Email Marketing Blog

My last post discussed email message length and why you might considering trimming your messages. I promised to rewrite that blog article into a shorter post intended to be sent to my readers in an email. (Note: The original word count of the first article was 416 words.)

Readers Don’t Like Ramblers

Want your messages read? Keep them interesting, succinct, and to-the-point. Quality, not quantity, is the best philosophy to employ.

Here’s why:

1. Preview Panes provide only a portion of the viewing area, forcing your readers to continuously scroll down.

2. Text-based Emails (the majority I receive) can bore your readers if too long. There are no design or textual ways to break up the text. If your text isn’t compelling, they will see reading it as a chore.

3. Harder to Scan. While I can quickly scan headlines, subheads and bullets on a web page, it doesn’t translate well to an autoresponder message.

Ask yourself:

• What’s the #1 point you are trying to convey?
• Can you say it in a few paragraphs so your email is “above the fold”?
• If not, can you include bullets or one-line paragraphs?

Great!

You may find it easier to edit your message an hour or day later. That makes it easier to spot and trim necessary fat.

———————————————————–

(The above message is 178 words; a reduction of more than 40%).

What do you think? I’d love to hear your comments!

Debbi Bressler
Email Marketing Specialist
GetResponse

“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

While my kids can type text messages faster than I can write articles, I just don’t “get” text messaging. Now, I’ll admit, it might be because I like to TALK even more than I like to write, but I’d really rather hear my friends’ voices than imagine their inflection on a 2″ screen.

But I’m definitely in the minority these days. And it seems that those dregs of society - spammers - are devising more ways to interrupt your day (and communications) with their garbage.

Cell Phone Spam

Even though I don’t text, I found a recent article from the New York Times interesting. It seems some of the heat is off of email spam, while the bad guys turn their attention to spamming your cellphone.

If you think email spam is bad, cellphone spam is even worse.

• You can’t delete it without opening it.
• You have to pay for it. (Keep in mind, the spammers pay nothing to send it to you.)
• There’s no way to stop it.

Until now.

This New York Times article shows you how to block cellphone spam with a number of cellphone companies. If you’re not bothered with this yet, you will be. So make note of what to do so you’ll be prepared.

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.)