How to Write Emails Your Customers Actually Want to Read

Have you ever sat at your laptop, desperately trying to write a newsletter to your customers?

Time ticks by while a blinking cursor flashes on the screen.

You understand the value in speaking to your customers regularly, but writing emails feels alien. Every time you start typing, it comes out too salesy or too boring.

This is far more common than you’d think. Business owners like you know the value in nurturing customer relationships. You know you should send emails. You’ve heard how well it works for others. But actually sitting down to write one? That feels impossible.

Here’s the good news. You don’t need to be a future best-selling author. You just need to tell stories, the simple ones that happen in your business every single day. The ones you’d tell a friend over coffee without even thinking about it.

Those stories are exactly what your customers want to read.

Why most business emails are dull

It’s easy for a business to send a boring email. You’ve seen plenty of them. Feature lists, roundups of tips, piles of random links, or the ones that sound like a “marketing” email rather than something written by a human.

Boring emails get less engagement. They’re ignored or deleted within seconds. The good news is this is a fixable problem. The fix is stories.

The psychology of stories

Humans have loved stories since the earliest days of communication. Stories create emotional connections. They make information memorable, and they help readers picture themselves in the moment.

A Stanford study found that stories were 12 to 13 times more memorable than statistics in a speech. You can use that same power to explain a tricky feature or answer a common question in a way your audience actually remembers.

A simple story formula

You don’t need anything clever here. Just follow three steps:

1. A person with a problem. Who they are and what they’re struggling with.
2. They try something. The action or solution they attempted.
3. What happened. The result, and what they learned.

That’s it. The same three steps work for any business. An accountant can tell a client story. A restaurant can share a recipe disaster that became its signature dish. A coach can describe a client’s transformation. Same formula, endless stories.

How to find your stories

You might think you don’t have any stories to share. You do. Your business and personal life are full of them.

Share customer successes, problems you’ve solved, lessons learned from mistakes, the origin of your business, or little moments from behind the scenes.

Try building a story database. Sit down and jot 10 to 20 potential story ideas to start with. Then revisit it once or twice a month and keep adding new ones. That way you’ll never stare at a blank screen again.

Writing your next email

Before you start your next email, pick a story from your database. Use the three-step formula to spot the key parts. Then write your first draft as if you’re telling the story to a friend over coffee, which keeps it warm and conversational.

As you edit, add a clear link back to your product or service, showing readers how you can help if they’re in the same situation. Once it reads well, hit send or schedule it. Done.

If writing emails still feels like a chore, we can take it off your plate. Take a look at our CRM and automation service and we’ll help you stay in touch with your customers the easy way.