Marketing Strategies Success(TIPS 2): Email Aesthetics

Hello again,

I hope you`ve had time to "digest" the ideas presented in Marketing Strategies Success(TIPS 1): Essential Rules for Effective Email Marketing .Today`s lesson is going to build on the basics.

Here is the second Lesson of the marketing course.

In today`s "Marketing Strategies Success"lesson, you`re going to learn how the APPEARANCE of youremail message affects the way your prospects feel about youand what you have to offer.

EMAIL AESTHETICS

It`s an old, old saying, but it`s true: you only have onechance to make a good first impression. And in email, thefirst impression is always visual -- a consumer LOOKS/SEESbefore he/she READS.

Imagine walking by a grotesquely garish storefront with allkinds of things hanging off the front porch, every floorpainted a different color, and odd music playing throughloudspeakers. Would you want to walk in the front door? Noway! You`d assume that the owner is a kook, at best, or aderanged axe murderer, at worst.

Did you ever have an ugly looking email land in yourmailbox? You know what I`m talking about: an orangebackground and yellow borders, multi-colored text in allsizes from gigantic to microscopic, a message that looks likeit was created by a crazed six-year-old? If you did, I betyou didn`t feel the urge to read it. You probably justwanted to delete it as quickly as possible.

!PUT OUT THE WELCOME MAT!
You want your email message to be friendly and inviting, notbizarre and scary. The suggestions below -- and they`rejust suggestions, not hard and fast rules -- will go a longway towards making recipients` eyes say "come on in!" toyour message.

!DO`s and DON`Ts FOR ATTRACTIVE EMAILS!
-DON`T use COLOR fonts in your message. (Leave that tojunior 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 fullattention to your message without being distracted by yourcolor scheme.)

-DON`T use UNCOMMON FONTS. (If someone`s system doesn`trecognize the font you`ve selected, they could see gibberishinstead of your brilliant message).

-DO use the email marketers` FAVORITE FONTS: Arial, TimesNew Roman, and Courier New.

*And please.*

-DON`T use flashing buttons or banners in your email! (Yourprospects have undoubtedly gotten their fill of "bells andwhistles" when they`ve surfed the Internet. They don`t needmore from you.)

GET HYPER" WITH EMAIL HYPERLINKS
An "email hyperlink" is just techno-talk for a link in youremail to a website, or email address. Sounds simple enough,and it is -- unless you try to contact a prospect on AOL whomay 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, andinclude the : )

For a link to a web page, you need to write your link this way (EXAMPLE ONLY DO NOT CLIK): http://www.anycompany.com/. (And tell your recipient they can copy and paste thislink into their browser if it`s not highlighted.)

ALWAYS USE SIGNATURE TAGS
Today, it`s common practice on the Internet to tell peopleabout your product or service with a SIGNATURE TAG, which is3-6 lines of text (usually) that is automatically added toevery message you send.

If you`d like to add a tag to your messages, simply openyour email program. Find the SIGNATURES TAB (located in theTOOLS/OPTIONS menu in Outlook Express). Follow the (simple)instructions for creating a sig file. Easy as pie...and theresults will amaze you.

That`s it for now, but get your "net" ready. Next lessonwe`re going to hunt down and CAPTURE EMAILS.

Da!!