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Tuesday
Jul202010
Tip: Tweetify the Lead of Your Emails
Young Urban Professional
In this age of information abundance, we all get a little too much email. It's highly likely that - thanks to the message preview function - your recipient will make a decision about what to do with that message before he/she even opens it. This means that the first few characters of your note are essential. You got to hook 'em or they be gone.
Here's a little tip I am going to try - don't bury the lead. Instead, Tweetify it! Here's why...
Most email systems preview the first 50-75 characters of an email. Therefore, to be heard, you increasingly need to write your first sentence like a tweet - or more like half a tweet. Skip openers that start with "my name is" and get some of the meat in your first sentence. It will increase the likelihood that your reader will get further into your note.
Here's a good example. Brett Kelly, whom I have never corresponded with before, sent me a brief note about his new eBook on Evernote called Evernote Essentials. He made the point right up front, which piqued my interest and encouraged me to read on further.
It doesn't matter if you're trying to reach a CEO or a friend, the model works. To practice, head over to this site and write your first sentence there. Then come back to your email client. Your recipient will thank you.
Disclosure: Brett sent me a free unsolicited copy of his ebook, which is valued at $25.
Reader Comments (6)
I sent out a mass email last fall to attract people to the hockeybias.com website. The title of the email was 'Delete this now if you despise hockey'.I had almost nobody complain and one newspaper writer in Edmonton compliment the approach!
Excellent idea! It also works really well with email subject lines. Together with a partner of mine we tested multiple subject lines as tweets to a blog article and then launched an email campaign with the tweet that got the most clicks as the subject line. It is a hard thing to test for those who don't have many followers. But the idea that whatever makes a tweet popular should make a subject line popular can still be applied.
Really a great idea. Never thought about that. And I agree with Mana that a good subject line is essential.Moreover, you can combine it with two.sentenc.es, three.sentenc.es, four.sentenc.es, five.sentenc.es ( http://www.sentenc.es/ )
This is gold!!!
Excellent ideas. And if you use the PRESSfeed news optimization tool bar you already have a word/character count widget at your fingertips. :)
How would you sell an email a pitch to the media?Well its got to be concise, compelling, timely and to-the-point. This approach should apply to Tweets and blog titles too.Assume that your recipient needs to be sold on your idea straight away and is as time poor as an Editor of a Newspaper. That way you will increase your chances of being heard.