Think Before You Send: What Can Your Email Do in 10 Seconds?
Depending on your amount of research on email marketing, you may have heard of the 3 second rule. If you haven't, it can be a valuable tool to quickly determine the effectiveness of your email campaign. Here's how it works:
1. 3 seconds- Client views the email address and the subject line to determine whether or not they want to open your email.
Is your email address from a person or company’s address? This will ensure your email doesn’t look like spam. Your subject line should be less than 45 characters (including spaces). Don’t use capital letters. Do use the company’s name and/or the name of the product- you should be, after all, providing a brief synopsis of what’s in the email.
2. 3 seconds- Client scans the message for something interesting that might make them want to read the entire email message.
Here’s why it’s important to keep it concise and informative.
3. 3 seconds- Client looks for call to action so they know what to do with your email.
This a great reason to include calls to action throughout the email. Calls to action should pop out to the client… don’t make their eyes dig for them.
So there are 9 seconds for your email to be successful (it's opened, read, and the call to action is taken). During the editing process, consider the 3 second rule to maximize the effectiveness of your email marketing campaign.