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Every marketer has experienced this at some point: you carefully craft an email, taking time with design elements and links and your call to action. Then you hit “send” and wait.

And your open rates aren’t as high as you expected. In fact, they’re pretty low.

It can be disappointing to put all that work into an email or series of emails and get less-than-expected results. But you don’t have to put a ton of work into an email to get great results—as long as you know the elements of strong copywriting for email marketing.

Here are a few tips for writing emails that get opened and read.

Your subject line

Most people’s inboxes are flooded. Your subject line could help your email stand out—or it could get lost in the shuffle.

Here are some tips for writing stronger subject lines.

• Keep it brief. According to MailChimp, which analyzes the open rates of hundreds of millions of emails, the optimal length for a subject line is nine words or 60 characters. Some email clients only show about 30 characters of a subject line.

• Be specific about benefits. What will the person get out of opening this email? Be specific about what they’ll get in return for their time and attention.

• Use numbers. Digits can be eye-catching in a sea of subject lines that don’t’ include them.

• Don’t try to be clever. Keep it simple. Stay away from puns and metaphors. Use strong, simple language to communicate what you’re offering.

In the body of your email

What goes in the body will depend on the type of email this is. If you’re writing an e-newsletter, there will be different requirements than if you’re sending out sales emails. But there are a few guidelines that will work across the board. These include:

• Keep things brief. Everyone is pressed for time these days. Get to the point quickly or you risk your readers losing interest.

• Personalize your emails. Revenue is about 5.7% higher for emails that use personalization. Use custom fields throughout the email.

• Use “you,” not “me.” Avoid continually telling them about yourself. Instead, talk about what they want and how you can help them get it.

• Be useful. Only send emails when you have something of benefit to offer the reader. This email should offer something they want—whether that’s educational or commercial.

• Keep your writing patterns simple. Use shorter words and brief sentences whenever possible.

The call to action

Make sure your audience knows exactly what action to take after reading your email—and how to do it.

You should know the purpose of your email before you start writing—whether that’s promoting an article you wrote, getting signups for a webinar, boosting listens for a podcast episode, or getting your audience to buy something.

The simplest and most common form of CTA might be “click here.” You can do better, though—other options include “Learn more,” “Get started” or “Keep reading.”

Strong copywriting can make a big difference between an email that doesn’t get opened and one that generates a lot of clicks and traffic. Leverage these tips in your subject line, body copy, and call to action, and you should be able to generate emails that get results every time.