As I mentioned in an earlier post, I spend a lot of time on email. Writing for clients, writing to clients. Prospecting. Communicating with tenants in the buildings I manage. Sharing ideas with colleagues. The whole enchilada.
I’ve written about how to create effective sales and marketing emails. And before I pass on some great tips from direct marketing writer extraordinaire Ivan Levison, I want point out that we’re all in sales, whether that’s our job title or not. And that means that we can all benefit from what he has to say.
Here are Mr. Levison’s five tips:
- Write a great subject line ‒ That means short and punchy. Short—no more than 40 characters and spaces— is key. So be mindful of your real estate. And while you’re at it, check out Blogspot for this list of spam trigger words. () You want your message to get by spam filters and get opened when it does.
- Use your URL early on ‒ Don’t bury it. If you’ve piqued readers’ interest, they’ll want to go further and that means going to a website. (Mr. Levison didn’t actually say that, but I think it’s a good reason for putting your URL up front.
- “Identify the reader’s pain quickly” ‒ Before you even address features and benefits, make sure your prospect knows that you know what they’re up against. That old Tegrin “heartbreak of psoriasis” commercial of 1963 may seem laughable (to some) now, but it did a heck of a good job of identifying with the viewers.
- Make sure your message is long enough ‒ Wow. This advice seems almost counter-intuitive, but Mr. Levison notes that even a seven or eight-paragraph email is ok if it contains valuable information.
- Be enthusiastic ‒ “Flat, boring writing just won’t cut it.” Show some energy, even a touch of attitude and a sense of fun. You need it to “cut through the clutter.”
Writing great email messages takes practice and polishing what you write until it gets your point across in the best way possible. I believe the effort is worth it.
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