Email Aesthetics- APPEARANCE is Everything!

Email Aesthetics

It`s an old, old saying, but it`s true: you only have onechance to make a good first impression. And in email, thefirst impression is always visual -- a consumer LOOKS/SEESbefore he/she READS.

Imagine walking by a grotesquely garish storefront with allkinds of things hanging off the front porch, every floorpainted a different color, and odd music playing throughloudspeakers. Would you want to walk in the front door? Noway! You`d assume that the owner is a kook, at best, or aderanged axe murderer, at worst.

Did you ever have an ugly looking email land in yourmailbox? You know what I`m talking about: an orangebackground and yellow borders, multi-colored text in allsizes from gigantic to microscopic, a message that looks likeit was created by a crazed six-year-old? If you did, I betyou didn`t feel the urge to read it. You probably justwanted to delete it as quickly as possible.

=> PUT OUT THE WELCOME MATYou want your email message to be friendly and inviting, notbizarre and scary. The suggestions below -- and they`rejust suggestions, not hard and fast rules -- will go a longway towards making recipients` eyes say "come on in!" toyour message.

=> DO`s and DON`Ts FOR ATTRACTIVE EMAILS

-DON`T use COLOR fonts in your message. (Leave that tojunior high girls who want to write about Britney andJustin)

-DO use BLACK TEXT ON A WHITE BACKGROUND. (When you`re"speaking" in black-and-white, people will give their fullattention to your message without being distracted by yourcolor scheme.)

-DON`T use UNCOMMON FONTS. (If someone`s system doesn`trecognize the font you`ve selected, they could see gibberishinstead of your brilliant message).

-DO use the email marketers` FAVORITE FONTS: Arial, TimesNew Roman, and Courier New

And please.

-DON`T use flashing buttons or banners in your email! (Yourprospects have undoubtedly gotten their fill of "bells andwhistles" when they`ve surfed the Internet. They don`t needmore from you.)

=> GET HYPER" WITH EMAIL HYPERLINKS

An "email hyperlink" is just techno-talk for a link in youremail to a website, or email address. Sounds simple enough,and it is -- unless you try to contact a prospect on AOL whomay not be able to receive "clickable" links.

Don`t worry. There`s a "fix" for this: simply type mailto:in front of your email address (no space in between, andinclude the : )

=> ALWAYS USE SIGNATURE TAGS

Today, it`s common practice on the Internet to tell peopleabout your product or service with a SIGNATURE TAG, which is3-6 lines of text (usually) that is automatically added toevery message you send.

If you`d like to add a tag to your messages, simply openyour email program. Find the SIGNATURES TAB (located in theTOOLS/OPTIONS menu in Outlook Express). Follow the (simple)instructions for creating a sig file. Easy as pie...and theresults will amaze you.

Sincerely,

Steven Ackerman

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