What is P.S. in emails and why you should use it in your marketing emails

Ever get the feeling you’ve forgotten something?

P.S., from the Latin “postscriptum” or “written after, was used in the days when we sent handwritten letters and needed to add a bit of information that had been forgotten in the letter.

Today, we’re no longer plagued by the problems only P.S. and Whiteout can solve, and P.S. is used as a cheeky way to add a little detail and draw the reader to it. Back in 2016, Kate Goldstone revealed statistics showing that “79% of people who opened a direct mail pack read the postscript first, before reading anything else.”

P.S.—we’re about to make to show you how adding P.S. in your marketing emails can help improve conversions.

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1) Use P.S. to Create Urgency

Numbers speak volumes:

Only 16% of users read your content word-by-word; others just scan it, trying to point out what’s in there for them. Subconsciously consuming that all the significant information will be at the end, readers go to final lines of your email first. (After the subject line, of course.)

So, when you add a P.S. to marketing copies, summarizing what you’ve just written, you create urgency and make your email sound more persuasive. A P.S. here allows readers to take proper notice of your message, clearly understand it, and more likely take the desired action.

The urgency factor could be a deadline, a limited number of items you sell, or whatever you need to get readers to act. A postscript that creates urgency will work on your email performance.

2) Use P.S. to Provide CTA

Have you heard of the Zeigarnik effect? It’s when we feel uncomfortable if having incomplete tasks and, therefore, trying to complete them as soon as possible to defuse that tension. And it’s what happens to your email readers: they start your marketing email from P.S. to find the call to action and complete it.

So why not use P.S. in marketing emails to provide CTA and invite readers to take the desired action? This trick will optimize your email content and influence your email CTR.

You can use a P.S. section for linking to your landing page, a video of your sales pitch, etc. Just focus on your prospect’s problem and the solution you offer.

3) Use P.S. to Add an Extra Thought

Psychological tricks aside, many people read postscripts just by force of habit.

Quick question:

How often do you read the last page of a newspaper first because, as a rule, it contains the most entertaining content there? It’s like a dessert: you know it will be the most delicious part of the meal, so you want to eat it first.

The P.S. of your marketing email is that dessert. And given that it has a visual advantage and is understood as something you forgot to mention in the email body, you can write whatever you want.

For example, an extra thought that doesn’t fit with the main message of your email but still helps to communicate it.

Or, it can be a funny thought that makes your email stand out from other marketing messages in your reader’s inbox. A humorous quote or a clever joke, if appropriate, will help potential prospects remember you. You can also take the help of these AI writers to help you craft mood-based P.S texts or the entire email content itself in a span of seconds by giving them some very basic instructions.

4) Use P.S. to Make Connections

Even if you don’t sell anything via emails, you can use P.S. for networking or encouraging the audience to follow you elsewhere online. Add links to your social media pages, invite readers to join your network or subscribe to your side-content (podcasts, videos, “tip of the day,” etc.)

It’s a great way to grow your network online and a perfect way to end an email.

For even better customer experience, make your P.S. visually appealing so they would hook readers and meet their eyes at once. Use a bold text, write it with a different font or color, format it like a separate information box, make it a button, etc.

5) Use P.S. to Promote Bonuses or Share Surplus Values

For users, a postscript is like a summary of what they’d find in the email. It can help them understand if it’s worth spending time reading the whole text. So, use this section to share discounts, previews, bonuses, extra tips, testimonials, and other surplus values for readers to see there’s something for them in your email.

In the case with testimonials, they work better for B2B products, as they can motivate users to take the next step and place an order. They give a sense of assurance, so it would come in handy to mention testimonials in your marketing P.S. But don’t forget to track rankings “before” and “after” a corresponding email campaign to compare results.

Also, consider revising the P.S. and editing your marketing emails every couple of months to cover different audience segments and promote limited time offers.

P.S.

P.S. in your marketing email is also a great chance to add a personal approach to your message. When you sign a letter with the name of someone real in your company and then add a P.S. addressing a reader with his name, it makes him think that this aside message was written specifically to him.

Perfect to boost trust and build more customer loyalty, right?

Here at Omnisend, you can segment the audience so that each of them would get a personalized email with the corresponding P.S. that meet their needs. Why miss the chance to take your email marketing campaign to the next level?
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Guest post by Lesley Vos, Blogger at Bid4Papers – a platform that helps students deal with college life and writing. Lesley also contributes to many publications on business and digital marketing. Feel free to check more works of hers on Twitter @LesleyVos.