Yes, You CAN Make Money Writing Emails
By Jen Phillips April

Have you already checked your email today? If you’re like most people, your answer is “yes.”

In fact, marketing software company HubSpot says 99% of consumers check their email every day, with more than 50% checking it more than 10 times a day. And businesspeople are obligated to open their emails — it’s part of their job.

It’s no wonder the statistics are so high. Email is where you communicate with clients and potential clients, family members, friends, and receive confirmations of purchases. You might also get digests of industry information, online magazines, newsletters, and more.

There’s a lot that happens in email inboxes. And since it’s a direct connection to you, the buyer, marketers love it.

Consider this, as a marketing channel, email outperforms social media by almost 38%! And the DMA found that for every $1 spent on email, businesses average $38 in return.

Think about how many times a week you use your email to sign up for something or sign into an account. What about downloading a free report? Placing an order? It’s probably a lot, right?

And if you download something or place an order, you receive a confirmation email. Sometimes you receive follow-up emails about other items or events.

In total, 306 billion emails got sent and received every day in 2020, according to Statista. Now, that number is growing.

All those emails don’t write themselves!

Imagine this, I had a new client ask me to write two emails for a July 4^th promotion. One email was benefit-driven and other was discount-driven. They wanted to test the two offers.

Neither email was long. In fact, one was only about 150 words.

After I submitted those, they asked me to write another one and a welcome sequence.

Marketers always need more than one email!

Each of those emails required short, easy-to-read copy. And since I’ve been at this awhile, they only took me about an hour to write.

In case you’re wondering why they don’t write them in-house, it’s because they’re busy. The marketing team is juggling multiple demands and a frequently changing schedule. They’re doing a lot of project management tasks which don’t lend themselves to quiet time to write.

As a result, many businesses outsource email writing. It frees up their in-house staff to work on other projects. They can come up with the email campaigns, contract it out, and move on.

And in case you’re wondering if you need to design the graphics too, the answer is no. Companies are used to working with separate graphic designers. I only supply the words, leaving the design and tech elements to someone else.

Besides the demand for email writers, another good thing is the pay. It’s not uncommon to receive $100, $300, $500, or more depending on how close it is to the sale and your experience.

Imagine spending an hour or two writing a short email message and getting paid $100 or more. I think you’ll agree that’s good money. Especially for something you can learn in a short time.

If you’re interested in writing short-form copy, this is a great opportunity because literally every type of business needs email that can get results.

Let’s look at some of the different types of emails being sent out.

6 Types of Email Projects

Obviously, all email projects aren’t the same. I’ve written very transactional based emails, educational-focused emails, and webinar sign-up and reminder emails. However, what they all have in common is the shared goal of encouraging an action from the reader.

Whether it’s signing up for something, buying something, or simply clicking through, every email has a purpose.

1. Product launches — The purpose of these emails is to introduce a new product. As a result, there are usually 5 or even 20 or more emails, depending on the other components. For example, if you signed up for a free report, then you’ll receive an email with a link to the report. This is often followed by a sequence that shares the benefits of the product and hints at its coming availability.
2. Offers — Even if you’re not much of a shopper, you’re bound to have a few of these in your inbox because retailers send them out all the time. These are the 20% off emails and other discount offerings. Both B2C and B2B use these.
3. Welcome Sequence — These are the emails you receive when you sign up for a new online product or subscription. A welcome email walks you through what to expect and any relevant links for downloading things. If it’s a subscription to a newsletter, it will let you know things like how often you can expect it and other relevant information. An onboarding sequence will welcome you and strengthen the new relationship.
4. Upsells — If you signed up for the free version an app for example, and then received an email letting you know all the benefits of the premium paid version, that’s an upsell email.
5. Cart Abandonment — If you’ve ever put stuff in an e-commerce cart and then not completed the transaction, that’s cart abandonment. Whether you had second thoughts on the item, were confused by the checkout process, or got distracted by something else, you didn’t complete the purchase. E-commerce statistics say retailers lose out on $18 billion a year due to cart abandonment. That’s a significant loss. If you’re a retailer, wouldn’t you want to try sending a follow-up email to see if your prospect is still interested so you can save that sale?
6. Follow Up — In the Business-to-Business world where businesses sell to other businesses, there is usually a long sales cycle. For example, a committee will choose a new software for a university rather than one person. Which means, there are likely to be webinars, white papers, and other types of educational material created for those committee members. Each time an educational content piece is used, emails are needed.

For another example, if a company hosts a webinar, they’ll send out emails inviting people to the webinar. Then they’ll send follow-up emails with a link to the replay and there may be more emails for a demonstration or other opportunity. One webinar can require 3-10 emails.

There’s a need for email writers in both B2B and B2C. The types of language and graphics used will be different, but there are versions of all of these across industries.

One of my favorite things about writing emails is that since they’re short, you can even write them on your phone. After all, that’s how at least 50% of emails are read, so I figured I’d give it a try. I sat by the pool and brainstormed subject lines and benefits right on my phone.

Not a bad way to “work!”

Choose Your Email Writing Path

Now that you have an idea of how fun and lucrative email writing can be, you probably want to know how you can get started.

What types of businesses do you think you’d like to write for? Are you excited by consumer-based products like travel, health and beauty, or sport fishing? These are each in-demand niches!

Or does the sound of working with B2B companies in the tech, training, or financial arenas sound more appealing?

Whatever your interests, there are companies who need results-oriented email writers.

Watch this free webinar to find out more about the opportunity and decide which path is right for you: Today’s Unexpected Opportunities for Email Writers.

Are you ready to get started with writing email messages? If you have any questions, please let us know in the comments.