3 Key Reasons Nobody Reads Your Emails

Hello all! So you’re new to business or you’re an existing business new to all this new fangled technology.

What do you do?

Aside from the obvious (get a webpage and some social media) you need to speak to your customers. This would seem easier for existing businesses, but remember businesses lose an average of 10% of their customers each year (so make sure you create at least 11% more customers each year…….).

This is where people get all tongue tied. Sure you’re emailing them, but are they reading them. Although email is a preferred method of contact in today’s society, people are selective and will junk your email like snail mail. Plus, your wording could be sending you right to the spam box. So here’s a few tips I’ve developed

1. Personalize it : Just because the medium of email isn’t personal you can still add a human touch to it. Put the customer’s name in the subject line if you are individually emailing them. People often scan their inboxes really quick and seeing their name will at least catch their attention. Also use their name in the body of the email and attribute something that has to do with your interaction with them in the email. Nobody wants to be a number so prove you thought this communication through.

2. Use strong words that elicit action: This gets to be a bit tricky. I’d try to stay away from things like 100% free or act now!! I mean things like “This needs your attention now” or “your input is needed now”. Now is one of those words that create instant urgency. Use it. Also, the phrase “ending soon” has tested with great results so if it applies to your business, try it.

3. Keep the subject short and to the point: there are a lot of sources that say email subject lines should be 50 to 80 characters. This could be very true for desktop email clients, but there are 1.08 billion smart phones in the world and growing. The preview pane for a cell phone viewer is much smaller than 50 characters. Average is about 25 characters. Therefore, either limit your subject to 25 characters or design it in such a way that at the 22-25 character mark the subject can chop off and still be relevant. A great way to test this is with this free tool from Mark Brownlow .

Hold these principles true. Subject lines are your in and they can be hard to get sometimes even from existing customers, but once you have it there is potential for more revenue ( or exposure if that is your purpose).

I hope these tips help your business grow!