It has long been understood that writing for the web is different than writing for a print publisher. There have been volumes written on this subject.
I am here to share with you some important lessons that I havediscovered about Writing for Email.
THERE ARE TWO TYPES OF EMAIL READERS
Now the techies in the audience are scratching their heads andmumbling under their breath that I am a fool... No biggie... Ihave been called that before.
From the technical side of the equation this statement is wrong. I will fess up on that.
But, for the purposes of this article, it is the absolute truth. Let me explain.
There are type types of email readers:
* AOL Email Reader
* All Other Email Readers
This is an important distinction, because all email readerswill automatically hyperlink an Internet URL, except for theAOL Email Reader. In order for the AOL Reader to hyperlinkthe URL, it must have the HREF tag from HTML in proper format.
For example, all other readers will provide a hyperlink forthe following bit of text:
http://thePhantomWriters.com
On the other hand, email destined for an AOL member must beformatted like this:
http://thePhantomWriters.com
>http://thePhantomWriters.com
WHITE SPACE
When you are writing an article or an ordinary piece of email,white space is very important to help aid your reader in gettingevery word read.
In an ordinary letter on a written piece of paper, it is fine to place your text with no blank lines between paragraphs and with only a indention at the beginning of the paragraph. If you were to do this in an email message, all of the text would tendto run together making your message monotonous to read.
Blank space enables you to get your message read more thoroughlyand completely. This is why within this article you will see ablank line between every paragraph and two blank lines betweenevery sub-section of the article.
SHORTER URLS
The typical ezine is deliberately formatted to 65 characterswidth. This is done to enable easy reading for all peopleviewing the ezine.
On the web, it is important to serve the lowest common denominator. While you and I may use higher resolution on ourcomputers, most Internet users do not. Many are still utilizingthe 640 x 480 video resolution. And many more are still usingoutdated email software.
The 65 character width enables everyone to be able to readthe ezine on their screen without requiring them to scrollright to left to take in all of the text in the ezine.
When listing a URL for a website, it is thus important to makesure that the URL does not exceed 65 characters in length.
There are fr`ee services available to help you to do this. Onesuch program can be found at: http://www.shorturl.com/
ABOVE THE FOLD
Above the Fold is a term that comes from newspaper publishing.As you might be able to imagine, they are talking about whatappears above the fold on the newspaper and in the displayarea of the paper in the newspaper machine.
Above the Fold is the element that most affects the impulsepurchases of the newspaper.
In an email message, Above the Fold is the amount of text seen before one has to scroll down. As with a newspaper, theAbove the Fold text in an email will determine how many people may or may not read all of your message based on their impulse decision to do so.
HTTP:// REQUIREMENTS
Similar to what I was talking about in the previous section about the email readers, it is important to always use thefull http:// address in your printed URLs.
If you were to list your URL without the http:// , then yourURL will not hyperlink. If you are reading this message in astandard email reader in text format, you will see what I meanhere:
thePhantomWriters.com
Then again, if you do use the http:// , the URL will automatically be hyperlinked in the email:
http://thePhantomWriters.com
The reason why this is actually important to you is that thenon-techie reader might find it difficult to know how to copythe URL to their Internet browser. I know for most of us, thisis hard to believe, but I have seen it first hand when peoplewere asking me how they could copy the URL to their browserfor viewing.
MAILTO: REQUIREMENTS
If you include an email address in your email text, and youwant people to be able to click that link to send you an email,you must list your email address with the mailto: prefix.
Otherwise, your email address will not hyperlink.
Here is the proper method to hyperlink an email address:
mailto:bplatt@thephantomwriters.com
FLOATING PUNCTUATION
Here is another factor that might seem odd on first look.
When you list an email address or URL in your email copy, andyou have followed the steps to hyperlink the email address orURL, you must make a point to break proper sentence formattingif a punctuation mark should follow your hyperlink.
Most people who end a sentence with a URL want to put that period at the end of the sentence. Dont! If you must, put ablank space between the actual URL and the period. The sameconcept must be applied to commas and semicolons.
