Building appeal into your email content
Writing an email good enough to hold readers takes planning and cultivation. Most of us are not professional writers, and it is easy to let a grip on content management slide. What follows is accumulated experience, boiled down to the essentials — follow them and results will come.
Seven points that make a good article:
1. Direct, simple, easy to grasp
This is not about how educated people are, it is about how much time they have. A clear structure, an orderly argument and plain language pull readers straight in and give them immediate satisfaction.
2. Include images
One picture beats a thousand words. It attracts readers and it is easily remembered.
3. Topics readers actually like
Whatever ordinary people care about — a television drama, an online trend, the small stuff of daily life — if the crowd is discussing it, it belongs on your list of topics.
4. Content with continuity
No single article needs to be long; three hundred words is a reasonable limit. Take one topic, develop different facets of it, split them across several pieces, and thread them into a sequence with multiple angles that readers want to follow.
5. Content that educates and nourishes
Use the topic you have raised to introduce different perspectives, open and widen the reader’s view, and lead them toward knowing more. That is what makes an article welcome.
6. Success stories
Citing positive, successful examples does more than add persuasive weight — readers enjoy them, because they trigger a good feeling and offer encouragement.
7. Reader participation
Giving readers a chance to leave comments and opinions is an important step in building the relationship. It respects the reader, and it is also a route to understanding them.
Writing is hard, and what makes it hard is time. Start with point 3. Spend half an hour a day gathering topics, read a few different perspectives on one online, and try writing down how you feel about it. One a day adds up, and it prepares the ground for the emails you need to write.