I could have done without the dozens of emails about campus intramural events.
I also didn’t appreciate the three daily reminders to print my tickets for Saturday’s football game, but I was happy for the original message because I would have forgotten otherwise.
I was thrilled to receive an alert of weekly sales at my favorite office supply store and a notice on new uses for an app I love.
There is a distinction between emails I’m happy to receive and those that annoy me. I bet you find a similar division in your own inbox.
We like messages for which we are the audience. In fact, 74 percent of adults prefer using email for communication.
A third of people 18-34 check email first thing in the morning. We roll over, grab our iPhone off of the bedside charger/alarm clock and click that little envelope before we’re even really awake. It’s our link to the world as it was while we were sleeping.
We love email that is useful to us. We see everything else as an epic time waster.
Useful or not, we spend a lot of time on email. The average person spends nearly two hours a day on email. A business user sends 43 emails and receives 130 each day.
It’s no wonder that email is the most effective form of marketing, both for converting potential customers to active consumers and for relationship building.
The problem, of course, is how to break through all of the clutter in your target consumer’s inbox.
The solution is answering “What’s In It For Me?”
This seems simple enough. I mean there’s a reason for why you identified the person you’re emailing as a target, right?
If you understand your target well, the WIIFM should come naturally. However, so does clicking the “Delete” key.
You have 1.54 seconds, based on your email subject line alone, to convince the target consumer to open your email, according to Lon Safko, author of The Social Media Bible. That’s less than two seconds to convince your potential customer to read your sales message! It probably took you longer to read that last sentence.
Assuming that your fabulous headline convinces the consumer to click the email open, you then have less than 5 seconds to lead your consumer from that initial click to the action you want them to perform.
Your target’s decision about whether to respond favorably to your email marketing campaign happens in 5 seconds – start to finish.
The moment could mean five years or more worth of business for your company.
Let’s Talk Nerdy!
Is email an effective form of marketing to you? How do you decide what to open and what to delete?
Real Nerds Read!
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