How to Become an Email Copywriter (+ Tips to 10x Your Income)

by Ivy Shelden

on Sep 17, 2024

In your daydreams, your career is perfect.

You’re lying on a beach, clacking away at your laptop. You bang out a couple emails and then BAM – $1,000 hits your account.

Your client is happy, and all you have left to do is sit back, sip on fruity drinks and watch the sunset.

But the reality is, starting a career as an email copywriter isn’t easy.

It takes a lot of training and tons of practice.

The good news? It’s totally doable.

In this post, I’ll cover how to develop your email copywriting skills, where to find your first few clients, how to build a portfolio, and how to start making real money.

Yes – the beaches and sunsets and fruity drinks kind of money.

But only if you’re ready to put in the effort.

If you are, let’s get started!

What Is an Email Copywriter?

An email copywriter writes email copy for businesses with the goal of getting readers to take action.

These actions, called “conversions”, can be anything from simply opening the email to reading a blog post, listening to a podcast or purchasing a product.

Think about the last time you browsed your inbox and saw a subject line that made you instantly click.

Maybe you saw “90% off” and thought: I don’t care what it is, that’s a heck of a deal!

Or maybe it was an email from your favorite influencer and the subject line said “The massive mistake that almost cost me my business…” And it immediately piqued your curiosity.

That’s email marketing at work.

But subject lines are just the tip of the iceberg. Let’s dig a little deeper into what email copywriters do.

What Types of Emails Do Copywriters Write?

Email copywriters don’t just write one email and call it a day.

They write entire email campaigns that are sent to readers over a period of days, weeks, or even months.

Each campaign has a target audience and a unique strategy behind it.

The most common types of email campaigns include:

Welcome emails: These campaigns are designed to introduce new subscribers to a brand. It’s the business or influencer saying “Hi, this is who I am, and this is the value I’m about to give you.” Welcome emails plant the first seeds of trust in the reader.

Content teaser emails: These emails let subscribers know about new content, such as blog posts, YouTube videos or podcast episodes. Consistently delivering free, valuable content to an audience continues to build trust and primes the reader to buy when the time comes.

Promotional emails: Once trust is established, promotional emails let subscribers know about new products or services. These emails drive the reader toward a sale, and create urgency with “limited time offers” or “special deals”.

Newsletters: These emails inform subscribers about company news, industry trends, and valuable content. They’re important for keeping subscribers connected to the brand.

Abandoned cart emails: These emails remind customers about items left in their online shopping carts, giving them one last nudge to buy.

Transactional emails: Once a customer makes a purchase, these emails Provide order confirmations, shipping updates, or account notifications.

Nurture emails: These emails guide potential customers through the sales funnel with targeted content (so they can include welcome campaigns or content teasers).

Re-engagement Emails: These emails are meant to reactivate dormant subscribers or customers. They might say something like “We miss you! Here’s 20% off…”.

This list isn’t exhaustive, but it covers the basics. So as an email copywriter, you’ll need to have a solid grasp of how to write each of these campaigns.

What Types of Businesses Hire Email Copywriters?

Here’s a bit of good news: Any business that sells a product or service can use email copywriting services. Including:

E-commerce companies
SaaS (Software as a Service) businesses
Digital marketing agencies
Non-profit organizations
B2B (Business-to-Business) companies
Media and publishing outlets
Educational institutions
Retail brands
Financial services providers

So as you can see, there is no shortage of potential clients in this industry!

How Much Do Email Copywriters Make?

And now we get to the good part – the money! How much do email copywriters actually make?

Experienced email copywriters can earn $100,000+ per year, or $50-$100+ hourly.

Newbies may start off as low at $30k per year or around $15-20 per hour.

How much you get paid as an email copywriter depends on your level of experience, expertise and the types of businesses you work for.

And if you’re a newbie, don’t be discouraged. Later on in this post, I’ll explain the extra steps you can take to significantly increase your pay within months.

The 5 Steps to Become a Highly-Paid Email Copywriter

How do you break into email copywriting? As I said earlier, it won’t be easy and it’ll take time. But luckily, I’ve created a roadmap to walk you through it step-by-step.

Let’s get right into it.

Step 1: Learn How to Write Emails Readers are Itching to Open

Your success as an email copywriter hinges on 2 goals:

1 – Get the reader to open your emails

2 – Get them to take action

Your copy must drive them to do both. That means it must be persuasive, but because it’s an email, it also has to be succinct.

Sounds tricky, right?

The good news is that marketing emails can easily be broken down into components you can master one at a time:

Subject lines: This is the first part of the email your reader lays eyes on, and it has to evoke curiosity, promise a benefit or create urgency to get the reader to open it.

Preview lines: Ever notice how right after the subject line, you can see a few words of the email’s body text? That’s the preview line. Your preview line works together with the subject line to peak the reader’s curiosity enough to get them to open.

Body content: While your subject and preview lines hook the reader and get them to open, your body text needs to keep them reading. Body copy should be clear, persuasive and succinct, and connect directly with the reader’s fears or desires.

