These three factors are very simple to explain – in fact so simple I can put them down as single words…

a) Text
b) Pictures
c) Content

Indeed it all looks so simple put like that, but in fact these simple facts can and do trip people up very regularly.

Text represents not only the flow of the text, plus the exciting and stimulating use of the language, but also the avoidance of words and phrases that will send the email into filter systems or worse, reduce the chance of your next round of emails actually arriving.

Clearly the words that can’t be used vary from context to context. In its simplest form the word “Free” can cause difficulties, so can mentioning the name of the Schools Secretary (Ed Balls). Discussions on the anniversary of the abolition of slavery often came unstuck with any reference to selling children into “slavery and bondage”.

Moving into other areas we have the case of the dance club that changed its name from Ceroc Central to Ceroc Passion (they speak of themselves as being passionate about dance, just as Odeon cinemas are passionate about film) – which has led to a number of club members not receiving emails announcing dances and venue changes.

Curiously the word “sex” doesn’t seem to set off too many alarms – even in schools – but a lot a pharmaceuticals (and even the word “pharmaceutical” itself) can cause problems. I have no idea if anyone does sell Viagra legitimately on the internet, but if they do, I can’t think how they get the advertising through.

Moving on, pictures are also a real problem. People stopped putting pictures into emails (known generally as embedding) when it became clear that interception software was stopping a lot of emails with pictures being delivered. There is also the problem of speed of transmission – a small picture (such as a logo) might increase the size of an email from 50kb to 1500kb – nothing to notice.

But that does mean you are using up 50 times the amount of space in sending the emails – and if you are sending out a lot that can well mean you will be running a lot more slowly – and will get a lot more rejections.

The alternative approach to pictures embedded in text is the approach which has the picture resident on a hard drive. The client needs to click on a bar to activate the picture.

The problem here is that (depending on the setting of the software) all the reader will see is a blank screen (possibly with a little red x in one corner). Not a very good way to start the advert, when the customer typically will only give on one second before deleting.

The simple answer is to avoid pictures, and instead put all your effort into writing brilliant text, which forces the reader to click on the link to the web page.

And that fact tells you why most firms go for pictures – they don’t have the skill to write exciting text.

Which brings me on to content.

How you write an email is as important as how you write direct mail. Sadly, many firms just sit down and write a sales piece without any proper thought. And so they get poor results.

Just read the first three lines of any email advert that arrives in your in box, and I suspect you will see exactly what I mean.

Some firms specialise in getting emails out to the recipient – and of course that is important. But it is equally important to ensure that the email is received, and read.

If you would like to talk more about sending out emails and getting sales from them, give me a call on 01536 399 000.

Tony Attwood