Start by taking a look at how many versions of “YOU” your email has.
Remember, we’re all looking for “What’s In It For Me” when we open an email (or any other piece of information).

But that doesn’t mean we want the writer to talk AT us. We want a reason to get involved, to make a connection.

As you create messages for your subscribers you’ve got to let them know there’s a real live person, who cares about and even shares their problems and has some insights into how to fix those problems.

Telling stories – your own or by putting a local “spin” on national or celebrity news stories – draws your reader in.

Don’t be afraid to reveal a bit about your beliefs, habits, family & friends, in addition to the inside scoop on your business. Will you offend or drive some subscribers away? Probably.

But those that stay will be a much better fit for you. Many of us believe life’s too short to mess with people who don’t “get” us so start letting your prospects and clients get to know you better.

Do you have an ideal customer? 

One you wish you had a dozen just like? Well write to them. Use their name while you’re drafting, get a picture of them and keep it near your screen. Write to them like you’d talk to them when they come into your shop or you see them at the local Starbucks.

If you don’t have one perfect customer, take time to build a composite. Give them a name, an age, sex, marital status. Dress them, know what kind of job they work at and what they like to do with their time off. Find a photo and paste it up near your computer display and write like you’d talk to them.

This isn’t some wooowooo exercise you can just blow off. If you want to write engaging emails that keep customers coming back for more of your services, you need to know who they are.

!!!!!

While reading an amusing story in the UK Telegraph called “Internet rules and laws: the top 10, from Godwin to Poe”, this one jumped out at me because I see so many emails with this flaw:

10. The Law of Exclamation
First recorded in an article by Lori Robertson at FactCheck.org in 2008, this states: “The more exclamation points used in an email (or other posting), the more likely it is a complete lie. This is also true for excessive capital letters.”

According to Pratchett, five exclamation marks is an indicator of “someone who wears their underwear on the outside”.

It is reminiscent of the claim in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels that the more exclamation marks someone uses in writing, the more likely they are to be mentally unbalanced.

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Does your unedited writing tends to be heavy with exclamation points (it’s so easy to shift with the little right finger and hit the 1 key!)?

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Mine does and I think it indicates my emotional involvement with the material. Edits almost always involve replacing several ! with periods.

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Don’t let your underwear show in your emails – tell good stories and connect with your market and you won’t have to resort to trying to inject excitement with punctuation.

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]]> http://www.lee-little.com/208/emails-and-exclamation-points/feed/ 1 http://www.lee-little.com/172/short-attention-span-marketing-get-insider-your-prospects-head/ http://www.lee-little.com/172/short-attention-span-marketing-get-insider-your-prospects-head/#comments Thu, 01 Oct 2009 21:09:28 +0000 Lee http://www.lee-little.com/?p=172

: Micro Blogging: AdWords/PPC: Email/Blog Subject Lines:

Online space is virtually unlimited, attention is what’s scarce.

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Rather than asking your potential readers to pay attention to what you want to talk about, you’re going to have to follow another old school marketing rule and “Enter the conversation in their heads”.

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Luckily, you don’t have to be a marketing genius or even have a lot of experience to know what your desired audience is thinking theses days.

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Digital life is search-able making it fast and easy to see what’s drawing people’s attention.

Go to Digg and see what they’re looking at now by clicking on  “Topin24″ or “7Days”. Try to tie your message into trending topics and ride the coattails into your niche’s consciousness.

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Try your hand at editing this one:

Everything you think you know about xxxxxxx is wrong

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Post your best ones below:

Do you need to write attention getting headlines or subject lines but you’re busy, busy, busy?
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I’ve compiled this list of winning headlines – from the golden years of mail order to recent internet winners.
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Get your PDF and keep it handy – save time without sacrificing sales.
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