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Setting Your Email Apart from the Crowd

A majority of the email messages we receive today either ends up in our saved messages folder or goes straight to the trash can. The way our human mind picks through emails which are important, is by looking at the headline. If the headline does not appeal to our normal judgment of being a legitimate reason for contact, the email will most likely be deleted.

The problem with today's email messages are the bogus and hyped up headlines and content that does not match the headline. The purpose of the headline is that it must sell the email message. Without the main theme in the headline telling of the product or service, the purpose of the headline has been shot down and eventually ends up in the trash. This means for those who are trying to sell by email, you must let the reader know what it is you are trying to sell in order to gain their interest.

There are three main steps to converting an email to a sale:

1. The Subject Must sell the message
2. The message must sell the site
3. The site must be relevant to the subject and message

Once you have the readers attention, its only going to last a maximum of 60 seconds. Anything longer in reading a message which does not focus the readers attention will get trashed. A longer email can be effective when stressing the key points and keeping the readers attention throughout the entire message, but usually the most effective advertising emails are shorter and have straight forward facts.

Another thing that will get an email deleted is seeing a picture with little or no text, especially when it comes from an anonymous sender. In general the best way to present an HTML email message is to limit the amount of graphics. This will minimize the size and time it takes to load, plus it is easier on the eyes to read the content without being distracted by images competing for attention.

Are there exceptions to these guidelines? Sure. But if you have been disappointed in your open or click through rates, you might look into testing some of these suggestions. By keeping it honest, relevant, and short, your email stands a better chance of being read and acted upon instead of being destined for the trash folder.

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