Email Marketing Formula, The Beginning - Get Your Emails Read

Here's what I do for about 90 percent of the email messages I receive: Delete, Delete, Delete... Some days it's so bad, I think my finger's going to get jammed from pressing the "Delete" button so much.

The email messages get deleted for various reasons. Since I now send email marketing messages myself, I try to pay closer attention to emails I receive but don't read, as well as those I do read. I do this in an attempt to discern what compels me to open and read one message versus deleting another either without opening it, or very soon thereafter. The result boils down to this:

The Headline Is Important! The Headline Is Important! The Headline Is Important!

"You had me at "Hello"...Remember that line from the Jerry McGuire movie? If the subject line of your email does not grab your reader by the hair, that reader will most likely delete your message immediately. Period. End of story. Your subject line simply MUST be attention-grabbing.

Now grabbing readers' attention can be accomplished in a variety of ways. You can appeal to their emotions, sense of curiosity, even their greed. However you choose to do it, the result must be the same. You must command the readers' attention and get them interested enough to at least open your message instead of hitting the delete button without another second's consideration.

I could talk about email subject lines all day, because this is such an important part of email marketing, but to make this lesson as brief as possible, let's put it this way:

To be effective, your email subject line needs to be one or a combination of these:

1. Descriptive – As a reader, I want to know what your email is about before I open your message (see first paragraph above). Using your most relevant keyword(s) within the subject line can be helpful here. For example, if your headline reads "Receive 25% Off Clothes Purchases" my response is likely to be "So," (yawn) and guess what comes next? Delete. But if your subject line reads "Get $25 Cash Back On Your Next Purchase of Elder Berman Jeans", and I'm an Elder Berman customer, I'm clicking that headline!

2. Compelling - Appeal to me on an emotional or interest level. For instance, here is the subject line of an actual email I recently received: "I Have Found A Great Traffic System". My response? "So?" Delete. There was nothing about the headline that remotely galvanized my attention, much less compelled me to take any action (like actually opening the message). Now, had that message headline read "Discover How To Add 10,000 Visitors To Your Website..." or "Kimberly, Don't Lose Any More Traffic!", I may have been a bit more inclined to open the message and read further.

3. Purposely Non-Descriptive – In other words, pique my curiosity. This strategy can be a bit tricky. To be effective, you must give the reader just enough information or a "hook" to entice them to seek more, but not so much that they think they know what your message contains, and decide prematurely that they're not interested.

For example, I recently used this email subject line: "You Can Delete This, But What If It's True...". While I'll be the first to admit that I'm no great copywriter, I thought this subject line was effective for two reasons. First, I was able to take the reader a bit "off guard" by telling them to delete the message. In effect, I was predicting the action the reader was likely to take. But then, I added "...But What If It's True". By including this phrase, I hinted that there might be more that they would be interested in knowing; that they might miss out on something if they didn't open the message. In addition, I left them most likely asking themselves what "It" refers to, in essence enticing them to open the email to find out what the "It" in the email message was about.

The bottom line is this, the subject line of your email is the fundamental and all-important key to getting your emails opened and read. Are there other elements of effective email marketing messages? Yes, of course there are. But, if you get this one wrong, none of the others really matter. When your email is immediately deleted, your reader never receives your core message, nor can she/he benefit from your information.

Learn to create great subject lines, and you're well on your way to email marketing success.

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Kimberly Clay is a successful business woman with over twenty years of experience and success to her credit. She is an online entrepreneur with a passion for educating and helping others to develop online success and create wealth. For more information, visit her website at www.GetMyWealthNow.com or her blog at www.blog.GetMyWealthNow.com