A survey is a method of gathering information from a number of individuals, known as a sample, in order to learn something about the larger population from which the sample is drawn.  Although surveys come in many forms, and serve a variety of purposes, they do share certain characteristics.  In order for the objectives of a survey to be met, the results must reliably project on the larger public, from which the sample is drawn.  A sample can be scientifically chosen so that each individual in a population has a known chance of selection.  This ensures that a sample is not selected haphazardly or uses only those eager to participate.  The sample size for a survey will depend on the degree of reliability necessary and how the results are to be used.  A properly selected sample should be able to reflect the various characteristics of a total population within a very small margin for error.  There are many surveys that study the total adult population but many others that focus on selected populations:  employees, academics, industry experts, computers users, or customers that use a particular product or service.

Some surveys focus on opinion and attitudes while others are more concerned with collecting factual information. Many surveys combine questions of both types.   A respondent could be asked what they heard or read about an issue, what they know about it, their opinion, how strongly they feel and why, interest in the issue, past experiences with it, and also certain demographic information which will help the survey analyst classify the responses (such as age, sex, marital status, occupation, and place of residence).  Questions can be open ended (“What does that make you think of?”) or closed (“Do you agree or disagree?”); they may ask the respondent to rate a product or a service on some kind of scale; they may ask for a ranking of various alternatives.  The questionnaire could be very brief – a few questions taking no longer than five minutes, or it could take a demanding hour or more of a respondent’s time.  A survey is usually rooted in situations where an individual or institution is confronted with an information need and no existing data will suffice. Once the information need has been identified and a determination made that existing data is inadequate, objectives are laid out for the investigation. These objectives should remain as specific, clear cut and unambiguous as possible.

Designing the questionnaire is a critical stage of the survey development process.  The questionnaire links the information need to the realized measurement.  Scaling techniques used for measurement can be comparative or non comparative.  If proper care and attention is not placed on clearly defining concepts and unambiguously phrasing questions, the resulting data is apt to contain serious biases.  Questions used in surveys must be refined to minimize interpretation problems and thus reduce measurement error.  If the respondent is unable to understand a question or fails to comprehend the question the way it was intended then the data is neither valid nor reliable.  A question must use language in a way that makes the intended observer’s meaning behind that question obvious.   In order to do this a survey must reflect an understanding of the population being sampled. For example, many people do not distinguish between robbery which requires the theft to be in the immediate presence of the victim and burglary which can involve breaking and entering without any confrontation.  The National Crime Survey, done by the Bureau of the Census, does not even mention the word “robbery” when it asks questions about robbery victimization.  Rather they ask several questions that use universally understood phrases, consistent with the operational definition of robbery, that when used together are able to capture the desired responses.

Keeping response errors and biases to a minimum factor heavily in designing a survey. How questions are interpreted by respondents must be carefully considered.  Also, you need to consider the length of the survey. If a questionnaire is too long than it can be burdensome to the respondent, inducing respondent fatigue that leads to response errors, refusals, incomplete questionnaires, and can contribute to higher non-response rates in subsequent surveys involving the same respondent.  Memory plays an important role when surveys deal with past events.  For most people the greater the demand a question places on memory, such as being asked to recall trivial details occurring on any given random date, the less accurate the responses and therefore the less reliable the survey data that is collected.  An appropriate choice of reference period should be made so that a respondent is not forced to report on events that happened too long ago.  Grouping similar questions together can reduce the cognitive burden a survey places on a respondent.  The validity of a survey can be put in jeopardy if questions are too sensitive, if they may prejudice the respondent, if they unduly invade a respondent’s privacy, and if the information that is sought is too difficult for a willing respondent to provide.

A web survey is one of five general ways research is typically conducted using surveys.  Surveys are also given using mail (the kind that requires postage), telephone, in-person interviews, and intercept surveys (respondents are “intercepted” as they pass through a heavily trafficked area).  The web survey most closely resembles the type of surveys which were traditionally mailed out.  Only this time you’re using email to send a link that takes you to an HTML form that is designed for completion and submission through the computer.   Information is collected quickly because as soon as your respondent has finished taking the survey, their responses are immediately submitted.  Web surveys can also be embedded on your web site using what is known as an Iframe.  An IFrame is an HTML element that makes it possible to embed an HTML document inside of another HTML document.   You can also create a Pop-Up survey on your web site so that when a site visitor visits a page the HTML form pops up from their web site.   If they have pop-up blockers enabled then this method will prevent them from taking your survey so you can also create a link to the survey which you can display on your web site.