When you are working with a straight domain name, it is not really an issue. But when you are using a page on your domain,the improperly placed punctuation could break the URL.
For example, the other night, I clicked a link to a websitethat was formatted like this:
http://thephantomwriters.com/link-builder.pl.
The email reader sees that final period in the URL as part ofthe URL. When this happens, it is like putting a period at theend of any URL. Test it on your own to see what happens. Ahyes, the dreaded 404 Error - Page Not Found.
This is why we want to put the extra space between the end ofour URLs and our punctation marks, just like this:
http://thephantomwriters.com/link-builder.pl .
IN CONCLUSION
These tips are offered to help you get your email messagesread more often. They are also offered to help ezine publishersprovide their readers a better and more valuable ezine, and to help writers to offer publishers a better formatted article for simple copy-and-paste reprint.
For those of us who use the web in a commercial manner, all ofthese tips will help us to sell more of our wares and widgets.After all, that is why we got into business in the first place,isnt it
Copyright Bill Platt - All Rights Reserved. Reprints allowed with article and resource box unedited. If you post this article on a website, you must set the links up as hyperlinks.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Bill Platt is the owner of
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As an Internet Marketer, I feel it is my duty to inform micro to small business owners about the benefits of email marketing as part of your marketing strategy. But, before I get into some benefits, lets talk about a few things you should be aware of.
First of all, be familiar with CAN-SPAM. The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act) establishes requirements for those who send commercial email, spells out penalties for spammers and companies whose products are advertised in spam if they violate the law, and gives consumers the right to ask emailers to stop spamming them. For more information visit www.ftc.gov. In a nutshell, this means, do not send emails to individuals/groups advertising or promoting your products and services unless you have permission to do so.
If you attend a tradeshow and collect several business cards from a drawing, make sure you also have a sign up sheet for those who want to receive your newsletter, coupons, ads, etc. Just because they left you their business card does not mean they want SPAM from your company. Get to know the terms opt-in/out. Opt in means that someone has signed up on your website or sign in sheet giving you permission to email them information about your services. Opt-out means they previously opted in, but no longer want to receive information from you.
Secondly, invest in a email newsletter service so that you can have professional looking HTML or Text-based email messages sent to your opt-in list. Most do-it-yourself services are very affordable and starts at $20 per month. If you choose to use your outlook or other email service, be sure to send a blind email when sending to a distribution list. What is a blind email Heres an example of an email I would send in outlook to 50 people:
To: tmarketinglady@yahoo.com
Cc:
Bcc: 1234@abc.com, 567@abc.com, 211@abc.com
By putting your own email address in the To line and the recipients in the Bcc line, this will avoid everyone on your list from seeing others email address. Not only is this thoughtful, but people will appreciate you protecting their privacy.
Now, the benefits of using e-mail marketing in your marketing strategy.
Low cost - using email marketing is less expensive then using print, radio, or TV advertising to promote your products. Better metrics - it is sometimes difficult to determine if a customer coming to your store came in because of an ad, but with an email marketing program with built in tracking, you can see how many people opened your special offer, how many clicked on the coupon, and how many clicked through to your website or landing page.
DIY - you can do it yourself. Most all email marketing services come with built in templates you can choose from. All you have to do is type in your text and upload any images. If you do not have any of the templates or want the newsletter to look like your site, hire a web designer to make you a custom template and upload it to your email service.
Targeted information - with email marketing, you target each group with different messages. For example, your list may contain customers who purchased from you in the past and ones who have not. You can segment your list into 2 groups and send customer loyalty discounts to previous customers.
Now that was just a brief overview of e-mail marketing. Using it is not difficult at all, but if you do not have the time to manage your email campaign, hire a consultant to work with you.
Tarsha Polk, a.k.a. The Marketing Lady is a small business marketing coach. She will guide the business owner to Think Bigger, Broader, Differently, and Smarter through marketing consulting and business coaching.