Give your emails a sense of NOW.

 

As our readers become more and more adept at speed-deleting unwanted emails, we need to find new ways to capture hold their attention.

 

People really are getting good at removing unwanted emails. If you're lucky you'll just be deleted. If you're not, your email will get the "Report as Spam" treatment.

 

20% of people use the Spam button as a fast and convenient way to get rid of emails. Of course, most of them don't know that using the Spam button is going to damage your company's reputation among the ISPs. These readers are not being malicious. They have simply found a really fast and easy way of unsubscribing from emails they no longer want.

 

And yes, even people who have double opted-in to your list will use the spam button to "unsubscribe".

 

This means that as writers and marketers we have to think hard about ways in which to tag our emails as being both relevant and timely.

 

We don't want to sound like spammers, so we can't go crazy with our subject lines. We can't do the 'rush rush' thing.

 

Here's a partial answer for you: make your emails timely.

 

You can connect with the seasons. "With summer on the way…"

 

You can connect with annual events, "With father's day just a couple of weeks away…"

 

You can connect with the news, "According to the latest issue of Time magazine…"

 

You can connect with your own customers' relationship with your company, "Your subscription runs out in 5 days."

 

Why is it important to connect your message with "now"?

 

Quite simply because "now" is the only time that is relevant to any reader faced with a screen filled with new emails.

 

If your email doesn't need one's attention now, it will either be deleted or will gently slip below the fold and never be seen again.

 

Getting your reader to act now is one of the foundations of all direct marketing. More or less, it's "now or never".

 

And yes, your emails are direct response communications. You want and need your reader to take some kind of action. Don't you?

 

As people's inboxes become more and more busy, it is essential that you make a connection with what's important to them right now.

 

That connection with now could be about the weather, the news, a holiday or anything else you can think of.

 

Giving all your emails a sense of NOW won't cure all your email challenges, but it will help.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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