The web survey is a cost effective way of administering a survey that allows you to collect large amounts of information without having to pay for interviewers, paper supplies or postage, and does not require separate data entry for responses to be processed.  The rise in web based surveys is due in no small measure to the increasingly widespread availability of computers.   Particularly in organizational or professional settings, the ability to receive a questionnaire and complete it at home or in the office on a computer is very convenient for most people.  You can expect to wait at least a few weeks for a questionnaire that is mailed out to a respondent to be returned.  A web survey allows you to rapidly collect data in a timely manner.   Information can be collected and processed in just a few days.    It also allows respondents ample time to carefully consider response selection and to enter in text for open ended questions.  If factual information is required then the respondent has enough time to consult their records.

You can increase response rate to web surveys by sending respondents a pre-notification of the intent of the survey.   This lets your respondents know what the survey is about before they invest any of their time into taking it.  You can also send follow-up reminders to respondents that have not completed the survey. This can be used in a situation where a respondent must complete the survey within a given date range.  Web surveys assume a minimal level of computer literacy so keeping your surveys simple can also help your response rate.  The technical nature of online surveys make them ideal for specialized or well defined populations that have access to an email account and/or a computer.  Coverage bias may result when targeting populations where computers or internet access are not widespread.  Determining an appropriate type of survey to administer to your respondents must take the population that is being measured into consideration.

Our minds construct narratives in order to interpret experience in a meaningful way.  If you ask three people to describe the details surrounding an event they shared together you are likely to get three very different stories.  Let’s assume that everyone is being truthful and presenting events faithfully to the best of their recollection.   You’ll find that each narration contains different and sometimes conflicting details about what really occurred. What’s more is that each person will be convinced that their representation of reality best describes what really happened.  Yet the details found in each story suggest otherwise.   Its not possible to accept all three stories as an accurate depiction of reality because they are conflicting accounts.  The truth lies somewhere in the middle.  Eyewitness accounts are never considered reliable because our minds fabricate stories that give events in our life meaning.   False memories are created in order to fill in the blanks for the details that we can not remember.  Stories are a way for our minds to put data that is collected through our senses into a context that is both useful and based on our previous experiences.  That is why storytelling has always been an essential part of what it means to be human.

Even before the written word we used speech to tell stories in order to communicate and pass along history.   As oral traditions developed the stories that were told would evolve as they were passed from speaker to speaker until what began as a factual depiction of an event, as told by the original storyteller, took on mythological proportions.  These myths relied on dramatic exaggerations and were conveyed using  language that was steeped in symbolism and meaning.  The stories that evolved as a result bared little resemblance to the factual accounts they were based on.   The world’s first print culture grew out of East Asia, in China and in Korea, where woodblock printing created the world’s first print society.  The Gutenberg printing press would later revolutionize the written word in a way that is comparable to the way the Internet has today.  What’s changed today is the medium for telling stories and not the need people have for stories to be told to them.   These stories are necessary in order to provide life with meaning.  Think about the movies, books, and TV series that attract an audience.   They have characters that people can relate to and the audience cares about them enough to want to follow along through their experiences.  When it comes time for people to create their own stories out of their personal realities they can turn to the experiences found in these stories to add richness to their lives.  How do you attract people to your website?   How do you get people to care about what you tell them in your newsletter?  Its easy.  You tell them a story.

You can easily purchase a template for your website that makes it look professional.    Likewise you can also purchase email templates that will assure that all of your newsletters look professional.  However, just like in any superficial relationship, the novelty will wear thin and it won’t be long until you lose their attention for good.   That’s because it’s the content that you are using that allows you to tell your story to your audience.    A good product or a worthwhile service is useless if no one ever knows about it.   The way you interact with your customers becomes a part of the information that is collected and later recounted in the form of a story.  This story gets told when someone talks about what you are doing to other people.   The more you relate with your customers the longer they become engaged.  The longer you can count on your story lasting with them.   Have you ever watched a movie or read a book that was so good that you never wanted it to end?   Every moment offered you something new that you could relate to in your own life and you began living vicariously through the characters in the story.

