[Peace] Email Profits E-Course, Part 3

Fri Jun 18 02:00:46 CDT 2004

Hi, Kathleen Piece

This is Part 3 of my Email Profits E-Course, which was 
requested from the following email address: 
peace at lists.groogroo.com

To CANCEL future messages, double-click below when online:
        http://arp.ProfitInfo.com/a/r.pl?c=129557&p=9005
<a href=http://arp.ProfitInfo.com/a/r.pl?c=129557&p=9005>CANCEL</a>

Marty Foley ~ ProfitInfo.com 

==============[ EMAIL PROFITS E-COURSE ]==============

This ProfitInfo E-Course reveals proven strategies, tips 
and resources for generating maximum profits from your 
permission-based email marketing.

Discover why a number of top Internet marketing pros have 
become repeat customers of LeadFactory, a proven service 
for quickly and affordably growing their opt-in email 
lists:

===> <a href=http://arp.ProfitInfo.com/a/t.pl?l=1>Link</a>

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Part 3: Formatting Email Messages for Maximum Response
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

The last part of this Email Profits E-Course revealed tips 
and techniques for increasing the percentage of emails 
that get opened by recipients. Your next challenges are to
make it easy to read, understand, and act on them.

Anything that hinders these things is a response killer. 
What's more, first impressions are crucial. Failure in any
of these areas will increase the likelihood that your 
email messages will be doomed to the Delete key or the 
unsubscribe link.

These facts emphasize the importance of formatting email
messages to generate maximum response. Poor results are
often caused by mistakes in this area; even seasoned email
marketers are not immune to making them.

There are a number of different email formatting problems
that can hurt response. The good news is, they're all 
preventable. 

A Common Cause of Email Formatting Problems

One common cause of email formatting problems is a lack of
standardization among the wide variety of different email
software programs. An email message that looks flawless in
one program may look horrible in another.

What's worse, you may not discover a formatting problem 
until AFTER your email message has been sent to hundreds 
or thousands of readers! This can mean lots of avoidable 
email correspondence to correct problems.

For example, a spelling or other typographical error in a 
web site link could trigger many emails from readers, 
asking for the correct URL. 

Not to mention lost business from others who might have 
become customers, but instead silently gave up when they
encountered errors trying to access the site. (Keep in 
mind that most people will not take the time to complain
or alert you to a problem.) 

Yes, an error as small as one mistyped character can cost 
you, the email marketer, dearly! 

Avoiding Email Line Length Problems

A very common email formatting problem involves lines of
text that don't wrap properly, either by extending beyond
the right side of the screen (which requires right and left
scrolling just to read the message), or where the lines 
have drastically uneven lengths. 

Here's how to solve email line wrap problems:

1) Compose long email messages in a plain text editor
   before copying and pasting the text into your email 
   program. 

   Note that messages composed in regular word processors 
   may contain hidden formatting codes, which cause weird 
   characters to appear when text is copied and pasted 
   from them into an email program. 

   Windows Notepad is a plain text editor that doesn't 
   have this problem. Other good text editors (with 
   numerous other useful features) include UltraEdit 
   (www.UltraEdit.com), NoteTab (www.notetab.com), 
   TextPad (www.textpad.com), and for Macintosh users 
   there is BBEdit (www.bbedit.com). 

2) Limit line length to 60-65 characters, maximum.

   Be sure to use a hard carriage return (hit the Enter 
   key) at the end of each line of text. (This can be a 
   time-consuming job, but the above tools can help you do
   them in a snap.)

   Also make sure that any "line length" settings your 
   email program may have are set to no more than 60-65
   characters. (I personally try keep line length to no
   more than 60 characters.)

3) Compose messages using a fixed width font (where all 
   characters are the same width), instead of a variable 
   width font. Fixed width fonts include Courier, Courier 
   New, and Monaco. Variable width fonts to avoid include 
   Arial, Geneva, Times, and Times New Roman. 

   By composing messages using a fixed width font, it 
   will be easier to spot potential problems BEFORE you 
   send out a message.

Making URL's and Email Addresses Easy to Use

Remember the following key point and try to apply it in 
all your business activities: The easier you make it for 
your prospects to do what you want, the more likely they 
will. 

That's why it's important to make web and email addresses 
easy to access and use, for the largest possible audience. 

