Tested Guidelines for Improving E-mail Response

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Author: Dean Rieck

It's fast. It's cheap. And if done correctly, it's incredibly effective. E-mail marketing is still in its infancy, but over the last few years marketers have started to discover how to make this exciting new medium work.

Here are nine tactics for boosting response:

• Write an attention-grabbing subject line. You can state your offer (Get 600,000 pieces of clip art for only $69.95!), offer something free (Free Dow Jones Video Just For Asking), announce exciting news (Russian scientist discovers biological secret of love), appeal to the how-to instinct (How to find out anything about anyone!), or ask a question (Want an easy way out of debt?). The subject line is like teaser copy on an envelope. Its only purpose is to get people interested enough to want to know more.

• Get creative with your subject line. Arouse curiosity by ending your line mid-sentence (To cut your travel costs in half just…). Establish a personal feel with the "forward" abbreviation (FW: Here's something I think you'll like). Create excitement with a "nuts" line (We're going nuts trying to reach you!). Create familiarity with a "whoops" line (Whoops! Important correction to my last e-mail). The possibilities are endless.

• Don't forget the "from" line. What's one of the first things you do when you get a letter by regular mail? You look at the upper left-hand corner of the envelope to see who sent it. Likewise, when people get e-mail, they look at the from line to see who sent it. You can use a company name (From: SharperImage), personal name (From: Richard Thalheimer), e-mail address (From: Richard@sharperimage.com), department address (From: SpecialOffers@sharperimage.com), anonymous address (From: 23456@si.com), or just about anything you want. Generally, however, people pay more attention to messages from people they know.

• Get to the point quickly. Expand on your subject line in the headline or first paragraph of your e-mail letter. Telegraph your offer clearly and completely. If your subject line reads, "Get $100.00 off your utility bills," your first paragraph could read, "Sign up now for a RISK-FREE 30-day trial of Shopper's Discount and you can get $100 in FREE UTILITIES! We will send you $100 in Utility Cash-Back Certificates … good for gas, electric, cable TV, phone … absolutely FREE."
  
  
• Include a salutation. Many e-mail letters work fine without a salutation, looking more like short ads. But if you want your letter to look like a letter, you'll need a salutation at the top or after a headline. You can make it generic (Dear Friend, Dear Pet Lover, Dear Homeowner), but a personalized salutation is better whenever that's an option. Simply include the word "Dear" followed by a field for the first name or first and last name of the recipient. You can personalize your body text in the same way with names, places, locations, and various bits of information. Don't overdo it, though, or you'll raise privacy concerns. 

• Include at least three links. Unless you're trying to sell something directly from your e-mail, you will be sending your reader to an HTML page to complete the transaction. That means including a link that the reader can click on or cut and paste into a browser's address window. This link should appear at least three times: after the offer in your first paragraph, somewhere in the middle of the letter, and again at the end. For newsletters, you can break your copy into several short items, each on a different subject with its own link.

• Keep it short (usually). Prevailing wisdom is that a prospect letter should be from 200 to 500 words and a newsletter from 500 to 1,500 words. But don't rely on that. Successful letters can be anywhere from a few sentences to thousands of words. In general, if you want to sell right from the letter, you need more copy. If you want people to go to another location, keep it short and say just enough to get the click-through.

• Don't look like a spammer. Keep your tone friendly and informative. Avoid overblown language. Keep the exclamation points to a minimum. Avoid lots of all-cap lines, which is akin to screaming in cyberspace.

• Test everything. This includes from lines, subject lines, personalization, plain text vs. HTML, offers, length, everything. And don't forget to test the page that you're sending people to. Every little improvement translates into more revenue for each subsequent mailing. 

Copyright © 2003 Dean Rieck. All Rights Reserved.

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Dean Rieck is an internationally respected copywriter, designer, and consultant specializing in direct marketing. He is president of Direct Creative, a full-service creative firm that helps businesses increase sales and generate leads through effective direct response advertising. For free access to direct marketing articles, tips, and tutorials, visit www.DirectCreative.com.