How many emails do you get a day?

I asked this question to a networking group this morning and the expressions that I saw were priceless. The very act of visualizing their cluttered “inbox” brought emotions that ranged from frustration to horror on their faces. My focus today is not whether you, I, or that @#$!! spammer should be sending so much email. The focus is what you can do that will cause your intended reader to “click” on your subject line and open your email – this time and especially in the future. Do you want your reader to look at your email as important, not intrusive? To adapt a phrase that is used by one of my favorite networking groups, the sequence to getting your email read is Visibility, Credibility, Readability

Is this You?

1. You care about your relationship with the email reader. It is your goal that the next time that they receive email from you that they will actually be more inclined to open it than this time. This assumption means that we are not going to do some of the “dirty” tricks that some use to get you to open your email. 2. You actually have a message that will be perceived as important your reader. This might sound obvious but as you will see in a moment, not all email really is worth reading. If you can’t decide why this email is important to them, then don’t send it.
3. Your time is important and so is your client’s. Again, this sounds obvious but if you want email credibility you need to make most email so that is quick to read, simple to understand why they should respond, and simple and easy to respond to.

If these assumptions are true about you then here are some handy guidelines.

Visibility

The Subject Line = The Headline. Everyone who writes copy will tell you that the most important part of any mailing is the headline. The subject for an email is your headline. If you don’t have a subject that states clearly why your reader should open the email (from their point of view) then it might as well be invisible.  Here’s a clue – see assumption #2. The important reason that you are sending the email (and the content) and their motivation should be included in the subject line. Examples of a good subject line look like:

• John – Attached is the report that you needed for today’s meeting; or
• 20% off special for my customers through Christmas Eve; or
• Mary – I need your response by 4PM today or I will not be able to make airline reservations for your trip this weekend.

This also includes replies to email messages. Have you had an email dialogue with someone where the Subject line looks like: “re: Subject” and you aren’t sure which reply it was? Are you likely to open it? Try this to improve the response on your replies. If the original subject read: “Which color of pen should we buy for upcoming tradeshow?” and you wanted to reply that you thought blue was the best color you might be able to simply reply by typing: “Blue is my choice – ” in the subject line ahead of the original Subject and click the send button. The result will look like: “re: Blue is my choice – Which color of pen should we buy for the upcoming tradeshow?” No need to even open that email – you’ve answered the question and the other person will be thankful for the easy-to-read response. By the way – do you think you get email credibility when you do this? You bet! What if you need a more complicated response. State what the main issue is and what you need in the subject line. From the previous example it could read: “re: Do we have samples? – Which color of pen should we buy for the upcoming tradeshow?”. You could then state in your reply that you need to see samples to see how your logo looks in the different colors.

Timing. This is the closest to a “trick” that I will recommend for this topic. If you want your email read have it sent either very early in the morning or very late at night. That way it will be the first thing seen the following day. Most email clients can schedule outgoing mail. Learning how to do that will help your email seen at the beginning of the day.

Credibility

The body of your email will have credibility if it does three things. One, the content should match/respond to the subject line. Two, it must be concise and clearly state what the reader’s benefit is and how you want them to respond. Three, it must respect their time. Most email gets about 10 seconds before the reader closes it or deletes it. Unless the reader can understand what to do in that time limit you are going to have a reduced response. If you have attended a networking meeting or you work in sales, you know the importance of an “Elevator Speech” or “30 Second Intromercial”. You learned to boil down your message so that it could be understood quickly – before the attention span of your audience faded. That skill is essential in creating effective email. Don’t get me wrong – there is a time and a place for longer email including certain sales letters. But most of the time our readers will not give us that much time. If we want to save that extra allowance for when we really need it then we need to be a clear and concise as possible.

Readability

If you practice the art of making your email’s subject line Visible (important) and the content is Credible (consistent with the title, beneficial to the reader, clear and concise) your email will be have high “Readability” and you will feel get better email results.