Focusing on benefits,  or how a feature is useful, is a part of telling a story that your customer wants to hear.  A list of features is not compelling but talking about why those features are useful is.  A list of people that use your product is not as interesting as the names of the people that use it.   Even better than a list of names are testimonials and case studies that tell a story about you coming from another customer.  If you send out a bunch of mailings to a ton of people and its not obvious why you are sending them then you are telling a bad story to your customers.   It’s a story about how you are wasting their time.  The newsletters that you send should have a purpose that is obvious to your subscribers.  How do you run your business?  Are you simply trying to reach as many people as you can in the hope that someone will buy into what you are selling? If that is the only story you are telling your customers then you are telling a bad story because you are treating them like a number.  People care about other people and not numbers.  Or, on the other hand, do you demonstrate integrity by creating worthwhile products or services that are useful to people?  If you take that approach and you are able to effectively communicate it to your customers then you will win over more people.  The story your customers will tell other people will be about how you provided them with something that was useful and worthwhile.  Your subscriber lists will increase in quality and you will convert more of your list into actual sales.

Narratives are a natural part of how the mind interprets experiences.   Providing content that is compelling to your audience builds relationships and allows them to connect with you.  You are always telling a story with everything you do. Even if you are not consciously trying to tell a story you are.  If you are not paying attention to the content that you are using then the message you are sending is just a very bad one.  Taking control over your message gives you the opportunity to make yourself interesting. What kind of story do you want your customers to tell about you?

You need to have a reason for sending an email to your subscribers.  This reason should lead them to a clear call to action in your email.   If your newsletter does not have a purpose then you are wasting your subscriber’s time.  People are busy and do not like to have their time wasted.  When you send someone an email you need to ask yourself what it is you would like them to do.  Do you want them to buy something from you?   Do you want them to reply to your email?  Are you asking them to donate their time or money to a worthwhile cause?  Your subscriber wants to know what it is you want from them.  They also want to know what you are going to do for them. If this is not obvious then you will lose them and they will not listen to what you have to say.  In order to get them to do what you want you have to make it obvious to them.   You also need to make what you are willing to do for them obvious.

Create a Void So They Feel a Need

Most people need a motivation in order to feel a need.  If they need money they feel motivation to get a job.  If they develop a gut they feel a need to go to the gym. In order to create a need for your subscriber you need to make them aware of what they are lacking.   Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs presents a theory of motivation that is based on the following:

• Physiological Needs – these are basic needs required to sustain life such as air, water, food, and sleep.
• Safety Needs – this could include living in a safe place, job security, savings, and protection from situations where a person would feel threatened.
• Social Needs – these are needs related to interactions with other people such as friendship, belonging to a group, and giving and receiving love.
• Esteem Needs – these are needs such as self respect, achievement, attention, recognition, and reputation.  This includes internal needs related to self esteem such as self respect and personal achievement as well as external needs such as social needs and recognition.
• Self Actualization – this is the peak of Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs and is part of a person’s quest to reach their full potential.   This includes the need for truth, wisdom, knowledge, and meaning.

What is not important here is whether you agree with Maslow’s theory that lower levels of need must be satisfied before the higher needs are addressed.  What is important is that you realize that all people have needs and the reason products exist is to fill one of those needs.  Sometimes needs may not be obvious or ingrained in your reader’s mind.  When you do email copywriting you are writing to sell.   Your job is to show a need for your product or service.   If you do this well your reader will feel a void unless their need is satisfied.

Fill the Void By Offering a Solution

When you establish a need exists you can begin showing your reader how what you are selling fills that need.  This means talking about benefits as opposed to features.   Features are boring.  People do not want things unless they fill a need.  Talking about features is meaningless unless you can show how that feature fills a need. Sometimes people assume that because a person is looking at a product they must already know how all its features benefit them.  This is wrong.  Do not assume anything.   People trust you for your expertise or they would not come to you.   They want to know what’s in it for them.  An example of this can be found with cell phones:

Feature:  Bluetooth enabled

Benefit: Allows you to talk on the phone without using your hands

A younger person may know what Bluetooth Enabled means but for an older adult who is less technically inclined the term could be completely meaningless.   If you are talking about features as opposed to benefits you are throwing away potential customers.

Let Them Know What They Have to Lose

“What makes something special is not just what you have to gain, but what you feel there is to lose.” – Andre Agassi

What separates you from others with similar offerings?  What would your customer lose if they were to go with someone else instead of you?  Assure your reader that they are making the right choice by letting them know what they have to lose.  Give them a reason to believe you are special. You can draw on inspiration from past testimonials, case studies, statistics, brand identity, and of course your benefits when you are looking to separate yourself from your competitors.  Show them what makes you unique.  Let them know what life would be like without you.

