Search Forum Home   General  Discussions  E-Mail Marketin...  E-Mail Marketing Trends: E-Mail Gets Bigger by Going Smaller    10/26/2007 9:55:04 AM jrpittman 29 posts E-Mail Marketing Trends: E-Mail Gets Bigger by Going Smaller E-Mail Marketing Trends: E-Mail Gets Bigger by Going Smaller Gail Goodman: E-Mail Marketing As people scan e-mails with preview panes, disabled images and tiny-screened handheld devices, savvy e-mail marketers craft campaigns that aim small--but think big. Ten years ago, I’d get about 50 to 100 voice mails a day. That message volume has now moved into e-mail--and exploded as e-mail has become the dominant method of business communication. The increase in the sheer volume and diversity of e-mail has significantly changed the ways we interact with our inboxes. First, we’ve become experts at quick, visual sorting. Technology is changing how we digest our daily e-mail intake. Here’s how: Sneak peek: Programs like Outlook give users the option to read a portion of e-mail message contents in a preview pane, without actually opening the e-mail. See no evil: E-mail software now includes “block images” as a default setting. This is an anti-porn measure that blocks all images--including your advertising graphics. Users who want to receive images need to manually turn the images setting back on. Handheld nation: Busy professionals, parents, students and consumers are reading their e-mail on the run. E-mails viewed on PDAs and even cell phones leave no room for anything but the basics. Are these changes challenging to marketers? You bet. But don’t get discouraged. These trends and innovations are opportunities for smart e-mail marketers to be seen. So how do you win? 1. Identify your business’s brand, and spell out your subject. People are far more likely to open an e-mail when they know who it’s from and what they’ll get if they click. Put your business name in the “From” line--not the name of the employee who distributes the e-mail campaign. Make sure the “Subject” line is specific and spells out the e-mail’s contents. Don’t make readers guess at the who or what of your message (because they won’t). Give them a good reason to click. 2. Don’t let your pictures do all the talking. Sure, a picture’s worth a thousand words, but these days, those images could be blocked. Make sure your email gets the point across even without the images. Keep text-only readers in mind when you write, and ask yourself, “Does this campaign work when it’s stripped down to bare-bones text?” Remember, your subject line and first few lines of copy are more powerful than any snazzy graphics. 3. Get to the point. Well-chosen words can cut through any medium--even the small spaces of preview panes and BlackBerry screens. Think about your campaigns, and choose your words wisely. Don’t make your readers work to figure out what your e-mail’s about. Do make it fun and useful. The goal of any e-mail marketing campaign is to get customers clicking through to your world. That’s where your relationships can grow big.  Page 1 of 1   General  Discussions  E-Mail Marketin... Flat View Tree View Oldest To Newest Newest To Oldest