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Major Communications
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Major Communications
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In the past couple of years well over 30,000 email messages have come across my desk and I have seen quite a few styles of writing, however, in this new age of online marketing, it seems to me, that entrepreneurs need to take a few moments before they press that send button on their email program and check their messages out. In the online world, email is the most important contact you have with prospective clients, current customers and business associates! After all, email is about communication, so CLARITY should be your ultimate goal. After reading thousands of email messages, I sometimes try and picture the person who sent it. I look at their writing style, what they are saying and most importantly, how they are saying it! Then I sit back and try to get a picture in my mind of the person on the other end of the email. Have you ever thought about what your recipient thinks about YOU and YOUR BUSINESS, based upon the email messages you send them? You might be very surprised!
RATE YOUR EMAIL WRITING ABILITY
TAKE A QUICK LITTLE SELF TEST
I recommend trying this quick 5 step email self test before you
send out your email:
1. Write the email and when you are finished, run it through a
spell checker.
2. Now read the email back, out loud. If it is a long email you
might need to print it out to make this task easier, if not,
just read it from the screen.
3. Make any corrections that are needed, then take a 5 minute
break and do something else, then read it out loud again.
4. Make any additional changes and decide if it is the way you
want it to go out.
5. Send the email.
It may seem like quite a bit to go through, especially if you are sending out a lot of emails every day ( I usually send out 40 to 50 daily) but I think you will find that your outgoing mail will become more effective and it even could create a few orders in the process. Once you begin to get the hang of it, you can probably remove step 4 and possibly step 3 to shorten the process.
So just how did you do? Did you have to make quite a few changes from your original draft or were you pretty much on target? Or did you have to make three or four drafts to get the final product to send out? Whatever the case, this little test should have given you a very good idea of the type of email you are sending out.
SOME TIPS FOR WRITING MORE EFFECTIVE EMAIL MESSAGES
Before we get into the message of the email itself, we need to
discuss the SUBJECT, TO and FROM sections of the email first.
These three items have a major effect on the eventual outcome
of your email message.
1. EMAIL SUBJECT LINE
When you are browsing through your incoming email, how do you
decide which ones to look at first, or at all for that matter?
By the SUBJECT! Just as in ad headlines, the SUBJECT is the most
important part of your email message. So how do you get your
email looked at first?
Always Include A Subject Line In Your Email: This is what determines the order in which email messages are read. I don't know of one email program that doesn't present you with the subject line when you browse your incoming mail and it's often the only clue the recipient has about the contents when reading incoming mail.
Make The Subject Line Meaningful: You want this line to be meaningful to the recipient. This is where you use keywords about the content of the message. Don't use all capital letters as it is commonly considered as SHOUTING. Use words that invoke an emotion if possible. People react to emotions, so if your message is a sales letter it should be easy to do. If they are answering an ad the subject should include something that reminds them that they requested this information.
Here is a good example of what I am talking about. I'm sure many of you out there have had this happen to you and quite possibly been guilty of it yourself!
You have a web site that offers five different products or services. Every morning, when you are checking your incoming mail you receive an email with the subject line that looks like this: (Send Info). Well I'm sure the person who sent the email knows exactly what information they are requesting, but do you? In my early online marketing days, I would reply back to this prospect and ask them just what information they want as I offer quite a few products and services. Now I just don't have the time and feel that if my product or service really interested them, they would have sent me a more specific email.
However, I now use autoresponders that are coded for a specific product or service, so when this happens they do get what they were asking for, but I get an email forwarded to me with their original request for follow up purposes (discussed in an earlier issue) and I do read them.
Replying To A Message: If you are replying to a message but are changing the subject of the conversation, change the subject too - or better still, start a new message altogether. The subject is usually the easiest way to follow the thread of a conversation, so changing the conversation without changing the subject can be confusing to the recipient and could cause your email to be deleted.
2. EMAIL TO & FROM HEADINGS
Use personal names if possible. Most email programs allow you
to use a textual string that is attached to your email address.
Look in the help file of your email software to find out where
to place your name. A personal name attached to your address
identifies you much better than your address will by itself.
Use A Sensible Personal Name: Make sure the personal name is sensible and identifies you to your recipients. Once you build goodwill with this name it will be worth a fortune to your later. Don't use something cool or catchy but something that is about or describes your business. A business name, if not too long, works very well.
For Example: The address twassociates@intersuccess.com conveys less information than if it were written as (Terry Williams & Associates) twassociates@intersuccess.com.
Use Personal Names Of Your Recipients: If someone responds to you using their own personal name, reply back to them with the same personal name. This will create a more personal relationship with whom you are communicating with. However, many people still like the anonymity of the Internet and if they use their email address in their responses, follow suit.
3. THE EMAIL FORMAT
You want to format your message length and content based on
the conversation and the tenor of the communication. Your
personal messages will look and feel completely different than
your business messages and if you are only making a quick
query, then keep it short and to the point.
