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This week I received at least 500
emails offering me great discounts on Viagra and just as
many messages from the son in law of the late bank president
of Nigeria, offering me millions of dollars. How many cases
of Viagra do you think I ordered? and how many billions of
dollars have I had transferred into my offshore account?
Zero, zilch, zip, none!
I
continue to be amazed by the number of people, who still
believe they will sell loads of products/services if they
send unsolicited emails to millions of email addresses.
It is
unfortunate that because of a few people who have abused the
email system, genuine business messages are now NOT being
delivered. ISPs (Internet Service Providers) have had to
take drastic action and implement rigid spam filters and
many people have set up rules in their email software which
discard messages that contain certain words, phrases,
subjects etc.
Getting Your Messages Delivered,
Opened & Read
So even
before you start thinking about writing an email message,
you need to be sure it gets delivered. Your chances of
having your email arrive, be opened and read greatly
increase if you:
1.
Personalise your email, ie. include the person’s name in the
subject line as well as the body of the message.
2. Only
send messages to people you know and who know you. (We will
cover creating your mailing list next time.)
3. Avoid
using words such as “free”, “make money”, “extra income”,
“lose weight”, “satisfaction guaranteed”, “IMPORTANT”
4. Do
not send attachments
5. Send
text messages rather than HTML emails
6. Do
not use ALL CAPS
7.
Ensure your emails have a meaningful subject that relates to
your message
Creating Compelling Messages
So
you’ve had your message delivered and even opened.
Congratulations you are half way there! Let’s now look at
some points to ensure your message is read and actioned.
1. For a
good-looking email, format your message to 65 characters or
less per line. Use a hard return (that means hit the
‘Enter’ key when you get to 65 characters). Use a fixed
width font, like Courier New.
2.
Personalise, personalise, personalise. People love seeing
their name and business name in print. Use it in the
subject line and in the body.
3. Write
just like you talk. Use plain, easy to understanding
English. Be friendly and personable in your writing.
4. Get
to the point right away. Your first two sentences should
include a summary of the whole email.
5. Put
passion into your email. Let your customer know you are
excited about the offer.
6. Write
to one person. Think of your customer and pretend like you
are talking only to him/her.
7. Keep
your sentences and paragraphs short and simple.
8. Use
subheadings. Think of them as mini headlines. These are
great for breaking up large bodies of text.
9. Use
action verbs whenever possible.
10.
Create urgency. Let recipients know the issue is time
sensitive.
11.
Encourage people to forward your message onto others
12.
Explain who you are and how readers can contact you.
13. Do a
spell check and grammar check
14.
Avoid URLs (website addresses) that wrap. Ensure links are
short, so that they do not stretch over 2 lines. If you
can’t control the length of the URL, tell the readers how to
put it together in their web browser.
15. Use
only ASCII characters. Many email readers can’t display
text other than the standard set of ASCII characters
(roughly equal to what you see on your keyboard)
16.
Always offer an option to unsubscribe.
17.
Include a PS. at the end of the email. Use it to
effectively highlight a reminder or a point of interest.
The best ways and times to put email
to work
1.
Acquire new customers at incredibly low costs
2. New product announcements
3. Holiday season and event specials
4. Stay in touch and on customer’s mind
5. Endorse and cross sell other products
In the
next issue we will cover ways to collect email addresses and
how to manage your email list.
 About
the Author: Ivana Katz, Sydney, NSW, Australia
Ivana Katz is the owner of
Websites 4 Small & Growing Business, a company
specialising in the design and promotion of small and
growing business websites. She believes that every business
deserves to have a successful website, no matter what its
budget is.
info@web4business.com.au -
http://www.web4business.com.au
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