Copywriting and design round up

Latest posts | Feed | By Mark Brownlow on March 11, 2008

Many insights pop out of the self-evident-but-often-ignored idea that the relationship with your recipient plays an ever more direct role in determining your email success.

If we're getting back to relationship basics, then what you say, how you say it and how you present it are vital. Also because the way to stand out from inbox mediocrity is (surprise!) to send emails that don't look or sound mediocre.

Just today, Melinda Krueger asks:

While we wring our hands over spam filters,
overcrowded inboxes and declining response rates...
are we overlooking the importance of great copywriting?"

If you need any reminding, read one recipient's reaction to a campaign email requesting volunteer help. You can argue about the rights and wrongs of the tone used, but the point is the strong emotional reaction it evokes. Words matter.

And since we spoke about the return of the email newsletter yesterday, Cynthia Edwards has a timely article inviting us to reject the notion that short is always better. She suggests some situations where long copy might work in emails.

Discussions of email design often focus on rendering issues, but we'd do well to remember that design is about impressions and emotional connections, too. A point emphasized by Suzie Travers in this brief article on successful email design.

Those looking for more specific design advice might enjoy Vdot Media's 9 best practices or browse through Jon Aizlewood's series of ten posts with design tips (Feb 26th to March 10th in his blog's design category).

Finally, if ideas are proving elusive, try MarketingSherpa's 2008 Email Awards Gallery, full of details and screenshots from this year's winners. The awards aren't based on artistic impression, but take account of hard results, too.

More on design and copywriting | Tags: email marketing, email design, email copywriting

[This post brought to you by Campaigner Email Marketing]
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1 Comments:

Good copy is invaluable, but the length depends on the audience, what is being communicated, etc. Technical audiences value different content than marketing audiences, and when the audience is the general public, demographics comes into play. Here's a blog entry I wrote on copywriting: http://www.level2wo.net/blog/?p=9
By Anonymous, on 12 March, 2008