here we have another useful copy resource all about email subject lines.

If you have an email list or newsletter, you know how important subject lines are. Because if your subject line doesn’t grab your subscriber’s attention, the email won’t get opened, and it won’t matter how brilliant or life-altering the email body copy is.

👉 And that means, getting good at writing email subject lines is one of the best copy skills to master.

This article from email service provider SendX can help you do just that. Check out all the high-converting email subject lines here, and use them as inspiration to start brainstorming your own masterpieces:

It’s broken down by category, so whether you want to use a funny subject line, a question subject line, a curiosity-driven subject line, a social proof subject line or something else, you’re covered.

And you’ll see SLs from well-known brands here (many who, by the way, test their SLs, so if they’re using it, you know it works – at least for their audience).

Copy Resources: Core

Copywriting Examples by Harry Dry

I debated sharing this resource, because it occurred to me that it might be more useful for other copywriters, rather than for the lay person writing their own copy.

But then I thought … no, this a great resource for exactly the person writing their own copy.

Created by Harry Dry, the Marketing Examples site is a collection of marketing examples and short, sweet, & simple copywriting tips.

The website is full of actual copy from businesses many will recognize, with side-by-side comparisons & before-and-after copy improvements. [👈This is the gold, right here.]

The images and illustrations take these examples to a whole ‘nother level.

I bet I could show this to a 9-year-old, and they’d come away understanding at least something about writing words that help sell. 😊

Check out the wizardry here:

Every Copywriting Formula Ever

Need to write web copy? Or a sales page, landing page, About page, email, blog post, or testimonial? How about a value proposition, a bullet list of benefits, or a persuasive call-to-action that gets people to click?

This comprehensive blog post from the esteemed Copyhackers blog is 100% solid gold and well worth reading, because it contains ….

Now, for the non-copywriters, you may take one look at this blog post and think, “Oh no, I’m not reading all that.” And I get it.

But go ahead and squirrel this link away for the next time you need to write persuasive copy for the thing you’re eager to promote, sell or get traction on. I think you’ll be glad you did.

Learn Copywriting Basics in This Fun, Free Copywriting Course

This copy resource comes to us from copywriter, author, and business owner Neville Medhora.

When folks aren’t ready to hire a copywriter just yet (and I don’t recommend doing so when you’re first getting started selling your thing online), BUT they still want to write copy that gets results, I often recommend this F*R*E*E copywriting 101 course.

It’s just 40-ish minutes long, and comes with a downloadable AIDA (Attention-Interest-Desire-Action) copy formula template and a handy copywriting checklist.

Great for beginners and DIY-ers who want to optimize their copy before their next promotion!

Check it out here:

Copy Inspiration and Examples

In case you’re not familiar with the term “swipe file,” a swipe file is a collection of marketing and copywriting examples to use for inspiration, research, & brainstorming, etc. – not to copy, though, to be clear – when writing your own copy.

There are lots of swipe file resources out there, but one I’ve found to be useful in the past is called Swiped.co.

It’s great, because you can use filters to search by industry, for example, automotive, gardening, health & wellness, and lots more, then by copy type, like ads, emails, limited time offers, direct mail, CTAs (call-to-action), and so on. 

So, for example, if you want to find health & wellness ad copy, or emails in the gardening space, or maybe direct mail in the auto industry, bingo!

Not only that, if you click on each individual copy resource, you’ll get a breakdown and explanation of why it works.

This is so incredibly helpful.

Check it out here:

Where marketers & copywriters go to get inspired & learn the secret psychology of top marketing promotions.

Here’s another good swipe file resource. This one is called Swipefile.com, created by copywriter Neville Medhora, whose name you might recognize as creator of the free Copywriting 101 course above.

Though I rarely use swipe files these days, if I do get stuck, it’s comforting to know I have them to refer to when needed.

Check out Swipefile.com here.

Copy Advice: What Not To DO

Retire These Phrases ASAP

Every industry has its overused phrases. Clichés repeated so often they’ve become nearly meaningless, conveying nothing.

I recently read a delightful article about such phrases, and found it to be good advice for those of us DIY-ing our own copy or content, or doing any kind of writing, really.

It’s especially useful copywriting guidance.

I give you Jason Cohen, four-time entrepreneur, bootstrapped and VC-funded, resulting in two exits and two unicorns, on …

“Authentic” is dead. And so is “dead.”

It’s lazy writing. It’s boring and undifferentiated. Say something meaningful, specific, evocative, so your website wins, and you can be proud of it.

Bad Copywriting Examples

Here we have another resource about how not to do something.

As a person who learns best from real! live! examples!, I loved these before-and-afters of copy that went from lackluster to compelling with a few simple tweaks.

From weak calls-to-action to no proof of claims, and lack of clarity to murky USPs, see real-life examples of bad copywriting – and how they were transformed into something much better – here:

CTAs

Call-to-Action vs. Call-to-Value: How to Create Buttons That Convert

A CTA, or call-to-action, is a little piece of copy that has a lot of heavy lifting to do – that is, get readers to take some kind of action.

You use CTAs everywhere you operate online – your website, your newsletter, your social media content, your blog articles, and more.

Basic CTAs say things like:

“Learn more,” “Click for details,” or “Buy now,” etc.

But did you know there’s a similar tiny little piece of copy called a “call-to-value,” that’s just as important?

Discover the distinction between CTAs and CTVs in this short post, why it matters, and how to create CTVs that convert:

Discover the power of Call-to-Value buttons and transform curious visitors into customers

A Tiny Piece of Copy with Outsize Importance

Wiser people than me have said that, after your headline, your call to action (CTA) is the most important element on your website.

CTAs, though often very short, are nevertheless, very important, so it pays to pay attention to this small piece of copy with a big job to do.

Get the low-down on how to write effective CTAs, with loads of helpful examples, from the fine folks at ConvertKit here:

If you want to go a little nerdier, you might like what the Semrush blog has to say about the topic here:

And that wraps up this two-part series on Top Copy Resources for Beginners and Beyond. I genuinely hope you got something useful out of it! 💖

Now, go out there and practice your copy wizard skills! 🧙‍