Don’t even think about using your direct mail letter as an email
This post was last edited by Alex Cohen, on March 8, 2010 @ 11:03 am
More and more we’re meeting business owners who are simply taking a direct mail letter they send out (usually to introduce their company) and sending it out as an email. This doesn’t work!
The way emails and letters are written are different and therefore require the messages to be portrayed differently through the mediums.
Here are reasons why a direct mail letter is different to an email:
- Think about what you do in real life. How you write a letter versus how you write an email. Emails are more informal, the most effective emails should come from a real person and be made to look like an email your colleague would send you. Letters are more formal
- Letters are usually addressed ‘Dear someone’ and signed ‘Yours Sincerely’. Think about when you send an email to a colleague – most of the time you start with ‘Hi’ and sign it using ‘Kind regards’, ‘Regards’ or ‘Best regards’
- The purpose of a direct mail letter is usually to get someone to respond to your call to action – call you, send an email, respond to a coupon… An email is to get someone to take the next step – be that download a PDF or click through to a website. Therefore emails need call to actions (links) throughout it to try and get people to click on one of them
- The subject line. Getting someone to open an email is key – a standard direct mail letter – most people will open – with email you need a compelling, action orientated subject line to get people to open it
- When it comes to email people don’t have time, they skim read and very quickly (in seconds) decide if they should read it or not. Whilst a letter can be a page of A4 long, email can’t. It needs to be short, snappy and to the point from the first word
- Email can build relationships. Yes you can introduce your company in an email but the emails that work best provide something of use. As a marketing agency We’d get better results giving people marketing tools or marketing insights for SMEs than introducing our company
So there you have it. Next time You’re thinking of taking your direct mail letter and sending it out as an email, stop! Start from scratch and you’ll get the best results.
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