|
Tips to Help Your Create Winning and Ultimately Order Pulling eMails.
Stay focussed. Don't waffle, especially if you sell information products! Recipients may think all your writing is similarly flawed.
Keep letters short. Long letters encourage recipients to save the letter for later and many will later be overlooked or lost.
Use short sentences and paragraphs. Avoid lots of grey matter, that is long paragraphs that are very off-putting to recipients. Break this rule and your letters will go in the rubbish bin. Possibly, exactly where they belong!
Make sure your grammar and spelling are up to scratch, again, especially if you are a writer, information publisher or, maybe worse still, a web site designer.
Don't spam. Not ever. Bad news travels fast by email not to mention the fact that mud definitely does stick, and for a long time. I understand, though I find it hard to believe, that one of my most competent marketing role models began his multi-million dollar Internet fortune by spamming! I won't ever tell who it is, because I don't fully believe it myself, but as I said 'mud sticks' and can get thrown back in your face and destroy your reputation for years to come. Maybe forever.
Don't send large attachments with email. The exception is where you are asked for the attachment. Otherwise recipients may decide not to download and simply bin your letter.
Instead of attaching files, for longer items invite recipients to visit your web site for information you are offering.
Be polite. 'Please' and 'Thank You' are great words to help establish a relationship of trust and respect between you and potential future visitors and customers.
Always include a signature file at the end of your mailings. The signature file is simply a few words connected to your business, such as your web site URL, or details of a current offer or sale at your site.
Compile a variety of signature files to suit various types of letter and to avoid having to create a new file for every letter.
Create a series of templates which allow you to quickly answer most regularly posed questions and queries from customers, visitors and enquirers.
Don't write letters when you are angry or confused, especially if that anger is directed towards the recipient. Wait a while, try to calm down, take a back seat view of the situation and attempt a more professional result than simply shouting and swearing across the air waves.
Continuing from the last point, avoid any kind of communication when you are confused or angry. Anger can reveal itself in the tone or words used in your letter. Not a good idea when the person you're communicating with played no part in whatever problem you have.
Always proofread letters before mailing. As said, spelling and grammatical mistakes in a hastily produced letter create a highly unfavourable image.
Don't use long or complicated words when smaller ones will do. Not everyone possesses a lengthy vocabulary and may be confused, intimidated or see your use of unusual words as designed to make them feel inferior. And anyway, the sign of a good writer is one who is easily understood!!!
Avoid slang and colloquialisms at all costs and avoid using words which may have rude or adverse meanings to readers in more distant places. For example, 'Gay' is a word which once meant happiness, 'Spuggie' in the North East of England means 'Bird', and I recall a new car being given a name which in certain parts of the world means 'dung'
Attempt to personalise emails as far as possible. It won't be difficult for small mailings but could be a problem for large mailings personalised by hand. Several software programmes exist for personalising most written communications including email.
Brighten someone's day now and then, let them see there's a real person at the other end of the line. Do this by including a few common Internet symbols and acronyms in your letters now and then. But don't overdo it or you could end up looking amateurish or even silly. Those to consider include:
J shows you are happy.
:) means much the same thing as J
BTW means 'By The Way'
HCIH means 'How Can I Help' - confession here, I've just made that up but it might catch on!
IMHO stands for 'In My Humble Opinion'
TU can be used quite often - it stands for 'Thank You'
Don't use all capital letters in emails. And don't use all lower case either. It isn't professional and can even look childish.
Avoid fads and gimmicks, or simply sloppy shortcuts that make your letters look amateurish and rushed. A fast, sloppy, unprofessional image does no-one any favours. One I particularly hate is using the letter 'i' for the first person 'I'.
Use attention grabbing subject lines to attract interest from potentially hundreds or thousands of waiting emails. This is one time you can disobey the NO CAPITALS rule which in this case can divert attention from all lower case subject lines.
Learn the art of writing great headlines to help attract attention to your subject lines.
Hyperlink contact information in your emails. This means recipients can click on your URL or email address right away and avoid the chance they will forget about it later or lose this vital information. Contact information can be hyperlinked in much the same way as links are included in web site design and better email programmes have the appropriate tools.
One way of sending email is by using an online service, the likes of Prodigy, Pipex or America Online. But some process messages purely between their own subscribers.
Multiple emailing describes the same letter being sent to thousands of recipients simultaneously. It's rather like direct mail via the traditional postal services, colloquially termed 'snail mail' to compare speeds taken to deliver manually as opposed to electronically.
Avoid using bright backgrounds on letters, such as bright red, bright blue, which can appear gaudy and unreadable in some email programmes.
Avoid using a multitude of colours in your emails. I realise the reason is to make your letter stand out from the rest, which it does, but mainly because it looks so ghastly.
Use a decent size font in emails. Don't be tempted to use a small font to fill less space. If that small font gets sent to too many people like myself, who won't waste time struggling to read the message, your letter will go straight in the bin. Sorry!
|
|