Call-to-Action (CTA): Your CTA is the last push to get your reader to take action. It’ll usually involve your final lines of copy along with design-effective buttons or links that prompt the desired action.

So, how do you learn all this? For one, you can study effective campaigns.

Subscribe to popular newsletters or search your inbox for the last marketing email that made you click and buy something.

Identify the components I mentioned above, and try and dissect what makes them so compelling.

Another way to learn the craft of email copywriting is to take an in-depth training course. There are plenty of great ones out there, including our own Email Marketing Certification Course here at Smart Blogger.

Just make sure the course is taught by an experienced email marketer, and that it covers all the components mentioned above, as well as the ones in this next step!

Step 2: Get Familiar with Email Analytics & Tools

You won’t know how your campaigns are doing unless you know how to utilize tools that help track your results. First, you should learn about these key metrics:

Open rate: The percentage of recipients who open your email
Click-through rate (CTR): The percentage of recipients who click on a link in your email
Conversion rate: The percentage of recipients who complete the desired action (e.g., making a purchase)
Bounce rate: The percentage of emails that weren’t delivered successfully
Unsubscribe rate: The percentage of recipients who opt out of your email list

All of these metrics are a direct measure of your success as an email marketer – so get to know them intimately!

Next, you’ll need to know your way around the tools that track these metrics, like Mailchimp, Constant Contact, ConvertKit, SendGrid, or HubSpot.

Within these tools, you’ll want to learn:

How to create and manage email lists, design templates, and schedule campaigns
How to conduct A/B testing for subject lines, content and CTAs
Techniques for segmenting email lists based on demographics, behavior, or preferences

Most email management tools offer free versions or free trials, so start by signing up for one.

Then look for some high-quality video tutorials. Here are a few to get you started:

Step 3: Find a Few “Test Clients”

You can watch hundreds of video tutorials, but the only real way to learn is to start doing the work.

But it’s hard to get hired when you have zero experience.

This is where “test clients” come in.

If you can find a small business or entrepreneur that needs email marketing but doesn’t have a huge budget, you can offer to help them for free (or low cost).

In return, you’ll ask for a testimonial and referrals if they like your work.

Here are a few ways to find test clients:

Tap into Your Personal Network: Make a spreadsheet with the names of everyone in your personal and professional network. Ask yourself if anyone you know would make a good test client. Shoot them an email letting them know you’d love to help, and will give them a great deal.
Cold Email: If you don’t have anyone in your network, you can try cold emailing a small business or entrepreneur and offering your services. Even better, subscribe to their email list, and then offer specific tweaks to subject lines, body copy, CTAs, etc to show your skills.
Use a Freelancing Platform: Creating a profile on Upwork or Fiverr might be a good way to find more beginner-friendly clients.
Apply for an Entry-Level Job: Marketing companies will sometimes post junior copywriter jobs where some training is included. However, you’ll be better qualified for these roles if you have a small amount of experience under your belt.

Getting a test client allows you to test your skills in a low-stakes environment, track results and collect testimonials that will attract higher-paying clients (or help you get a full-time job at a marketing agency, if that’s what you’re after).

Step 4: Build Your Portfolio & Collect Testimonials

Since you’re out here doing all this hard work, you might as well show it off by building a professional portfolio online.

If you do it right, it’ll act as a magnet for new clients.

As far as options go, you could create your own website, using Squarespace, Wix or WordPress, or you could create a profile on a site like MuckRack, Contently or LinkedIn.

You want your portfolio to include:

Samples of your most successful email campaigns
Impressive metrics for each sample, like open rate, CTR, etc
A short synopsis of your strategy behind each campaign
Glowing testimonials from email marketing clients
Your contact information (They should be able to easily click a button to send you an email or schedule a consultation)

As you continue to do more work for clients, keep updating your portfolio with fresh campaign samples and testimonials.

Here are a few examples of outstanding email copywriter portfolios:

Step 5: Raise Your Freelance Rates or Look for a Full-Time Gig

Alright, so you’ve got some experience under your belt and a growing portfolio. Now what?

It’s time to start looking for higher-paying gigs.

This could mean raising your rates as a freelancer or searching for a full-time role at a marketing agency.

If you’re looking for agency work, you can browse job boards like Remote.Work, Remotive or LinkedIn, or use an online directory like Clutch.co to locate agency websites.

Look for job openings with the titles “Email Marketing Specialist” or “Email Copywriter”.

As for raising your rates as a freelancer? Here are a few tips:

Highlight impressive metrics from your successful campaigns, such as sales numbers, new subscribers and increased open and CTR rates to back up your cost.
With each new freelance client, automatically raise your rates 10-20%.
Have a “minimum” and “ideal” rate in mind when quoting a new client. Start with your ideal rate and be willing to negotiate, but do not go below your minimum rate.
With ongoing clients, raise your rate a little each year, as long as you’ve been meeting goals and helping grow their business.

