How to use P.S. in emails: Best practices and examples

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Some may think that a P.S. in emails is just something a sender added as an afterthought. But in actuality, it can be a powerful addition to your email marketing efforts when strategically placed. A P.S. message can highlight key points you want to make in your emails or add more personality, potentially increasing their effectiveness.

However, a poorly crafted P.S. in emails can come across as pushy, insincere, or disorganized. 

So, how do you decide when and where to put a P.S. in an email to really get your message across? 

This post will explore the different scenarios where a P.S. can be used, including how to write a P.S. in an email to maximize its impact.

What does P.S. mean in email?

P.S. stands for the Latin word “postscriptum,” which translates to “written after.” In emails, it’s a short message added at the end, usually after the main text and signature. 

The purpose of a P.S. in emails is to include clarification, additional information, or a reminder that wasn’t mentioned in the original message.

In some cases, a P.S. may be used to include the contact details or other closing information that wasn’t part of the original email. It can be an effective way to capture the recipient’s attention as it stands out visually because of its placement at the end of the email. 

Should you use a P.S.?

A P.S. in emails can be a valuable tool when used in the right context. You can improve the clarity, impact, and add a personal touch of your emails.   

Here are some ideal situations where using a P.S. in emails would be a good idea:

• Adding a friendly touch: In informal emails or those addressed to close colleagues, a P.S. can serve as a casual note. This can help build rapport and make your communication more relatable
• Including additional information: A P.S. can be used to include supplementary details or resources that may be relevant to the email’s content but don’t necessarily fit within the flow of the main text. This could include links, attachments, or other information that the recipient may find useful
• Highlighting a key point: Sometimes, you may need to share a crucial piece of information that has to stand out. If you don’t want readers to miss an important point, you can place it at the end as a P.S. to emphasize it

Best ways to use a P.S. in emails

A well-crafted and strategically placed P.S. in emails can capture your recipient’s attention and encourage them to take action. We’ll explore some of the best ways to use a P.S. to boost your email engagement and conversions.

1. Use a P.S. to create urgency

If you want your recipients to jump right into conversion, a P.S. can help you. The urgency factor could be a deadline, items going out of stock, or any other method that  gets readers to act fast.

By placing this urgent information in the postscript, you can capture the attention of recipients who may have skimmed through the email after reading the subject line.

So, adding a P.S. to your marketing copies can potentially create urgency and make your email sound more persuasive. It allows readers to take proper notice of your message, clearly understand it, and more likely take the desired action.

It’s important to keep the urgency factor authentic and relevant to maintain credibility and foster trust with your audience.

This P.S. example, highlighting the scarcity of available tickets for a high-value event for successful business owners, conveys exclusivity and time sensitivity. 

This approach can trigger a sense of urgency among recipients and compel them to act swiftly by securing their spot so they don’t miss out on this valuable opportunity.

2. Use a P.S. to provide CTA

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

For example, the image below demonstrates using a P.S. in emails as a strong CTA. The P.S. is brief, quickly explains the benefit (organized marketing calendar) and includes a compelling offer (14-day free trial).

Placing this CTA in the P.S. ensures that it’s the last thing the reader sees in the email, increasing the chances of them clicking through.

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 a 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.

The image below exemplifies this approach. The main body of the email focused on a specific topic: guest posting. However, the P.S. casually mentions a new blog post with a friendly “Oh, by the way” phrasing. This way, the P.S. subtly promotes the content without disrupting the main message of the email.

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.

4. Use a P.S. to make connections

Even if you don’t sell anything via email, you can use a 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.

The P.S. in the email example below encourages the recipient to take the next step and learn more about an offer. While the P.S. doesn’t directly link to social media, booking a call opens the door for further interaction and potential connection beyond the email.

For even better customer experience, make your P.S. visually appealing so they would meet readers’ eyes and hook them 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 a P.S. to promote bonuses or share surplus value

For readers, 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.

The P.S. in email example shown below demonstrates this tip, as it uses the P.S. to offer extra value for the reader. This includes a quick writing tip and a promise of even more content for readers who are interested in learning.

In the case of 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 touch 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 their name, it makes them think that this aside message was written specifically to them.

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.