| August 16, 2007 | AWS Creative } Lone Star Eagle News |
Put yourself in the shoes of your email recipients for a second. Take a look over their shoulders as they open their email service.
What do they see? A list of messages that trickled in overnight — some from friends and associates, some from email lists they're subscribed to (including yours), and probably a whole lot of junk.
Once they get to your email, if their email program has a preview pane, they will only see the top of the message. If they're interested, they'll open the email and read the first paragraph to see what it's all about. If they’re not interested, the message will be trashed.
My guess is that having your important message skimmed for a second, then trashed it is not your desired goal. Thus, a cruicial question is this: how can you take the quick preview of your message (ie: WHAT YOUR RECIPIENT IS GOING TO DO FIRST) and turn it into a lasting relationship? (ie: WHAT YOU WANT YOUR RECIPIENT TO DO).
Learn How Your Email Folds!
When you're flipping through your postal mail or snail mail, after you've identified who a letter is from, if you know who it is from, you may open the envelope and pull out the content. If you don’t know who its from its likely you toss it in the trash. Your first impression about whether it's junk or something of worth determines whether you keep it or trash it! Right? The same is true for those who receive your email.
"Above the fold" is a print industry term describing what appears on a page above the first folding line. With email, it applies where the imaginary line cuts off what recipients will likely see when they pull up your email in their preview pane or before they scroll to read more.
How Does it Affect My Email Delivery?
Just like for postal mail, what appears in this top space is crucial to whether your recipients read the content of your message or open it then close or trash it, inflating your open rates superficially.
If what they see and process in the first few seconds doesn't pull them in and give them the nudge that says “YOU MUST GET MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THIS,” then you can bet that they will pass over your email to the next message who will get the same brutal 'pass-fail' judgment.
Get Your Messages Read
So, we've established the importance of the top portion of your email. Now, how do we write it?
Branding Your Email Is Critical
If your recipients are fixated on what pops up in the preview pane (the little box that shows the first part of a message in some email programs), how will your recipients recognize you? Do they know your personal name? Do you know your company name? What is it they know about you? This is what gets noticed first. WHO is sending me this email is far more important than WHAT the email says.
If you are using a TEXT message, write your byline or “hook” in the Subject Line. I send out an email campaign every Monday morning to hundreds of non-prophet center directors. It is called the Monday Minute. Thus, when I write my email, it uses a subject line branded it to the name of the podcast:
Subject: MONDAY MINUTE for today's date
If you're using an HTML message, throw in your logo for good measure. Use a color scheme that fits your web page's design.
Focus on Your Primary Goal and Purpose for sending the email
What is the main purpose of your email? If you are looking to drive traffic to a particular page, write a short teaser paragraph and include a link to the page somewhere near the top. If you are selling a service or product mention it in the header.
If you're writing a more lengthy letter, give some good thought to the effectiveness of your first few paragraphs. Can you start off with an interesting personal story to draw in a reader?
For instance: What if I wrote a headline like “EVERYONE NEEDS A WEBSITE – DO YOU? Raises the question “Who needs Website? “ Most may agree that a business needs a website. But if you are a self-employed freelance writer and having a small site would mean $600-$1000 out of your pocket, I don’t think my headline would appeal to you. So, if you are not interested, then how can I expect you to open my message and learn more about website design I offer? You have to grab their attention with something that means something to them.
Then, once you grab their attention, give some text that pushes their attention downward.
Magical Openings That Make Readers Beg For More…
1. Welcome. ?
2. Here’s you chance to… ?
3. In looking over our records I noticed that you… ?
4. Will do me a favor?
5. Will you try this experiment? ?
6. Here’s an amazing opportunity! ?
7. I’m writing to
8. Congratulations! ?
9. <Service or product> will change your life ?
10. I couldn’t wait to write to you about <Service or product>… ?
11. Please take a minute from your busy schedule and read this
letter…I promise you will not regret it. ?
12. I’m writing you this note for a personal reason. I’ve rarely written notes like this in the past, but I ?feel that it is essential to bring this to your attention. ?
13. Good news! ?
14. Imagine, for a moment, that it’s 6 months from today… ?
15. I’d like to tell you about…<Service or product>? ?
16. Would you do us a favor? You have been specially selected to
participate in an important survey. ?
17. Are you paying too much for <Service or product>?
Now what?
Don't stop there, or else your readers will. Focus also on the rest of your message and how it appears at first glance. Now that readers think your message sounds interesting, you're in the front door … but they can still throw you out in the trash (along with your message) if you don’t keep their attention.
