Monday 10 May 2010

How To Write Effective E-Mails


The first step in writing effective emails and newsletters is to get them opened. Just because people have subscribed to your mailing list does not guarantee they are going to open every email or newsletter you send them. To make your emails and newsletters effective you must start with a subject line that is going to grab the readers attention and the simplest way to do this is in the way you use your text and the words that you use.

Think of your subject line like a newspaper headline, go to your newsagents and browse the headlines, that should give you some ideas of how to grab a readers attention.
Of course E-Mail marketing is now even more competitive than newspaper sales so you have to be even more creative.
The creative use of symbols and white space when composing your email subject line will make you more noticeable than your competitors.

Take a look at these examples:

The *SHOCKING* Truth Behind Effective HeadlinesRead
The *Ama 'Z' inG* Subject Lines Of The Stars
***Getting Noticed ***>
Discover How To Write ~DANGEROUS~ Subject Lines
STOP! Don't Write Another E-Mail

On these examples you will notice the use of 'High Impact' words, symbols and white space (the space between words and/or letters. Remember also that everybody wants something for nothing so words like "Free", "Bonus", "Gift", etc. also work.
There are hundreds of high impact words and phrases to use, so experiment and the next time a piece of text grabs your attention take a second to analyse why you noticed it, you will soon build up your email subject line writing skills.

If you are sending emails out in bulk you have probably built your own list and are using an Autoresponder. Hopefully when you built your list you gathered details such as the person's name and perhaps their geographical and demographic information. Armed with this information and assuming you are using a good quality Autoresponder you can add further impact by personalising you email subject line, for example an email to "Joe" from New York might read:

*Joe! Discover The Amazing Secrets New Yorkers Send By E-Mail
or
~New Yorkers Qualify for Extra Bonus~
or
New York Man "Discovers The Secret" Of Effective E-Mails

Try to think of your email or newsletter as a team effort, each part of your email forming part of the team and the subject line is only part of that team, the more you learn about the different parts of the team the more effective your email marketing campaigns will be. (Read E-Mail Marketing ezines)

Remember "A teams strength is much greater than the sum of it's individual parts" So pay attention to detail, each small contribution when added to all the others makes a much bigger impact than it first appears.

You can get some fantastic free tools to help with the main body of your emails and newsletters at: Earnalot Amazing E-Mails

Tuesday 4 May 2010

Confused Pilot?

Was this a very confused pilot or did he have advanced warning?






These photographs were taken of the sky above
Southern Withernsea in East Yorkshire, England
on the afternoon before British airspace was closed
due to the Icelandic Volcano erupting.
It appears to be the contrail of a jet circling overhead.
Had he seen the dust cloud coming?