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It is a fact that people will not read your message if it is difficult to understand or read.

Sometimes, you can do all of the technical things just right and still not have the recipients of your emails reading your messages and acting on them. It’s more than a little possible that the problem lies in what your messages say and how they say it.

Marketing emails need to be easy to read. It has been proven time and time again that email recipients will not read long blocks of text….not even if it from their mothers. One reason for this is eye strain. Reading text on a computer screen is much harder on the eyes than reading text on a printed page.

Make your marketing emails easy to read and easy to act upon. Keep your sentences and your paragraphs short. It’s been said before, but here it is again. People will not read long blocks of text. Don’t send it.

Use bullet points for emphasis rather than exclamation marks. The overuse of exclamation marks is a mistake that many affiliate marketers make. They assume that using many exclamation points gets the attention of the reader when, in fact, they are distracting.

Do not use all capital letters. Using all capital letters is not polite. It is considered to be shouting or yelling and your readers won’t appreciate you raising your voice to them.

Be absolutely certain that every word is spelled correctly and that the grammar useage is impeccable. I can’t tell you how turned-off misspelled words and poor grammar is to intelligent email recipients. Both will make you appear dumb in their eyes and they won’t be buying from someone they consider dumb or uneducated. Most spell check programs are very good but they are by no means infallible. You need to recognize misspelled words yourself. These programs will not correct words that are spelled correctly but still misused and are grammatically incorrect.

As to content, that is a whole different animal. It is a good thing to tie your email marketing campaign to a current event or a national holiday. People do seem to have one-track minds.

If it is near Christmas, they have Christmas on their brains. If it is election season, that’s what they are thinking about. When tax time rolls around, they suddenly remember that they have to actually file tax returns and taxes are at the front of their minds. They are concentrating on different subjects in the summer than they are in the winter. So tying your email marketing campaign to a holiday, an event or a season can help to assure that your marketing email message is not only opened and read but effective as well.

Using the correct tone when addressing the members of your opt-in list is important. When you send email to your list you should first be certain that you use the personalization feature that your autoreponder provides.

Second you need to ‘speak’ in a friendly but business-like tone. Think of the difference in the way you tell your boss why you are late and the way you tell your spouse why you are late. That’s what is meant by ‘tone’. You never ever talk down to your opt-in list members. You must not assume a tone that is too formal or too distant. On the other hand you must not speak in a tone that is too casual or too familiar.

The single most important aspect of any email promotion is to get someone to do something. Buy your product… subscribe to your newsletter… etc.

There can be many distractions when you are an email marketer. When you are writing an important marketing email you can get distracted by the necessity of using the right form or keeping your sentences short or a dozen other things. The ‘ball’ or the ‘prize’ that you need to keep your eye on is that the objective of your marketing email is to entice the recipients to act on your recommendations and, in fact, drag out those credit cards and buy what you are selling or even to visit your website and take advantage of a free gift that you are giving away.

Sometimes the problem can be the form that is used in your email. It is important that the message be clear and that the main points are in bulleted form so that the email can be scanned easily by the recipients. Remember to use, short sentences and short paragraphs. Don’t use all capital sentences and curb your enthusiastic use of exclamation points.

Sometimes the whole problem can be summed up in just one word: procrastination. We seem to be a nation of procrastinators. We never do today what can be put off until tomorrow or, even better, indefinately. Can you imagine what would happen to the tax system if April 15th were only a suggestion and not an absolute deadline? Let’s see a showing of hands of all those who would meet a suggested tax filing deadline!

Wouldn’t it be nice if there were some sort of tried and true formula for getting the recipients to take action and buy what you are selling or download what you are giving them immediately? Maybe you should not suggest that they buy what you are selling when they get around to it or downloading what you are offering at their convenience. Perhaps you should be a bit more emphatic and a bit more specific, set limits and set deadlines.

By telling you to be more emphatic, I am in no way suggesting that you use a lot of exclamation points or a lot of big capital letter sentences. No. I’m suggesting that when you write your marketing email that you use bullet points that will cause the recipients of your marketing email to take action and to take it immediately.

A bullet point that says:
# For a limited time only!

Isn’t going to be all that effective.

A bullet point that says:
# This offer expires at midnight on November 10th!

This will be much more effective because it gives a specific deadline.

A bullet point that says:
# This is a limited offer!

Isn’t going to be very effective either.

One that says:
# This offer is limited to the first 200 applicants!

Might just get some action. Everybody wants to be first…even though they also will procrastinate given the opportunity.

The point is to provide the members of your opt-in list with an very good reason to take action and to take that action immediately.

It could be that you goofed and word-wrapped the links in your marketing message. Many email programs do not deliver word wrapped links. All the recipient will see is the words…there will be no link to click on. Remember to include full URL’s.

Keep your eye on the ball! Remember that the main objective is to get the members of your opt-in list to click on the links you provide in your marketing email message.

Ther P.S. is one of the most important aspects of writing your email promotions. Most people just scan your email and they will only read the P.S. Which is why you want to summarize the benefits of your offer here.

Another effective way to use the P.S. is to create a tease for an uncoming marketing email or as an incentive to join a teleseminar or a webinar.

The P.S. line can be used either as a hook-setting opportunity or as a baiting opportunity. Whatever way you use your P.S. line, it needs to be ‘above the fold’ or above the scoll line in order for it to be the most effective.

**The only thing that should ever always be below the scoll line is the opt-out option.

Using your P.S. line to ‘set the hook’ means using it to hit the main selling point made in your marketing email one more time.

For example:

P.S. Don’t forget that this product will save you both time AND money. (And provide the URL to the sales page once more.)

Another example would be:

P.S. Don’t forget that this offer ends at midnight on Novemer 16th. (And again, provide the URL to the sales page.)

Yes another example would be:

P.S. Don’t get left out! This offer is limited to the first 200 applicants. (And provide the URL to the sales page.)

Using the P.S. line as bait is a rather simple but very effective sales technique. When I say ‘bait’ (a word that I really dislike), what I am referring to is a tease or an incentive.

Once example of a P.S. line being used as ‘bait’ is:

P.S. Don’t miss the next newsletter. There will be an offer that will amaze you! (Add a link to your subscription opt-in box.)

Another example of a P.S. line being used as ‘bait’ is:

P.S. You don’t want to miss finding out why I got sent to jail which will be revealed during this teleseminar. (Add a link to the squeeze page for registering for the teleseminar.)