"Unfold" it and take a look a little further down. Is the rest of your message one big, uninteresting looking blob of text, all run together? Make your paragraphs short and consider adding some headings and graphics to help the message breathe more.
Utilize copy transitions and connectors to transfer their thought from first sentence to the second sentence. From the second to the third and so forth.
Here are 75 copy transitions for you to consider. They are paragraph starters that work!
Copy Transitions And Connectors
1. A few examples of what you’ll discover… ?
2. Add this to… ?
3. After all… ?
4. Also,… ?
5. Although,… ?
6. Am I right about you so far? ?
7. And guess what? ?
8. And like I said: ?
9. And look at this: ?
10. And now you can… ?
11. And now,… ?
12. And that’s just a small ‘taste’ of what’s in ?store for you. ?
13. And that’s just the beginning… ?
14. And that’s just the start! ?
15. And that’s not all… ?
16. And the result? ?
17. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. ?
18. And what if I could take… ?
19. And while we’re at it,… ?
20. And yet,… ?
21. And, oh yes, let’s not forget… ?
22. And,…. ?
23. Anyhow,… ?
24. Anyway,… ?
25. Are we crazy? ?
26. As a result,…
27. As I said,…. ?
28. As I say,… ?
29. As well as… ?
30. As you probably remember,… ?
31. As you read on, I’ll tell you more about ?how… ?
32. At that moment,…. ?
33. Back to the purpose of this letter. ?
34. Believe me,… ?
35. Best of all,…. ?
36. Better yet. ?
37. But before we go into that,… ?
38. But better still… ?
39. But better yet… ?
40. But don’t get me wrong… ?
41. But don’t take my word for it… ?
42. But even if you were to… ?
43. But first a warning: ?
44. But first a word of introduction… ?
45. But first, let me give you… ?
46. But here’s the most important part! ?
47. But I have an even better idea. ?
48. But I’m getting way ahead of myself. ?
49. But I’m jumping ahead. Let me tell you how ?this all came about:
50. But just keep reading. ?
51. But let me go back to the beginning to ?continue the story…
?52. But let’s suppose… ?
53. But there is an irony in all of this. ?
54. But there’s a rub – and it’s really ironic. ?
55. But, here’s a problem… ?
56. But, that’s only half the story… ?
57. But, there’s one more thing: ?
58. But,… ?
59. By now, you probably have some unanswered ?questions… ?
60. By now, you’re probably wondering… ?
61. By the way,… ?
62. Consider this fact: ?
63. Could that be true? ?
64. Despite what you may have heard… ?
65. Do you qualify? ?
66. Don’t worry… ?
67. Fact is,… ?
68. Finally,…. ?
69. First off,… ?
70. First,…. ?
71. For all these reasons,… ?
72. For example: ?
73. For instance:
74. For starters,…
IS YOUR MESSAGE TOO LONG?
Could your readers run a marathon in less time than it takes to read your message? Then, consider serializing it (breaking it into a few messages).
What do I mean by serializing it? Do you remember the short news serials that used to run before a movie at the theatre? When I was a kid, I remember watching episode after episode of Roy Rogers and Dale Evans. They were the predecessors to today’s sit coms and soap operas. To serialize your message, you tell a piece of the message, whetting the whistle of your reader. Then in the next piece you tell a little more, again whetting the whistle of your reader. You repeat this process as many times as needed to tell your whole story. How can you do this with email?
It is very simple: Use the power of an autoresponder! What is an autoresponder? It is a software application that enables you to send multiple messages over a timed period. For example, you might send a message each day for 7 days to communicate your product or service in seven different ways.
TRY A – B TESTING OF YOUR MESSAGE
Try different types of copy at the top of your message; different types of connectors and transitions to see what really boosts your results. Assign copy #1 to a part of the names on your mail list. Assign copy #2 to another list of names. Keep the rest of the message the same and vary only the top of the message and your connectors.
Split test messages allow you to measure open and click rates. Compare the results. Which message was opened the most.
Now that you have the result of your A-B split test, you can improve your email delivery results every time you send an email.
Remember this: to improve your email delivery rate: Make your subject a “Must learn more about this” subject and make your first paragraph lead you to the “rest of the story.” Make every paragraph lead to the next. Make each email lead to and build an expectancy for the next email. Split test two or more samples. When you get the results, use that formula for every email message you send. You will be glad you did!
Another tip from your friends at AWS Creative Solutions.
Ken Freeman, senior consultant
AWS Creative
P.O. BOX 462192
Garland TX 75046
Telephone: 903-926-2607
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