Make It Easy For Them to Act On Their Need

Now that your reader knows that you have what they want its time to lead them to a clear call to action.  The call to action is an invitation to your reader to take an action that contributes to the goal of the email.  This call to action could take the form of a link that redirects to a landing page,  a method of purchasing the product, or even a reply to your mailing.  The purpose of your newsletter should be obvious to your subscriber.   Now that you have shown them what’s in it for them its only fair that you let them know what you want in return.  Your call to action should be clear and direct.  Your mailing should be structured in a way that is likely to generate a direct response from your reader.

Without a call to action you are merely teasing your reader. You are playing games or merely messing with their head.  Sparking interest and getting attention without letting them do anything about it.  If your reader does not know what your call to action is then you just wasted their time. Email marketing writing either produces results, or it is useless.

An obvious place to place your call to action is at the end of your mailing.   But that shouldn’t stop you from moving it up where appropriate or using multiple calls to action throughout your mailing.   You might have a call to action at the top, the middle, and the end so that no matter how erratic your reader’s attention is they always have a place to go!  Adding multiple calls to action throughout can increase the likelihood that you get a response.  Readers are use to being able to click on almost anything and that includes images, brand names, and logos.  If you do use images then add supporting text under the image and in the “alt” tag so that your reader will know what to do if images are disabled.

Anyone with a rudimentary knowledge of Marketing 101 is familiar with the 4 P’s of Mixed Marketing.  Marketing decisions being made using a recipe was posited by James Culliton in 1948.  ‘Marketing-Mix’ was coined by Neil Borton in 1953.  Move ahead to 1960 where E Jerome McCarthy first proposes the 4 P classification system and it later finds its current mainstream acceptance in Philip Kotler’s Principles of Marketing in 1967.

Considered the traditional elements of marketing the 4 Ps are:

• Product -  Goods or services.
• Price-  What the customer pays for your product.
• Placement – The distribution channel for the product
• Promotion -  All Communications such as advertising with the customer

Collectively these ingredients represent a company centric worldview where the company establishes the terms upon which the client is acted on.   This was establishment thinking at a time when products were mass produced, prices set on profitability,  distribution limited to one way channels, and clients targeted by one way promotions.   Promoting products required having mass appeal and often grabbed people’s attention in ways that were disruptive.  People were interrupted from programs on television with commercials. They listened to commercials on the radio because that was the only place to go for new music.

Its been estimated that there are 162 million web sites and 1.4 billion users on the web and this has fundamentally shifted the marketplace.  Along with the changing times have come changing attitudes.  Mixing ingredients and spoon feeding your clients with whatever you are selling is no longer a realistic approach to marketing. People receive information at a dizzying pace these days.  Technology has allowed the spread of ideas to flow to audiences faster than can be assimilated.  People have competing messages coming from all directions whether they come from blogs, user reviews, commenting, and forums.   They also have more options for tuning you out.  DVR,  On Demand, Podcasts, YouTube, and downloads are ways for people to tune in to what they want when they want it.

In order to compete with all these options marketers must win over the hearts and minds of their clients.  A client oriented culture is necessary in order to reach today’s audiences.  A new model of marketing that focuses on interactivity, building relationships, and keeping clients actively engaged is emerging as marketing’s new forward thinking. This new thinking acknowledges that audiences are more resistant to marketing speak and tend to be less impressionable to traditional forms of advertising.   In order to keep audience’s interest marketers must respond with more interactive forms of communication.

Newspapers are currently facing a yearly profit loss with a decline in circulation and an accompanying decline in dollars from advertising.  The Chicago Tribune recently declared bankruptcy and the economic picture for the New York Times is looking bleak.  Its been reported that they have a $400 million debt payment due in five months and a negative current net worth.

Yet it isn’t as if people have suddenly quit following the news.  Thanks to YouTube,  rssfeeds, and the popularity of blogs people have more options when it comes to where they want to get their news from.   Traditional media has been forced to adapt as a result.  Their focus has shifted toward giving people what they want and when they want it.  Streaming video, slide shows, rssfeeds, forums, and blogs are now standards on mainstream news sites.   This approach has lessened the bleeding.    Even as their newspapers continue to decrease in circulation The New York Times has emerged as one of the top ranked web sites.   The online domain nytimes.com attracts 180 million site visitors annually. The challenge now for newspapers is in inventing a model around this that can draw in more revenue.  Revenues from online advertising has given newspapers some hope but this still hasn’t been able to replace the profits they lost from print advertising.