If you’ve reached this step, congratulations! You’re in business as a professional email copywriter.

Your career can only go up from here – and that’s what we’ll talk about next.

7 Habits of Highly-Paid Email Copywriters ($1,000-$2,000 Per Campaign)

And now the moment you’ve been waiting for: How to make BIG money as an email marketer.

There are definitely writers out there making $1,000+ for a simple campaign.

But to join their ranks, you have to go a step further and adopt winning habits that will place you in the top 1% of talented, highly-paid email copywriters.

Let’s talk about the 7 habits of email copywriters making top dollar.

Habit #1: Developing Niche Expertise

The more you grow your expertise in a niche, the more sought-after your services become.

Think about it: If you owned several therapy clinics, would you rather hire a “generalized” copywriter, or one who has written successful campaigns in the mental health industry for 10+ years?

When you narrow down your niche, your client pool will be smaller, but there will be a lot less competition.

Habit #2: Nerding Out with Predictive Analytics

Predictive analytics in email marketing involves using historical data, statistical algorithms, and machine learning techniques to forecast future outcomes and behaviors.

If that sounds complex, that’s because it is!

But it’s also an advanced skill that will give you a massive advantage over other email marketers.

While it will take time and effort to learn, it can lead to serious money and career advancement opportunities. According to Glassdoor, the salary range for a Marketing Analytics Manager in the US is $127,000 – $211,000 per year.

Habit #3: Diversifying Marketing & Copywriting Skills

While you may specialize in email copywriting, you’ll be more valuable to potential clients if you have a broad range of marketing skills.

Think of yourself as a Swiss-Army Knife of marketers – super useful and versatile.

A few areas to consider learning:

Content marketing: Writing articles to help drive organic traffic to a client’s site
Social media strategy: Creating social media campaigns on platforms like X/Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn to build your client’s audience
SEO optimization: Conducting keyword research and optimizing web content to rank higher in Google’s search results
Marketing automation: Automating tasks and workflows to increase efficiency (most email sequences use automation, so this is highly relevant)

You can certainly learn these skills on your own, but working in an agency environment is the best way to get experience in these areas.

Habit #4: Mastering List Segmentation

Part of being a top-notch email marketer is getting really specific about which content you send out to different sections of your audience.

This is called email list segmentation – the practice of dividing an email subscriber list into smaller, more targeted groups based on specific criteria, including:

Demographics (age, gender, location, etc.)
Behavioral data (past purchases, website interactions, email engagement)
Psychographics (interests, values, lifestyle)
Customer lifecycle stage (new subscriber, loyal customer, at-risk of churning)
Source of subscription
Purchase history or product preferences

Mastering list segmentation will help you increase the relevance of your email content to each audience segment, giving you a better chance of making conversions.

Habit #5: Learning Programming Languages

Let me clear: You don’t have to know programming languages to do email marketing, but man if you do…it’s super impressive! And useful.

You can use programming languages to:

Customize email templates
Implement advanced personalization techniques
Work more efficiently with technical teams

Common languages include HTML, CSS, and basic JavaScript. You can learn these languages on your own, or by taking courses.

Habit #6: Leveraging AI

While using AI might seem like “cheating” – you’d actually be cheating yourself if you’re not using it to speed up your workflow.

Highly-paid copywriters stay ahead of the curve by embracing AI tools to:

Generate creative ideas and overcome writer’s block
Optimize subject lines and content for better performance
Automate routine tasks, allowing more time for strategy and high-level creativity

The faster and more efficiently you can complete work for clients, the happier they’ll be (and the more they’ll be willing to pay you!)

Habit #7: Life-Long Learning

The highest paid copywriters are life-long learners.

They subscribe to industry newsletters, enroll in advanced training programs, experiment with new technologies (like AI) and stay up to date on best practices.

It’s pretty simple: The more you increase your knowledge and skills, the more you’ll get paid!

Kickstart Your Career as an Email Copywriter

Now you’re probably thinking, those beaches and sunsets are looking a lot further away than I thought!

But don’t be discouraged.

Starting a career as an email copywriter isn’t easy, but now you know exactly where to start, and how to excel.

So start with step one, dive in and enjoy the process.

And if you choose to go the extra mile and embrace the habits of the world’s wealthiest copywriters…well, you’ll be feeling the sand between your toes in no time.

Copywriting

An earlier version of this post was written and published by Liliana Benzel. It has been rewritten for freshness and comprehensiveness.

Ivy Shelden

Ivy Shelden is Associate Editor at Smart Blogger. When she's not writing and carving up posts for the blog, you might catch her hula hooping to hip-hop music in her backyard, watching YouTube with her two boys or laying down a beat on her drums.

As a Smart Blogger instructor, Ivy Shelden has taught hundreds of students how to launch their freelance copywriting careers, giving her unique insights into what it takes to be successful.

The ultimate toolkit for becoming one of the highest-paid writers online. Premium training. Yours for free.

YES PLEASE