An often overlooked aspect of online marketing is the
importance of how your sales message is delivered. To say
this in a more direct way would be to say, "does your email
message arrive to the reader in a format that is easy to
read, easy to understand, and does is let the reader know
you are serious about your business?"
Formatting your email for success is critical. Here is the
golden rule to follow. Never format your emails to be
greater than 60 characters per line. If you go greater than
60 characters, some of your readers will have trouble
reading your email due to how their email software renders
the message.
Let me illustrate my point with two sample emails.
Email Message # 1 Hello Jim,
Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah
blah blah blah
blah blah, blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah
blah blah blah
blah, blah blah blah blah
.... Thanks, John Doe
(Line width in this example is greater than 60 characters)
Email Message # 2 Hello Jim,
Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah
blah blah blah, blah blah blah blah blah blahblah blah
blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah
blah, blah blah blah blah.
Thanks,
John Doe
(Line width in this example is set at 60 characters to
guarantee a nice presentation in your customer's email
programs.)
I know you will agree that example # 2 is a much better
looking email message than message #1. In fact, I bet you
have deleted email that looked like #1, because of the way
it looked. Right?
Don't let your email messages suffer this tragic fate
because you did not take the time to make them look Good.
Steps to Writing Good Looking Emails
Limit Character width to 60. Use a hard return (that means
hit the 'enter' key when you get to 60 characters, or
before 60 if the next word is long). I create my messages
using Textpad. TextPad ® is a powerful, general purpose
editor for plain text files. Easy to use, with all the
features a power user requires. ( Go to: TextPad.Com and
download the trial copy. )
Avoid using ALL CAPITAL letters. This is viewed as
'screaming' in the cyber world.
If writing your messages in HTML, use font color 'black'
for the text of your messages and use color fonts to
'accent' specific words.
Always use blank lines between paragraphs and between your
signature file and the cordial exit (Thanks, Sincerely..
etc).
A good looking email is a short message with impact...
not a 'book'!
About the Author
Todd N. Thompson is an Internet marketing consultant,
speaker and marketing expert. You can view his latest
project, the "Royal Responder", the best follow-up
autoresponse service available on the internet today, at
http://www.royal-responder.com/good