What is your 25%?
I received this information today as part of Microsoft's MyAnalytics email that provides me useful information on my week. Sometimes the information feels obvious, yet today's was a bit more insightful. I have always been reactive to the emails that I receive though I consider it to be the lowest priority communication type. I often tell those that wish to communicate with me -call if it is urgent, text if it is important, or just shoot me an email.
I began thinking about the other emails I do not read within 30 minutes, my 25%, that is not read as quickly. I went to the ole' inbox and clicked on the "Unread" link to look at just that. Partially out of curiosity, but also to see if I had missed something important. The unread emails could be categorized into two segments: "Too short to open" and "Don't Care". When an email comes in that is an answer to a question I asked, or just has all of the information in the preview text there is not need to open the email. Microsoft Outlook floats a notification on my screen and that shows the preview text to me. Why would I open it, that is, unless I need to respond to it.
It also made me think how many people say that email is dead and not a viable way to get your message in front of others. Clearly, I just do not believe that. What I do believe is that it is too easy for Marketers to be so focused on what they want to say, that they forget that email is an art. It also has to be something that the person receiving it will care about.
Yesterday I received one of those offers in the mail and it had the fake credit card in it telling me that I was eligible for a Million Dollars and all I had to do was sign and return the form. I didn't care. I certainly don't want that kind of a payment every month nor do I really need a loan. Like the email it was quickly deleted as I walked past the shredder.
Email Marketers know that when they send an email they have no way to determine who will care, or who will not, about their messages. If they did they would send far less. There are some tricks that you can use to make sure that your message is delivered to someone that May care.
There are only three factors that someone has to determine if they will open your email:
Sender's name/email. If you are sending from your personal email box this is not a problem. If you are sending from a CRM you want to make sure that you know what this looks like. Sometimes CRMs use an email address that is connected to their domain. This means that it is not readily obvious it is coming from a Dealership or a local business.
Subject Line. Perhaps the most important determining factor of whether your email is getting opened. It also can determine if your email is going to the junk pile. Subject lines written in all CAPS and those with special characters are sure to go. Keep in mind that each Email Service that receives the email has its own rules. So what may not seem as SPAM to one provider may to another. You also want to avoid these trigger words:
Preview Text: Preview text is the first 120 or so characters of your email. This means that your preview text should get their attention and should relate to the subject line. If you are selling it should have the sizzle not just tell the audience it is a steak. To control this you have essentially two choices. You can write every email with the preview text in mind but that can prove to be very challenging. Imagine you want the preview text to be direct with an offer, such as: "Thinking of a new Truck? Get the Ford F150 SuperCrew for just $199 per month-this is loaded with all the features you are looking for". Now imagine trying to start your email with this and seem personal. Pretty impossible feat.
There is a trick to doing this. Keep in mind the preview text is the first text of the email. If you write the preview text first, you can change the text color to the same color as the background color. (after you write it) This will make it invisible to the reader but it will still show as the preview message.
Keep in mind these are just some of the factors. If you are not trying to Spam a customer, such as sending them just a link in your email, then the rest of the rules will not apply to you. You should avoid attachments, especially images or video, and should instead hyperlink text to a hosted image or a video link.