Keep The Content On Subject: If you need to change the subject in the middle of the message or branch off onto a totally new and different direction, then it's often better to send a new message. Just let the recipient know another message will be sent about the new subject.
Use Capitalization Sparingly: Don't type your message in all CAPITALS, it's extremely difficult to read and considered by many as SHOUTING. However, you might want to use a short stretch of capitals to emphasize a point. Make sure to break your message into logical paragraphs and restrict sentences to sensible lengths. You want clarity here, not a jumbled bunch of sentences.
Use Correct Grammar And Spelling: Email is all about communication. Poorly worded and misspelled messages are hard to read and potentially confusing. You want your messages to be clear, concise and to the point. Don't ever rush writing your email messages. Remember the quick 5 step test? Apply it and you will get the intended point across to your recipients.
Beware Of Fancy Formatting: If your email program supports fancy formatting (bold, italic, etc.) in the mail messages it generates, be careful not to overkill. There are still quite a few email programs that cannot display these features and your email looks terrible to the recipient (they will also receive all the codes and no formatting).
4. EMAIL REPLIES
How many times have you received an email with the entire
original message included in the reply? For example: There
is a line of communication between two parties and they
exchange a few email messages. If they include the entire
contents of each email and use the forward feature of their
email program, then your messages will begin to take quite
a bit of time to download. Starting to get the picture?
Include Just Enough To Provide Context: Just use enough of the original message to refresh the recipients memory. If you receive a large number of emails daily, like I do, a quick reminder of the topic usually suffices. Also you want to set off the original context with a marker. Many email programs use >> when forwarding or replying to set off the original message. Don't use the entire message with a "me too" added at the end, as it is not only annoying but of very little use.
Always Check The TO & CC Headings: Be very careful about these headings. I'm sure you have received an email with 50 or more email addresses on it, usually spam, and someone hits the reply button and doesn't remove all of the addresses and everyone gets back the same message with a "Remove" or another more original response on it. This is not only careless but annoying and it makes folks on the list very mad.
Is The Reply Really Warranted: Make sure before you reply, that a reply is really warranted. This is very important when you are replying to a mail server, you might want to send your reply privately or not at all. Always think twice before your reply! It could hurt more than you can imagine.
5. EMAIL COURTESY
Email is all about communication with other people and some
basic courtesy goes a long way.
Use Please And Thank You: If you're asking for something don't forget to say "please". Similarly, if someone does something for you, it never hurts to say "thank you". This might sound trivial but it's amazing how many people who are perfectly polite in everyday life seem to forget their manners in their email.
Don't Expect An Immediate Answer: Just because you don't receive an immediate answer or response doesn't mean you are being ignored. There are many reasons why you might not get a quick response but you want to make sure you send someone at least a quick "I received your request and will get back with you by tomorrow" type message and then make sure you do.
Use Smiley Faces To Provide Body Language: Email is very close to a face to face conversation without the eye contact and body language. You can use smiley faces to put some body language and emotions in your email messages. The most common is the smiley faces. Using smiley faces carefully can improve the clarity of your message, since they convey nuances which approximate "body language". Like any embellishment, overuse of smiley faces destroys their value so use them sparingly.
Praise In Public And Chastise In Private: Always avoid public "flame" messages sent in anger. Messages sent in the heat of the moment only make you look bad and are usually regretted later, and can't be taken back! Take some time and get over the initial emotion before flaming someone in public, you'll be glad you did! If you want to praise someone then by all means do it in public. Everyone likes to hear nice comments about themselves and when it is done publicly, it's even more powerful.
6. EMAIL SIGNATURES
This is a small block of text appended to the end of your
messages, which usually contains your contact information.
Most email programs can automatically add a signature to
your messages. Signatures are a perfect way to announce your
Unique Selling Proposition to your recipients but they are
also subject to abuse. Balance is the key to a good email
signature.
Always Add Your Signature: Don't send your email messages without it! Make sure your signature announces your USP, identifies who you are and includes contact information (phone, fax, URL are usual). Keep your signature short, four to seven lines is a handy guideline for maximum signature length. Unnecessarily long signatures can be annoying.
Using Random Strings: Some email programs allow you to add random strings to your signature. You want to be very careful here and you should consider the following basic guidelines. Keep it short, avoid quotes that might offend people on the grounds of religion, race, politics or sexuality and don't try to draw out pictures as they never seem to come out right.
THE BOTTOM LINE
Writing and communicating via email is one of the most
important marketing tools any business utilizes. Always
remember that you are dealing with people and people come
in all shapes, sizes and personalities and that email is
an incredibly powerful marketing and communication tool
that must be used like any other tool, with purpose and
care! While you can't always be perfectly correct with
email, if you apply the "test" I provided, you will be
well on your way of mastering the most powerful and
important marketing tool in the tool box.
Excerpted From "Internet Marketing Issues" A Free Weekly Ezine Published By Terry Williams & Associates. Terry Williams, President of Terry Williams & Associates, is an internationally known online marketing expert and author of online marketing books and articles that’ll get you on the right online marketing track and help you explode your online profits.
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