How to E-Market to Busy, Distracted Readers
ADOTAS EXCLUSIVE — One of the most important aspects of email marketing is the reader. That’s right, the reader. We tend to think last (or not at all) about the reader as we primp our email messages with colors, fonts, images and even flash animation. At the end of the day, email is still a medium of words written for people.
Words make or break an email campaign. Complicating the situation is the fact that people read a computer screen differently than they do a printed page. For one thing, they have a vastly shorter attention span. It is estimated that the average email is only open for 2-5 seconds before the reader takes an action.
It’s helpful to consider the lessons learned from the Internet, as email marketing is a similar digital medium.
Michael Agger wrote earlier this year in Slate:
“On the Internet, we hunt for facts. In earlier days, when switching between sites was time-consuming, we tended to stay in one place and dig. Now we assess a site quickly, looking for an ‘information scent.’ We move on if there doesn’t seem to be any food around.”
Consider too that switching from one Web site to another is often done without another thought. A user who has a frustrating experience on one site jumps to another but tends not to hold a grudge against the first one. In email interactions, the user, by opening the email, has made a somewhat deeper commitment, and souring that relationship by serving a poorly conceived message can have lasting effects. Remember what usability guru Jakob Nielsen said: Web readers “are selfish, lazy and ruthless.”
To avoid that situation and create the best email marketing environment for readers, here are three keys to help you construct the perfect email paragraph.
The unifying theme is simple: Make whatever you write actionable.
• Make headlines and subheads action-oriented and clickable. These are the most easily digestible pieces of information in a written paragraph. That 2-5-second attention span may be spent just on the headline, so make sure the reader can do something if he’s made a decision.
• Design your text for scanning and action. Christina Laun, writing at VirtualHosting.com, says:
“Text attracts attention before graphics. Contrary to what you might think, the first thing users look at on a Web site isn’t the images. Most casual users will be coming to your site looking for information, not images, so make sure your Web site is designed so that the most important parts of your text are what is most prominent.”
Marketers should avoid fancy formatting and fonts. Laun says users ignore them because they assume they are ads and don’t have the information they need.
While this is about the written word, think less Shakespeare and more Hemingway. Keep. It. Short. Bold-face important words and phrases. Decisions are being made with each word the reader crosses, so make it easier to take action at any time.
• End your closing sentence with a call to action to create urgency. If you’ve tightened your copy as outlined above, the reader probably has made it to the end. Emphasize your point by suggesting that your message is so important that action needs to be taken now.
In building a successful email marketing campaign, it’s all about the words. They’re as important today as they were 5,000 years ago when the Sumerians first started putting their thoughts down on their version of email: Clay tablets.
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