Some email ads do more harm than good

We are all used to getting junk emails. We can all recognise them a mile off. Bad grammar, every sentence ends with an exclamation mark, pictures that don’t load properly, crazy linguistic style, multiple colours and huge headlines that are almost bigger than the screen, use of certain set phrases that no one would ever say in a billion years, fake personalisation, broken links…

It’s a bit like describing a desk. Desks come in a million different shapes and sizes, but I know a desk when I trip over one. Same with junk emails - I know one when I see one.

Thus we look, and think - “junk”. Which is fine when it is junk - but not when it is a serious advert written by someone who does not know how to write adverts. Then the sender really goes down in our estimation.

About 50% of the email adverts that I am now sent to review, end up with my saying (in the nicest possible way) I am sorry, but I think you would be better off sending nothing - this could do you real damage.

Of course such ads can bring in one or two enquiries, but they will probably alienate many more people. Especially those who know a spot about the law - for example, that you are supposed to give the name and address of the company that is advertising, that you mustn’t send an advert for a private product to a person at work without their permission, and so on.

At the very least I would always say you should follow these four basic rules:

1. Collect half a dozen really good email adverts together and print them out, and ask, “why do I like these?”
2. Get a professional writer of email adverts to look at your piece before it goes out.
3. Test the email on a number of people who you can trust to give an honest opinion, and ask them questions including, did this look like junk?
4. If writing it yourself, only send out a small number at first.
5. Unless you are sure of your own skill get a pro to write it for you. It might seem a lot of money to pay, but it really can do a lot for your business.

Notice my slip - yup there were five points not four. Can’t win them all. (Now ask, have you ever seen a bit of total junk with a throw-away comment like this at the end? Just one of many ways of making your writing stand out from the rubbish).

Tony Attwood

This entry was posted on 11/07/2008 at 01:32 pm and is filed under Uncategorised. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

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