The perfect e-mail checklist

Each instance of creating and sending an e-mail to your existing or potential customers is unique. So unfortunately I can’t give you the perfect email to use in your particular situation. But I can give you the list of crucial factors in ensuring that you get the best performance from your email.

So you need to recognise that your email has a structure, and each element in that structure has its part to play in effectively getting your message across.

WARNING: If the structure is wrong you can’t lead the reader through the path of your message, he will loose interest, miss the call to action, hit the unsubscribe link and your mail is wasted.

Taking each element in turn, let’s go through each one and bring out the important characteristics.

Subject Line

The subject line has to compel your reader to open and read your message. You need to entice the subscriber, appeal to his sense of curiosity and interest.

Ensure your main message appears in the first few words; remember often the subject is often truncated in the email client.

Refer to the email you sent on sign up if this is an auto responder.

Spam filters look for certain words, symbols and clever constructions of phrases, try and resist them

First paragraph

This should set the tone of the message, explaining why the reader will benefit from continuing to read your message.

Remember when the message is opened only so much information can lie ‘above the fold’ as they say.

You have to get your main message across here.

Add your first call to action as well, some people ignore the massage and go straight to your landing page.

Main Body

This is where you put your carefully crafted copy.

Remember to do the simple things right, you must spell check and get the grammar correct. Using a word processor to create the copy and then paste in place when you are sure it’s correct is not cheating just practical.

Ensure your links are inserted correctly, and they have the ‘alt’ tag completed so that there is a hover over indication of where the link is going to take the reader.

Same applies to graphics, some users may have them switched off to save bandwidth, reduce spam, so having the ‘alt’ tag set lets them know what should have been there.

Last paragraph

Here is your last chance to reinforce to the reader why they need to respond to your ‘call to action’, before its too late.

Entice him by offering an exclusive special offer or incentive to get that click through.

Footer

Last but not least, this space should include things such as;

• Your signature.
• A link to ‘Forward to a Friend’.
• Links to your website(s).
• Link to your Facebook or Twitter account so your readers can keep track of your activities.
• An unsubscribe link
• Your company’s physical address.

Now test it

Finally you need to make sure your email looks exactly like you intended. Ideally you should have a test option in your email system to send an un-published message to a test account so you can go through the following test check list.

• Spell-check all of the content, ideally get someone else to proofread your message.
• Check each and every link, testing that they go to the correct place and that the ‘alt’ tag information is correct.
• Probably the most common source of errors are empty link tags and the image path being incorrectly entered.
• Make sure all the lines break before 65 characters if you are sending a text version of your message.

Finally, check your message in as many email clients as you can. Many people use Outlook, Thunderbird hosted on their PC, but a large proportion use online web mail readers. Each has their own peculiarities when it comes to rendering a message, so the wider you can check the better your chance of success.