Page 83 - 100 Great Copywriting Ideas: From Leading Companies Around the World (100 Great Ideas)

35 TIPS FOR POWERFUL
EMAILS

Here are a few of the challenges we face when writing emails. First
of all, your recipient can get rid of this intrusion into her working
day without lifting a finger. Oh, OK, she does have to lift a finger,
but only by four millimeters, before stabbing the mouse button and
trashing your promo.

All she needs to do is check out your From field and subject line
before deciding that, yep, this is junk mail. (Let’s just hope she
doesn’t consider it the s-word and permanently block emails from
you.) If she uses a preview pane, boy have you got a hurdle to jump.
As she pages down through her emails, she can see a big chunk of
yours without opening it.

The idea

From Which?, a consumer organization
When I registered with Which? Online I received a welcome email,
as you do. And although this should be a simple thing to get right,
few organizations do. Which? nailed it. The opening’s so simple
I am always amazed when people forget how to do it:

Dear Andy
Thank you for registering with www.which.co.uk.

Then there are a few paras outlining how I log in to the site, what
to look out for, how to get in touch if I have a query, and so on. They
even tell me to add them to my whitelist so their emails get through.
Finally, there’s a nice personal sign-off:

74 • 100 GREAT COPYWRITING IDEAS