Give readers a peek at your contents
Eight out of 10 businesspeople and more than half of consumers use preview panes to decide whether to open an email, according to Lyris Technologies.… Read the full article
Online communications
How to write a great email newsletter
Steal these tricks from theSkimm
What’s the secret to a successful email newsletter? Make ’em laugh; make ’em think; make ’em Skimm.
In other words, make it interesting, relevant and easy.… Read the full article
Do people skim, scan, read emails?
Just 19% of email newsletters get read thoroughly
Your email recipients aren’t reading your message. They’re scanning your emails.
Indeed, according to the Nielsen Norman Group’s latest eye-tracking study, email recipients:
- Skimmed 69% of the e-zines they received
- Thoroughly read just 19% of e-zines
- Read the majority of the content of 6%
- Glanced at but did not read at all 6%
So here’s the reading technique for emails: Recipients scan pieces of information quickly, speed reading to find specific information.… Read the full article
Create email newsletters for the DoD
Uncle Sam wants you to write emails his employees can read
By Diane Owens
Did you know that the Department of Defense automatically converts employees’ emails to plain text?… Read the full article
How to write a table of contents
Help email newsletter subscribers find stories without scrolling
When you have a longer email newsletter, add a table of contents to help subscribers see all of the stories available without having to scroll.… Read the full article
What’s the best email readability?
Aim for the 3rd grade reading level
How easy should email newsletters and e-blasts be to read? Very easy, according to a study of more than 40 million emails by Boomerang.… Read the full article
3 email newsletter formats that work
Lists, headlines & blurbs, single stories most valuable
The most valued email newsletters in the Nielsen Norman Group’s latest round of usability studies used these formats:
What’s the ideal email length?
Short, but not too short
From the Can’t-Win-For-Losing Department: Although subscribers’ No. 1 piece of advice to email newsletter creators is to keep e-zines short, those same subscribers generally get frustrated when newsletters are too brief.… Read the full article
How long should email subject lines be?
Do shorter ones get higher open rates?
Call it the Goldilocks Conundrum: What character count is “just right” for subject line length?
If ever there were a question with an “it depends” answer, this is it.… Read the full article
To shorten email, find your focus
Expand on, but don’t exceed, the subject line
When a Toyota dealership wrapped up its car-maintenance-and-new-models e-zine with information about getting more protein into your diet, subscribers were surprised.… Read the full article