Marketing is currently an evolving field in which the old rules no longer apply and fresh thinking is currently in demand.  Moving forward requires getting people’s attention by giving them what they want and when they want it.

In marketing segmentation the total market is divided into submarkets that share characteristics that cause each group to share distinct needs.   If done properly each segment will respond in a similar fashion to a given marketing strategy.  When applied to email marketing this concept will allow you to build relationships with your subscribers so you can then send targeted mailings that are relevant to each group of subscribers.    By treating your subscribers as distinct groups with distinct needs your email campaigns will yield higher response rates.  You will not only get more results from your existing subscribers but you will lose a lot less subscribers if your mailings are relevant.

But what data should you use to divide your subscriber list into segments?   Previously we discussed how your newsletter should have a purpose that leads your subscriber to a clear call to action.  What is that purpose and what action are you calling on from your subscribers?

If the mailing you are sending is not relevant to all of your subscribers then they should not be included in your mailing.   This is a key principle of email marketing writing and one of the things that makes email marketing more powerful than other one-to-many advertising mediums. If you run a pet store you would not want to bother dog owners with coupons for cat food unless of course they owned both a dog and a cat.  Your job here would be to identify which of your subscribers had cats or dogs, owned cats but not dogs, owned dogs but not cats, or owned both.    In this example it’s safe to assume that your subscriber is not going to buy a cat if you send them a coupon for cat food.   Why bother your dog only subscriber with a mailing if you know they are not going to buy cat food?

Three areas to consider when breaking your list down into segments are:

• Demographic data – Consumer statistics regarding socioeconomic factors such as age, income, sex, education, location, marital status, and occupation.   This could be a good starting place for observing marketing trends.   People from similar backgrounds will often act a like and you can begin to observe patterns emerging.  While this is valuable for lending insight into general behavior, it cannot be relied up on as a predictor for individual behavior.   If the pet store coupon is for a premium pet product then someone with more disposable income may have more interest in your product.  Then again a single adult may be more indulging to their pet.   You never know when it comes to people and their pets.
• Preference and Opinion Data – Information usually collected by surveys, polls, focus groups, or through conversation.  This information can sometimes be biased in some way or another. There are many people that will tell you what you want to hear or what they want to be true rather than what is actually true.
• Behavioral Data – Using past behavior to predict future behavior is usually the most reliable data to collect.  Unlike preference and opinion data you are relying on someone’s actions and not what they say.   If your subscriber has used coupons to buy cat food in the past then this is the best indicator that they will actually use your coupon to buy more cat food.

Philip Kotler, an S.G Johnson & Son Distinguished Professor of International Marketing at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, suggests that to be effective and useful to your business a market segment should have the following characteristics:

• Measurable – You need to find out its size, key characteristics, purchasing power, and preferences
• Substantial – Is the segment of interest large enough to be profitably served by you.
• Accessible – There is no purpose to segmenting if you already know that there is no practical way to access a segment’s members.
• Differentiable – Segments have to respond differently to different marketing programs.    If there is no difference in whether men or women buy certain cat foods, then there is no effective segmentation.

Once you have effectively segmented your subscriber list you can then target each segment.  When each segment is differentiated on the basis of their needs it allows you to send mailings that address those needs.   When you address those needs your mailings are relevant to your subscribers and they are more likely to respond.

Your relationship with your individual subscribers will change over time as you learn more about them.  Email Marketing provides you with metrics for your subscriber such as how frequently your subscriber opens your mailings, how often they click on your links, and you can also gain insight into their purchasing habits.

In client based marketing strategies individuals are treated as separate entities.   In marketing circles a widely held maxim says that 20 percent of your clients will come up with 80 percent of your revenue.  Keep the 80/20 rule in mind when it comes to segmenting your subscriber list. When developing your marketing strategy you are going to want to identify which of your subscribers make up the top 20 percent of your list and you will then want to pay special attention to them. 20 percent of your revenue comes from this group so they will deserve special recognition.   If you do not then you risk alienating them and losing a core segment of your business.   Find ways of showing your appreciation like thanking them over email while at the same time targeting them with incentives to purchase more.

