Write an email with the perfect amount of content.
People are on email overload; however, it is still arguably one of the most effective means of solicitation (right along with those handwritten letters). Understanding how much content to add into one email helps you to:
- Produce results
- Maintain an effective email strategy
- Get your message / mission across
There are three things to consider before you write the email and three things to keep in mind when actually writing it:
- Consider who you are sending it to.
Spend five minutes thinking about the audience who will receive this email. Imagine what they are doing, how they would read your email, and what else they may have going on. Keep this in mind as you write the email. - Establish a tone and voice.
Based on the audience the email is going to, consider what tone and voice will draw the most attention (this will dictate everything from your subject line to the actual body of the message). Should you try humor? Perhaps, it should be written in Tweet snippets so people digest the information. - Prepare a delicious piece of value-added info.
More than anything, people like to learn something or receive a golden nugget – like theSkimm. Consider adding a truly interesting fact, or just a new piece of information that you are confident will benefit the recipient in some way.
Three things to consider when writing your email content:
- Short, concise, shorter.
If you are not used to this exercise, you may have to revise your email a few times; going over every sentence to see what a short / more concise way of saying something could be, and determining if each sentence is absolutely necessary - Lead through punctuation!
Lead the reader through your email by using exclamation marks, bold, italics, underlines, etc. So you are sure if someone were to merely glance at your email, their eyes would immediately be drawn to the most important parts. Information hierarchy.
Extra tip: people are finding more success with emails that are not image heavy, so try sticking to text. Test your emails over time (A/B) to determine what works best. And schedule it for a completely unexpected time (Sunday, very early in the morning, or late in the evening).
Organization who send impactful emails:
