Email Marketing Blog

“Back in the day”, the only really long emails I received from business owners were ezines. In comparison with newsletters, autoresponder messages were relatively short and generally conained one thought per message.

Since emailing entire sales letters seems to be the norm these days, the question often arises as to how long is too long? Does size really matter?

An old rule of thumb, which can be applied here, is to take as much time as - but not more than - you need to make your point. If you tend to run at the mouth like I do (!), it’s important to become cognizant of that fact.

While you can get away with long sales letters on a sales page, don’t assume this effectiveness translates over to your readers’ inboxes. Here’s why:

• Preview Panes. I, for one, read most of my email in a preview pane. That means I am seeing a very small portion of the message and, therefore, need to endlessly scroll to get through it.
• Text-based Emails. The majority of emails I receive are text-based. While the text on a web-based sales letter is broken up by tables, color, font changes, etc., that’s not the case with text-based. A long sales letter is PAINFUL to wade through, IMHO!
• When I reach a web page, I normally scan the headline, subheads and bullets, then decide if I want ot read all or most of the sales page. That’s not as easy to do in an email.

It’s more effective to write shorter, succinct messages for your autoresponder campaign, than to have a few that are so long that few people will read them. Try to keep your information “above the fold” or, at most, the length of one printed page.

If you can’t say it all in 1-3 short paragraphs, be sure to break up the look of your message with bullets and one-line paragraphs.

Like this.

That keeps the reader flowing through your work quicker than when met with a sea of black print.

Let me also suggest that you craft your messages and then let them sit for an hour or a day. Revisit them with the mindset of a magazine editor who is charged with cutting the fat from your article. I think you’ll be surprised as to how much you can trim without compromising your message.

In fact, my next post will be a rewrite of this article intended for an email message!

Debbi Bressler
Email Marketing Specialist
GetResponse

Here’s an interesting post by Tom Davenport over at Harvard Business Publishing about the Top Ten Reasons for Top Ten Lists.

Whether you are writing email messages, posting to a blog, or preparing a free report for opt-ins, a Top Ten List is a great place to start. Tom’s article illustrates a quick, to-the-point Top Ten List with bullet points. A few sentences each and you’re done.

Your Top Ten Lists can serve as the foundation for more detailed information as well. I’m currently working on a list of opt-in tips, which began as a simple list. Rather than bullet points, each item on the list has become its own report, several pages in length. This same information could be woven with a common thread and become an e-book you can give away.

Obviously, if your subject matter lends itself better to a Top 5 or Top 12 List, go for it! But this is a great style to use when writer’s block is kicking in!

Debbi Bressler
Email Marketing Specialist
GetResponse

If you thought email was dead, here is just one more indication that it is alive, thriving, and possibly SURPASSING other methods of advertising!

TravelWeekly recently released research conducted by Response One that suggests email marketing to be the most effective way to get past customers to visit a website.

Email beat TV and newspaper advertising, as well as pay-per-click and bill inserts.

Response One suggests a marketing mix of email, TV advertising, online, and direct mail to keep in touch with customers.

An interesting note was that social media sites did little to reach the majority of consumers, and were on a par with unsolicited email. Although they found it to be more effective in the 18-24 age range, “today’s budgets cannot be weighted towards social networks.”

Some important points you can take from the above:

1. Test, test, test. Determine the most cost effective marketing mix for your company. It may not be the same. (In fact, in this example, they tested past customers. The figures may be quite different for prospects who have not yet purchased.)

2. Understand the demographics of your audience. In this example, social networking was only found more effective with 18-24 year-olds. If your web site has a different age range, you might lose your shirt if you expended most of your resources in this area.

3. If you don’t already, think about incorporating offline opt-in techniques with your list. There may be certain situations where an offline marketing method will work best within your total marketing mix.

(In my next post, I’ll give you one idea on how to get easily get those physical addresses.)

A study recently released from Merkle found that 88% of consumers felt that they were in control of their inboxes. This was an increase of 9% since the previous study four years ago.

Even more interesting was that 58% felt that email was a wonderful way for businesses to keep in touch with consumers.

This study was based on merchant / consumer emails. Based on your niche, your results could vary, but I think it behooves us to study the frequency and content of this type of advertising and test-market it against your current control.

What is especially encouraging is that about half of the survey respondents made an online purchase as a direct result of a permission-based email. This is an increase of 5% from the year before, and may indicate that consumers are getting more comfortable with making those online purchases.

Another important result for all email marketers is that 73% opted out if the email content was not relevant. 73% is a huge number! And the more nichified your web site, the more this holds true.

To me, this demonstrates the critical need to proivde content-driven, value-based information to your readers. That doesn’t mean you can’t monetize your list; after all, we’re not running charities! It DOES mean that we present that information within the context of providing value to the end user.

So, what do YOU think? Share your thoughts below!

Debbi Bressler
Email Marketing Specialist
GetResponse

I run the “Email Marketing Tips” Forum within the GetResponse member area. Since some of you may not visit there, I wanted to post about one of the frustrations a member was having. It’s one I hear time and again.

You have just wracked your brain and come up with the PERFECT campaign name for your autoresponder series.

Except it’s taken.

Before you decide that this is an omen that you should shut down your online business and get a job at the local fast food restaurant, let me share a few ideas to help you select a great campaign name. (These ideas will also work if your domain name is gone as well.)

1. Add “the”, “a”, “an” to the beginning. I found a great niche and a great domain a few years ago. The domain was already taken. I simply added “the” to the domain I had originally chosen. (That site is ranked #1 in Google out of 35,800,000 sites for that keyword…so I don’t think adding “the” on the front had any effect!)
2. Add “Tips”, “Guide”, “News”, “Ideas”, “Resource” or “Hints” to your campaign name. If you were sending a campaign on Rose Gardening, you could use:
   • RoseGardeningTips
   • RoseGardeningNews
   • RoseGardeningIdeas
   • RoseGardeningHints
   • RoseGardeningReport
   • RoseGardeningAdvice
   • YourRoseGardeningResource
   • RoseGardeningBlueprint
   • RoseGardeningProjects
   • RoseGardeningPlans
   • RoseGardeningChronicle

   These add-ons will work with almost any subject matter.

3. Brainstorm derivatives of your main keywords: Rose Gardening. Use separately or in combination with the list above. For example:
   • RoseGardeners
   • TipsForRoseGardeners
   • RoseLandscapingTips
   • RoseGardenDesign
   • RoseGardenBlueprint
   • GardeningWithRoses
   • TheRoseGardeningNews
4. Add “Best” at the beginning of your preferred campaign name. There were two domains I really wanted for directory sites, but the names I wanted were gone. I simply added “Best” to the front. (Then challenged myself to MAKE them the best!)
   • BestRoseGardenTips
   • BestRoseGardenDesigns
   • BestRoseGardenIdeas
5. Include hyphens or underscores in your name. To limit confusion, I wouldn’t do this if the campaign sand hyphens was well known.
   • Rose-Gardening
   • Gardening_With_Roses
6. Be prepared so you don’t get frustrated! Before selecting your campaign (or domain name), print this article or prepare your own brainstorming sheet. In that way, all these suggestions will be in front of you in case your first choice is gone. You’ll never be affected by writers block again!

Debbi Bressler
Email Marketing Specialist
Get Response