Here are some tips for doing so:

1) When you include "http://" or "http://www." at the 
   start of web addresses in email messages, most email 
   programs will display them as live hyperlinks. When 
   such links are clicked on, the user's web browser will 
   normally open automatically. 

   Because of this, it's a mistake to start a web site 
   link in an email message with "www." instead of 
   "http://" or "http://www."

2) Make optional HTML links available. 

   Even when you apply tip #1 above, some email programs 
   will still not display URL's as live hyperlinks. AOL, 
   for example, is notorious for this. 

   Providing an optional link using HTML code can solve 
   this problem. For example: 
   (a href="http://ProfitInfo.com/")ProfitInfo Link(/a).

   (Notice above that I substituted parentheses for the 
   angle brackets normally used in HTML tags, so the code 
   would be displayed consistently in all email programs.)

3) Similarly, by placing the "mailto:" code at the start 
   of email addresses, they'll be displayed as live 
   hyperlinks in programs that don't already do so. 

   Readers can then just click on such links to open a 
   new email message, and the email address will be 
   automatically placed in the "TO" line. For example, 
   mailto:user at aol.com 

4) Use caution when placing text characters immediately 
   adjacent to email or web addresses. (In most cases it's
   best to avoid doing so altogether.)

   For instance, it's common to place commas or periods 
   next to links in emails messages, without any spaces 
   between them. 

   Problem is, some software programs may interpret them 
   as part of the link, making them inaccessible or 
   invalid to users. (The email will bounce or the site 
   will return a dreaded "Server Error.")

   Consider enclosing URL's within angle brackets: 
   "< >" or parentheses: "( )". Either that, or use 
   NO punctuation at all, adjacent to web or email links.

 o Example of A Potentially Troublesome Format:

    Visit my web site at: http://ProfitInfo.com.

 o Examples of Safer Formats:

    Visit my web site at: http://ProfitInfo.com . 
    Visit my web site at: <http://ProfitInfo.com>.
    Visit my web site at: (http://ProfitInfo.com).

5) Make your links stand out so they'll more likely catch
   readers' eyes. You can do this in various ways...

 o By putting them on a separate line by themselves, 
   perhaps with a blank line above and below them:

   http://ProfitInfo.com/

 o By indenting the line:

      http://ProfitInfo.com/

 o By using arrows or other characters to draw
   attention to them:

   ===> http://ProfitInfo.com/

6) Minimize URL length.

   For those who don't already know, URL is "geek-speak" 
   that stands for "Uniform Resource Locator." In other 
   words, web site links such as: http://ProfitInfo.com/

   URL's which are so long that they wrap to a second line
   in an email can cause server errors when clicked on. Or
   at least inconvenience readers by forcing them to copy 
   and paste the full URL into their browsers.

   If you have your own site, part of the solution lies in
   selecting short, simple directory and web page names. 

   You can also employ redirect links to shorten long 
   URL's, through the use of meta refresh code, scripts, 
   or paid services.

   As with all other email line lengths, it's best to keep 
   URL's in email messages to less than 60-65 characters 
   long. In many cases it's a good idea to put URL's on a 
   separate line, in order to keep line lengths within 
   these limits.

By following the above guidelines to overcome common email
formatting problems, I guarantee you'll enjoy much better 
response! 

To get the NEXT MESSAGE in this series now, click here:
http://arp.ProfitInfo.com/a/nxt.pl?c=129557&p=9005 

Best Regards,
Marty Foley ~ 1-713-467-3933

P.S. Kathleen, email marketing is a numbers game. 
More targeted subscribers = more prospects, more sales, 
and more ad revenue. LeadFactory can ethically add up to 
hundreds of targeted opt-in subscribers to your email 
list daily, at reasonable cost:

===> <a href=http://arp.ProfitInfo.com/a/t.pl?l=3>Link</a>

P.P.S. Here are other proven e-commerce success resources 
for you to profit from...

o ProfitInfo's Two-Tiered Affiliate Program
  "Earn recurring income by telling others about us."
  <a href=http://arp.ProfitInfo.com/a/t.pl?l=4>Link</a>

o Internet Marketing Goldmine
  "Uncommon strategies for e-commerce success."
  <a href=http://arp.ProfitInfo.com/a/t.pl?l=2>Link</a>

o ProfitInfo E-Courses
  "Informative email courses for boosting online profits."
  <a href=http://arp.ProfitInfo.com/a/t.pl?l=6>Link</a>

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