List Profit Email Marketing Blog

It`s an old, old saying, but it`s true: you only have that one chance to make a good first impression. And in email, as with web sites, the first impression is always visual — a prospect forms their first impression visually, within about 20 seconds or less.

Imagine walking by a grotesquely garish storefront with all kinds of things hanging off the front, every room painted a different and more outlandish color, and odd music playing through loudspeakers.

Would you want to walk in the front door? No way! You`d assume that the owner is a kook, at best, or an unprofessional idiot, at worst.

Did you ever have an ugly looking email land in your inbox? You know what I`m talking about: an orange background and yellow borders, multi-colored text in all sizes from the gigantic to the microscopic, a message that looks like it was created by a crazed maniac?

If you did, I bet you didn`t feel the urge to read it, or visit the web site from which it originated. You probably just wanted to delete it as quickly as possible.

You want your email messages to be friendly and inviting. The suggestions below — and they`re just suggestions, not hard and fast rules — will go a long way towards making recipients open-minded towards your message.

=> DO`s and DON`Ts FOR ATTRACTIVE EMAILS

-DON`T use COLOR fonts in your message.

-DO use BLACK TEXT ON A WHITE BACKGROUND. (When you “speak” in black-and-white, people will give their full attention to your message without being distracted by your the scheme.)

-DON`T use UNCOMMON FONTS. If someone`s email client or web browswer doesn`t recognize the font you`ve selected, they may see gibberish instead of your brilliant message. Most people stick with tried and true Times New Roman. Arial, Helvetica, and Tahoma are also popular and easy on the eyes, as is Courier.

-DON`T use flashing buttons or banners in your email! People see enough of that on web sites. Especially in an email, it screams “sales pitch!”

=> USE SHORT SENTENCES AND PARAGRAPHS AND LOTS OF WHITE SPACE

Studies have shown that web sites and emails that contain lots of white space between, short, to-the-point paragraphs (often only one sentence in length) are more readable than those that contain long paragraphs.

Using bullets, arrows, dots, and other “markers” to emphasize the key points is also extremely effective.

=> CORRECTLY FORMAT YOUR LINKS, AND TELL PEOPLE TO CLICK THEM

An “email hyperlink” is just geek-speak for a link in your email to a website, or email address. Sounds simple enough, and it is — unless you try to contact a prospect on AOL who may not be able to receive “clickable” links. Don`t worry. There`s a “fix” for this: simply type mailto: in front of your email address (no space in between, and include the : )

For a link to a web page, you need to write your link just as you would in HTML, surrounded by the appropriate tags, with the URL and link text between the tags.

Tell your recipient they can copy and paste this link into their browser if it`s not highlighted — you’d be amazed how many “newbies” don’t know that!

=> SEND “TEXT ONLY” EMAIL OR MAKE IT AN OPTION ON HTML EMAIL

Some net marketers prefer to send HTML email. In case you don’t know what this is, it’s those emails you get that look just like web pages when you open them.

If this is your preference, more power to you, but be aware that some email clients *still* do not translate these correctly.

The “tried and true” method for email marketing is “text only” email, like you see here. If you do want to send HTML email, be sure you set it up so that recipients whose clients can’t handle it will receive the “text” version automatically.

Be aware, also, that people tend to perceive HTML emails as sales pitches — research indicates they are less often read than is traditional “all text” email.

=> ALWAYS USE SIGNATURE TAGS

Today, it`s common practice on the Internet to tell people about your product or service with a SIGNATURE TAG, which is 3-4 lines of text that is automatically added at the very bottom of every message that you send.

If you`d like to add a tag to your messages, simply open your email program and find the SIGNATURES option (located in the TOOLS menu in Outlook Express and Eudora). Follow the (simple) instructions for creating a sig file. It’s really very quick and easy to do … and the results will amaze you.

=> HARNESS THE POWER OF THE “P.S.”

This “power tip” is a carryover from direct mail marketing. It was discovered years ago that direct mail pieces that had a P.S. at the closing had “conversion rates” much higher than those that did not use a P.S.

Perhaps it is because people tend to scan to the bottom to see who signed the piece. Maybe it is because the P.S. looks more like an “afterthought” than part of the “sales pitch”.

Whatever the reason, research shows that it works in email marketing, too. Links appearing at the bottom of emails tend to be clicked more often than those that appear at the top, and those that appear in a “P.S.” can be the most powerful of all.

Best Wishes for YOUR Success!

John

One of the smartest things you can do when email marketing is to “personalize” your messages. What exactly do I mean by that? It’s really quite simple, actually.

Most good autoresponder services or software packages allow you to use “custom variables” to insert the recipients name or other personal information into your messages — use it!

Studies have shown that “personalization” can increase sales by a large amount — sometimes by as much as several hundred percent.

Your subject line is a great place to personalize. Why? Because the subject line is probably the single biggest factor in whether or not your email gets opened. If it arouses curiosity, or emotion, or appeals directly to the recipient, your subject line can be a powerful motivator — or a big turnoff.

The advice here is simple. Use the “custom variables” in your AR to add the recipient’s name to the subject line of your email.

It’s also a great idea to open your email with a cheery “hello [[name]]” greeting.

By the way, always use “Hi” or “Hello” for your greeting. Why? Because if your database does not contain a name for every recipient, that field of your email will either be left blank, or something like the word “friend” will b inserted there to “fill in the blank”.

Experts agree it’s also a good idea to try to sprinkle the recipient’s name at least once or twice within the body of your email. Don’t overdo it, of course. That is just as bad as leaving the name out altogether.

In one case, you may seem overly familiar, while in the latter case, your “impersonal” email comes across as “boilerplate”. Of course, it *is* exactly that, if it’s part of an automated campaign, but the point is to try to give your recipient the impression yours is a more personal communication, written just to them.

Writing a personalized message rather than a “to whom it may concern” message can be vital to the ultimate success of your email marketing campaigns. Learn how to do it right!