An Unread Email is Useless

In the last blog we covered two embarrassingly simple mistakes that can work against you in your email marketing efforts.

1) Your email doesn’t arrive in the inbox of your client.
2) You email doesn’t get opened.Cool. So let’s say you read our last Blog and you now know how to overcome those two big blunders. What comes next?

Getting your email read! (of course)

There’s are few things you can do to make certain your emails get read top to tail…

1. Write conversationally.

Get into the habit of writing casually and conversationally. Like you are writing to a close friend. Use contractions, and easy to understand slang, and AVOID complex language or words that are hard to spell or say! The average adult reader comprehends at a grade 7 level… so do them a favour, keep it simple and fun.

2. Write to the Individual.

For example, never address your emails as “Dear Friends” or “Hello Everyone!” There is only ever ONE PERSON reading your email – so write to that one person. Using singular language can be difficult because you know you are writing to many people. But the trick is to have the reader feel as though you are only writing to him or her. In addition to bulk greetings (see above) avoid phrases like, “Most of you” or “How many of you..” As soon as I see that, I know you are not talking to me!

To make it easy, pick one person in your database who you know well and write your email in a tone just to them. This will help the email feel intimate to everyone who receives it.

3. Make sure that the body of the email and the subject line are related.

Don’t use a jazzy subject line to get people to open the email, and then write about something unrelated in the email. Don’t you just hate that? People will feel like they have been tricked and they will delete your email and possibly unsubscribe. Ugh.

3. Test your formatting.

Different email providers will display your email in different ways. They each have a different width and allow different kinds of headers and images. Keep the length of each line in your email to a 60 character max. Before you send your email to your list, send a test email to several different email addresses at different email providers you can look at. We suggest setting up personal email accounts with Yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail, and Outlook.

4. Unless something is of direct interest, relevance and value to the individuals on your list, don’t send it!

Remember, any enterprise is only as valuable as its clients or customer base. With online marketing, this is your list. Whatever your product or service is, your list is your business! The way to keep a large and loyal list is to build trust that your communications are of value. (see Blog from Aug 19, 2009)

Try these four strategies and watch your readership skyrocket!

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