Did you know that 91% of all U.S. consumers check their email every day? And that email is nearly 40 times more successful than social media when it comes to getting consumers to “take action”? I did, but it’s my job to know that stuff. All you need to know is that email marketing is insanely effective—which brings me to my next point: If you aren’t emailing your customers, you should be. And if you have an app, you can get a whole lot more users by sending them a quick email.

Speaking of which, Swiftic has this pretty nifty Promotional Emails tool that lets you instantly send—you guessed it—promotional emails (right from the Swiftic site) telling your customers about your amazing new app and how they can download it. Just add text, pick an image, send the email, and you’ll be swimming in app downloads.

Sounds simple, huh? I thought so too. But you’d be surprised how many people actually suck at writing an email. And you’re probably wondering, “How can this be? It’s just a simple email.”

Because sometimes, even against our better judgment, we don’t write what we really should; we don’t get across the message that we want; we don’t put enough thought into the email or we put too much.

We don’t think about what the reader wants to read, why they should read it, and what they get out of it. And sometimes, our emails are too formal, unemotional, general, or—worst of all—they’re boring.

But they don’t have to be. They can be amazing.

So let’s learn how to write a super awesome promotional email that’ll get your customers begging for your app instead of you begging them to download it.

Ditch formality

Imagine a couple of your customers standing in front of you this very moment. Would you start out by saying, “Dear valued customer”? No! Because unless you’re secretly a robot, nobody actually talks that way.

Forget the formal greeting—it’s impersonal and doesn’t make your customers feel valued at all.

That doesn’t mean you should ditch the greeting altogether. Even though this is a promotional email, it shouldn’t feel that way. It should be as personal as possible (without getting too creepy, of course). So just pretend you’re having a conversation. A simple Hi, Hey, or Hi there! is just fine.

And as for the rest, keep it short, sweet, funny (if you’re funny), and friendly. Feel free to add a smiley. You do smile, right? You’d smile if you were telling them in person why they should download your app, wouldn’t you?

Personalize your email to fit your business and your customers

Yes, we wrote a sample email in the Promotional Emails tool, to give you an idea of what to write for your own. And you’re welcome to use it—but keep in mind, it’s just a template.

We don’t know your business. We don’t know your customers. So how can we write the perfect email to get them to download an app that’s tailor-made to your business and your customers? Simple: We can’t.

The email we provide is very general, but yours should be specific. You know your customers and you know your business. Tell your customers the name of your app, where they can download it, and why they should download it (the specific features you added that’ll make their lives better). Add a photo that represents your business or your brand-new app. You can make any changes you want to the email directly in the Swiftic Console and then send it off to all your customers.

Give your customers a reason to download your app

You created a beautiful app for your business. Personally, I think that’s really awesome. You probably do too. But you know who doesn’t give a darn? Your customers.

If you write: Get My App!!! Do it! Did I mention, I created an app? It’s really awesome and amazing. You should download it. You’ll like it. Thanks : )

Your customers won’t care.

But they do care that you have a loyalty card that gives them a free coffee after they buy nine coffees. They care that they’ll get a 50% discount on their next haircut. They care that you send them a push notification telling them that you have a special five-course holiday menu on Valentine’s Day with their favorite molten lava chocolate cake.

Your customers care about what the app gives them: exclusive access to discounts, freebies, rewards, instant purchasing, orders, reservations…you get the picture. And if you tell them they’ll get all this and more if they only download your app, they’ll actually want to download your app.

Remember: If they don’t read it, they won’t download it

Pretend you’ve been working tirelessly making a lasagna, but then you accidentally leave it in the oven too long and now the top is burnt to a crisp. It doesn’t matter that there are still so many ooey-gooey layers of deliciousness underneath—no one will want to eat it because it looks like something your dog could’ve made.

Now just replace that lasagna with a really funny and clever email that you wrote but no one read. Do you know why they didn’t read it? Because you put all this effort into writing an awesome email, and then carelessly scrapped together a subject line.

The subject line doesn’t have to be super clever. It just needs to give your customers a reason to click or tap.

You want to tell your customers: 1) I have an app. 2) You’re going to love it. 3) It gives you all these really cool perks. But you only have six to 10 words, so stick to the basics.

Some examples: (Insert your business name where I’ve written “Awesome business”)

See why you need awesome business’ new app
See why you’ll love awesome business’ new app
Get freebies & coupons with awesome business’ new app
Introducing: Awesome business’ new app. See why you need it!

Again personalize it, and I guarantee it will be amazing!

The same rules apply to your CTA (call to action), a.k.a. the big button or hyperlink in the email that you want your customers to click/tap on to download your app. You want to keep the CTA as clear, simple, and direct as possible, so your customers will know that when they click it, they’re going to download your app. Use action words and phrases, like Download Our App, Install the App, or Get It Now.

Back that email up—with these helpful tools

Yeah, I know the promotional email is the cat’s pajamas, but that’s just one tool at your disposal.

We (as in Swiftic and myself) have found that the businesses which see the most app downloads are those that actively promote their app online and off. This is why we’ve got plenty of other promotional tools up our sleeve and you should feel free to use all of them. Use our free storefront sticker, printable QR stickers, and banners—all available in the Swiftic Console. Most importantly, spread the word in the store, and make sure your employees are on board, telling your customers how to get the app and why, every chance they get.

Now that you know the secrets to writing a successful promo email, put your fingers on that keyboard and start typing yours up!

P.S. Wouldn’t it be funny if you read this entire post on how to get your customers to download your app, but you didn’t even have an app? Yeah, I didn’t think it was funny either. So let’s remedy that, and give your customers something to download: your very own app!

Reward your customers and your business.