Throughout last year my colleagues and I analysed hundreds of emails, looking at how they were constructed, to try and find the key features that determined why one advert worked and one didn’t.

Here’s what we came up with. It is impossible to say that any one factor is more or less important than the others. But they all are important, and from all our analyses I would say that they are all far more important than other factors.

1. From

Who the reader sees the email as being from is very influential. If you send it from a name, that tends to be less effective than sending the email from a name that the person believes sounds important. For example if you are sending to users of concrete, an email from Concrete Info Service (assuming that there isn’t one!) is better than from Bloggs and Co, or John Bloggs.

2. Subject line

A short open question (or implied question) seems to work best at the moment – as in “What’s the most efficient way to buy concrete?”

Most people seem to think about the subject line as an afterthought, but it really is a major force in terms of the success or failure of the ad.

3. Headline

Very few emails have headlines but it is certainly a worthwhile consideration. We have been experimenting with taking the subject line and then expanding it as a headline into something akin to that which one would use on a sales letter. If the text is in 10 point Arial the subject line could be 14 pt Arial Bold.

4. Conversational style

I wrote about this many times last year – shouting at people or just announcing your product, or indeed talking about yourself and not the customer, works far less well than having a conversational style.

5. Why buy this and why buy it from me?

This is the big question – if you can answer it for the customer in a way that makes your offer or your firm unique, then you can get the sale.

I hope this brief summary is helpful. If you would like to explore any of these ideas in relation to your adverts, do give me a call on 01536 399 000, or email me a copy of your email ad and I will call you back to discuss it.

Tony Attwood Tony @ hamilton-house.com