A few days ago I did participate in a discussion concerning the transfer of existing print mail campaigns to new e-mail-campaigns. An issue within this discussion was, whether and to what extent content and structure should be changed.

The basic answer can be summarized as follows: E-Mail campaigns are quite different in comparison to print mail campaigns. Different reading habits when reading “online” require different structures and concepts for e-mail campaigns. Due to research results we know the following reading habits:

• An e-mail text is more browsed than read in detail.
• The attention to read the entire text needs to be attracted with anchor words or even buzz words.
• Only the first 10 rows will be absorbed in total.
• The reading rates online is lower than offline.
• Customers expect that the sender gets to the point as soon as possible.
• Customers will not follow all arguments to the bottom line.

Taking these reading and abortion styles into considering the following rules and recommendations can be derived:

• Write to your readers what is most important right at the beginning.
• The entire text of your mail should not excess the half of the letters text.
• The line of arguments should have a maximum of three layers.
• Your e-mail should be clearly arranged. Hence your mail needs more paragraphs compared to a letter.
• Each paragraph should contain only one core message.
• Avoid nested sentences.
• The salutatory address should include the sir name.

Of course, there are some other features that are important for the success of your e-mail campaign, too. Since a large number of websites have discussed those issues I will just summarize other important features. Here they are

• Adress management
• Return address
• Subject heading
• Target audience appropriate content

 

Good luck with your e-mail campaign.