Here is the
second Lesson of the marketing course.
In today's
"Marketing Strategies that Empower Success" lesson,
you're going to learn how the appearance of your
email message affects the way your prospects feel about
you and what you have to offer.
Email aesthetics
It's an old, old saying, but it's true: you only have one
chance to make a good first impression. And in email, the
first impression is always visual -- a consumer looks/sees
before he/she reads.
Imagine walking by a grotesquely garish storefront with
all kinds of things hanging off the front porch, every floor
painted a different color, and odd music playing through
loudspeakers. Would you want to walk in the front door?
No way! You'd assume that the owner is a kook, at best,
or a deranged axe murderer, at worst.
Did you ever have an ugly looking email land in your mailbox?
You know what I'm talking about: an orange background and
yellow borders, multi-colored text in all sizes from gigantic
to microscopic, a message that looks like it was created
by a crazed six-year-old? If you did, I bet you didn't feel
the urge to read it. You probably just wanted to delete
it as quickly as possible.
Put Out
The Welcome Mat
You want your
email message to be friendly and inviting, not bizarre and
scary. The suggestions below -- and they're just suggestions,
not hard and fast rules -- will go a long way towards making
recipients' eyes say "come on in!" to your message.
Do's and
Don'ts For Attractive Emails
-
Don't
use color fonts in your message. (Leave that
to junior high girls who want to write about Britney
and Justin)
-
Do
use black text on a white background. (When you're
"speaking" in black-and-white, people will give their
full attention to your message without being distracted
by your color scheme.)
-
Don't
use uncommon fonts. (If someone's system doesn't
recognize the font you've selected, they could see gibberish
instead of your brilliant message).
-
Do
use the email marketers' favorite fonts: Arial,
Times New Roman, and Courier New
And please.
Get Hyper
With Email Hyperlinks
An "email
hyperlink" is just techno-talk for a link in your email
to a website, or email address. Sounds simple enough, and
it is -- unless you try to contact a prospect on AOL who
may not be able to receive "clickable" links.
Don't worry. There's a "fix" for this: simply type mailto:
in front of your email address (no space in between, and
include the : )
For a link to a web page, you need to write your link this
way (e.g.):
<a href=http://www.fl-home-biz.com>
http://www.fl-home-biz.com</a>
(And tell
your recipient they can copy and paste this link into their
browser if it's not highlighted.)
Always
Use Signature Tags
Today, it's
common practice on the Internet to tell people about your
product or service with a signature tag, which is
3-6 lines of text (usually) that is automatically added
to every message you send.
If you'd like to add a tag to your messages, simply open
your email program. Find the signatures tab (located
in the tools/options menu in Outlook Express). Follow
the (simple) instructions for creating a sig file. Easy
as pie... and the results will amaze you.
That's it for Lesson #2, to proceed with Lesson #3
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