Not long ago I received a very long self promotion email from someone I had meet at a networking event. Somehow they are more annoying than the usual spam because I had actually meet the sender.

After making my way to the 6th sentence of this 732 word e-monstrosity, a pattern was emerging; every sentence began or featured the word ‘I’ at least once.
“I operate…”
“I work…”
“I studied…”
“I ask you…”
“I am very good at what I do…”

At the very bottom in the last two paragraphs, was the offer  – but I’d given up reading the email 642 words before!

So before hitting the keyboard to drum up business, here’s a few ‘do nots’ when it comes to writing marketing emails, most of which can also be applied to all promotional copy.

Do not:

• Iinclude everyone’s email address in the ‘To’ field for all to see.
• write in big bold letters, with random use of capitals which SCREAMS at the reader.
• write overly long emails. People are busy so respect their time and get to the point clearly and quickly.
• write long paragraphs and sentences  – they are off putting to read, especially when the information is boring.
• overtly self promote without considering the needs or interests of the recipient.

Do try to keep your email to one page scroll. Break your text into sections, separating each with short headings that introduces the following text and helps readers to scan read for information they are interested in.

You don’t want to be accused of spamming so pay attention to the spam laws. See our blog posts:

• Anti Spam Law: 3 Steps to Comply
• Protect your clients email addresses

Posted on April 26th, 2010 by Wendy Riley-Biddle
Filed under: Marketing