Get results with your emails

Here's how to get your emails read

1. Personalise: People love to see their name. So personalise your email to them. Even if you are sending it out as bulk to many different people, there are software tools that allow you to personalise each and every email so that it looks as though it has come direct from you and direct to them -- one-to-one.

2. Write just like you talk: Use plain, easy to understand English. Nobody cares if you can use xenophobia and ostentatious in the same sentence. Write almost like you are talking to your best mate over a beer. So that means use contractions. Be friendly and personable in your writing.

3. Put passion in your communication: Since you don't have the luxury of seeing your prospect eye-to-eye to gauge their reactions you need to put extra passion into your message. Even if you think you are overdoing it when you write, your email will seem understated when it gets read. Get enthusiastic!

4. Write to one person: Especially important when you are writing an email that will be sent to more than one person, try to think of the ideal prospect/client as you are writing and make the message just for them. Even if the message will be read by thousands of people, every person will read it one at a time. Use "you" and "your" liberally. Focus on them, not yourself.

5. Keep your sentences and paragraphs short: Keep your sentences and paragraphs short and simple.

Period.

Sentences (even paragraphs) can even be one word like that last one. And paragraphs should be no more than 4 or 5 lines. You want your email to look easy to read with lots of white space. Make it inviting. Long blocks of words are scary. Paragraph breaks do NOT need to be determined by content.

6. Use plenty of compelling subheads: Subheads should be like mini-headlines. Use them to break up large bodies of text and to bring people back into the body of the email.

A lot of people will scan your email so you need to make your subheads give a complete selling message by themselves. Also, be sure to use different graphic embellishments.

7. Eliminate excess wording: Simplify. Convey your message in a clear and concise manner -- but remember that doesn't mean 'keep it short'.

My personal guru of direct marketing, Ted Nicholas, repeatedly states that copy can never be too long, just too boring . All things considered equal, longer copy will always outperform shorter copy, AS LONG AS the copy is compelling and not boring. And you need to ruthlessly edit your email for flow.

8. Use action verbs whenever possible: If you see too many "as", "is", "was" or "were" replace them. Sentences using action verbs are more powerful.

When writing your email you want it clear enough so that any high school student can understand it. Now, you probably think that your prospects/clients are a lot smarter than the average high school student. But nobody has time anymore to sit down and figure out what you're trying to say -- so keep your writing simple and straightforward.

Oh, and go through your text and cut out the word "that" wherever you possibly can. It's a 'dead' word that reduces the impact of any sentence.

Or you might like to read the above sentence as: It's a dead word and reduces the impact of any sentence.

Which one do you think is more powerful?

Important particulars

There are a few important points you need to be aware of.

1. Always give people the option of being removed from your mailing list. Very important now that Privacy Laws are coming in all around the world and spam levels are so high.

2. Make your links 'clickable'. In order to make it easy for people to go straight from your email to your website you need to make your links 'clickable'. Here's how a link should be written in your email: http://www.yoursite.com. .

Most email programs will recognise this as a link.

And if you want to make an email link you should write it as mailto:emailaddress@yoursite.com.

Well, that's it. Happy writing!

Lee Hopkins is a business communications and strategy expert. When you match consumer psychology with effective communication styles you get a powerful combination. At Hopkins-Business-Communication-Training.com you can find the secrets to communication success. At Hopkins we show you how to communicate better for better business results.