Message Maximiser

You want your message to be effective and have impact. To ensure that your ad does not contain some common email marketing pitfalls, check the four components of your message and incorporate the following suggestions. These will help you create a stronger and more effective email ad - one that will grab the reader’s attention and get them to act.

Subject Line

·Three to four words is the optimum length. Many users’ inboxes only allow a small space for the Subject line to appear, so a longer line will be partially hidden. Also, a longer Subject line begins to look like an ad message—the recipient is more likely to delete your message without reading it
·Do not put your Subject line in all-caps—that is, capital letters. This marks your message as an advertisement right away. It’s more likely to get deleted.

·Including the tag “AD” or “ADV” in your subject line marks it for deletion right away. This abbreviation is commonly used by Spammers who think it will protect them from retaliation or legal action.
·Use the following words and characters sparingly: !, $, you, your, money, save, saving, savings, love, time, fast, quick, quickly, unbelievable, fantastic, first-ever, never-again, unparalleled, dreams, rich, riches, wealth, wealthy, extraordinary, unprecedented, fortune, fortunes, ultimate, exclusive, free, opportunity, limited time, hurry, only in your Subject line. Usually these kinds of words in the Subject line will mark your message as advertising, resulting in quick deletion. Avoid words that make your message look like Spam.
·The Subject line is the first thing the recipient will see when your e-mail message arrives in their inbox. To give it more of a chance of getting opened, choose a subject line that’s short and free of marketing hype—as much like ordinary e-mail as possible.

Headline

·Consider writing a short headline. The headline is a critical part of your email ad. If your headline is too long, your benefit can get lost and you can lose the attention of the reader.
·Make sure that your headline promises the recipient a strong benefit or reward for reading your message. What will this message do for them? What will they get out of reading it? Key words: you save, money, time, secure, security, love, safe, safety, quick, quickly, fast.
·Always appeal to the self-interest of your prospect. Consider using “you” and “your” in your headline. As the saying goes, don’t talk to me about your fertilizer, talk to me about my lawn.
·You might want to consider putting your headline in all-caps, capital letters. Since most people will see your message in plain text, caps are one of the only ways you have to draw attention to your headline and sub-heads.
·Your headline should be short and should center on a key benefit or selling point. The main purpose of the headline is to encourage the recipient to read what follows. To make it stand out, center it and put it in all-caps.

Body Copy

·I recommend that you avoid over-use of exclamation points, as in “!!” or “!!!!” This can characterize you as a Scamster.
·Don’t over-use capital letters. On the Internet, putting something in all-caps is the same as SHOUTING. It’s probably good to use all-caps for your headline. But too many capitals, or putting your whole message in capitals, shouts: THIS IS SPAM.
·In both your headline and body copy, center your message on the reader and the reader’s needs, not yourself and your company. Within your copy don’t mentioned yourself (I, me, my, we, our, ours) more than your reader (you, your, yours).
·If your ad message is meant to be your first contact with the recipient, keep it short and concise; fewer than 100 words. Save longer copy for your Web page or auto responder message. Use your initial message to qualify your prospects and get them interested in your offer. Offer more details via a Web link, an auto responder address or a telephone number.
·Long sentences can be confusing and hard to read. I recommend that you tighten up your copy and make sure that every sentence is crystal-clear and easy to understand.
·Readers can be intimidated by long blocks of text and may bail out without reading your message. Try breaking up your message into shorter paragraphs. Every once in awhile, use a one-sentence paragraph for a key thought.

·Always include a Web link (or URL) in your e-mail. Although it’s certainly possible to get sales and generate leads via phone, e-mail, mail or other means, the best place to close an Internet sale is at a Web site. E-mail is a great attention-getting tool but I strongly suggest that you link your e-mail message to a Web page, where you can do a more effective job of selling your product or service.

·Be careful of using words and phrases such as unbelievable, fantastic, first-ever, never-again, unparalleled, dreams, rich, riches, wealth, wealthy, extraordinary, unprecedented, fortune, fortunes, and ultimate. On the Internet, these kinds of expressions make your message sound like hype and can label you as a huckster.

·Avoid marketing hype and extravagant claims.

Design

·In plain text, you don’t have many designs, however, you can employ white space, centering, special characters and bullet points to help call attention to the most critical points in your message. Use the following tips when creating text emails to make them more effective.

·You should consider using bulleted lists in your ad message. A bulleted list is a series of key points marked with special characters or bullets, in a format something like this:
o One point goes here
o Then another one here
o And a final one here

·You can use a “+”, “*”, “>” or similar character for your bullets. Do not use a “-” as a bullet, however, as this implies a minus sign and can have a negative connotation.
·I recommend that you find ways to use white space to break up your copy and to emphasize key elements, such as headlines, bullet points and URLs. For the most part, email ads appear in plain text. White space is one of the only design tools you have at your disposal. Separate all paragraphs with two carriage returns. Use white space to set off your headlines. For example:
USE SPACES TO CENTER YOUR HEADLINE LIKE THIS
§ Or use spaces
§ To indent and emphasize
§ Bullet points
§ Like so

·A word about Web-like(HTML) messages…. As more and more clients are able to view HTML messages you can make use a wide variety of options to make your message leap of the page. Make sure that the product you chose to send your email message can accommodate both text and HTML messages and allows you to create HTML messages easily and displays them appropriately to your recipient. It is always best, however, when collecting your email list, ask your recipient how they would like to receive their mail. Although many people can view HTML they may still rather receive their message as text.

The extra time spent in ensuring that your message is clear, concise and free of common pitfalls will be time well spent.

About the author

Karen Fegarty is currently with MailWorkZ. MailWorkZ has been instrumental in developing new email technology. See whats new in Broadc@stHTML Whether it is a product announcement, a newsletter, or a personalized information message, Broadc@stHTML, MailWorkZs award winning email marketing tool, is key to reaching your customers in a highly efficient, personalized manner.

:To contact see details below.


karen@mailworkz.com
http://www.mailworkz.com