Everyone must deal with bottom feeders that cost businesses profitability.   Those at the bottom 20 percent will often cost you business.   You will need to consider strategies for bringing this segment up to a profitable level.   The middle 40 percent is often high to marginally profitable.   By understanding their needs you can map out strategies for convincing these customers to invest more heavily into your company.   Always keep an eye on the middle.   These customers can move between marginally to highly profitable depending on how well you market around their needs.   Keep the 80/20 rule in mind when segmenting your list.  A good marketer will know how to use this rule to enhance their profitability.

The fonts you use in your mailing will determine how legible your text is, give your words emphasis, set mood and emotion behind those words, and make your newsletter cohesive.  Any font used in your newsletter has to be available on your subscriber’s computer in order for it to be displayed properly.  For this reason you need to ensure that the font you are using is commonly used on the majority of your subscriber’s computers so that your mailing looks the same for everyone. 

The most commonly used fonts are Times New Roman and Arial.  Other commonly used fonts include Comic Sans M S, Tahoma, and Verdana.   What looks good in print does not necessarily translate well onto the computer screen.  While Times New Roman is the default for most web browsers, possibly because most books and printed media use this font for its readability, studies show that on the computer screen users overwhelmingly find Arial easier to read.  There is a slight preference for Arial over Verdana at the 12 pt font level and an overwhelming preference for Verdana at the 10 pt level.  For this reason we have found that of all the commonly used fonts most people prefer Verdana at 10 pt or Arial at 12 pt.  There are other fonts that your subscribers may find easy to read such as Georgia, which was developed by Microsoft for its readability, but we suggest staying away from this as it is not as widely installed on all computers.

Never include too many fonts in a single email.  If you do use more than one font in your newsletter then limit yourself to using only two or three different fonts.   It is perfectly acceptable to use one font for your headlines and another font for your body text.  This will avoid making your newsletter cluttered and unattractive to your subscribers.  Newspapers typically use only one font style and size in their articles and only one or two style elements in their articles.   If your text exceeds the size of your layout you should cut out words rather than reduce the size of your fonts.  Remember,  the more succinct your writing is the more weight your words will carry.

Style elements are what you use to give emphasis to your text.   Rather than overusing fonts it’s suggested that you instead focus on style elements.    Bold text is used to give emphasis or weight to your words.   It commonly used on headlines, short phrases, entire sentences, captions, as we well as stand-alone words or phrases.  A word of caution when using bold text in the middle of a paragraph is that you will take attention away from your surrounding text.    If you want to only emphasize one word use italics rather than bold print.   Italics are used for emphasis whether it’s a single word or short phrase in a body of text.   It can also be used for subheadings, proper names, and titles.  Another way of adding emphasis to words is by using a different font color.   If you do this then you will need to remember to use darker text against lighter backgrounds or your words will be difficult to read.  You can also use different colors when emphasizing headlines or subheadings.   You typically will find people using different text colors when adding contrast for links against other text, readability against background color, and to match font with design elements in their email.

For more tips read our articles on email design and email copywriting.

Effective email marketing writing is persuasive to your subscribers, enhances your image and credibility, and adds clarity to the message in your newsletter. Even the most eye popping email design graphics and layouts will lose their appeal if subscribers are presented with email copywriting that is shoddy or substandard. In the movie Glengarry Glen Ross, Alec Baldwin bellows the following advice to his hapless sales team; “A-B-C. A-Always, B – Be, C-Closing! Always be closing!! A-I-D-A. Attention, interest, decision, action.” AIDA is an acronym used in marketing that is short for Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action.  This can be applied to email marketing as well.

Attention – Grab your subscriber’s attention with an engaging subject line so they open your mailing. This is your invitation to your subscriber to hear what you have to say. Once your newsletter is opened you can also get your subscriber’s attention with the appearance of the newsletter as well as the headlines and lead sentences. You may want to think of this as your pick up line or your “hook”.

Interest - If you are meeting someone for the first time and all you do is talk about yourself then you shouldn’t be surprised if that person gets up and walks away. This could be the point where your subscriber quits reading your newsletter or they opt out of your list altogether. However, if you include a person in your conversation then they are going to want to stick around. Focus on advantages and benefits as they relate to the substance of your communication.

Desire – Strong interest yields to desire. Use the power of persuasion in your conversation now that you have your subscriber’s interest. The better you can relate to someone in your conversation, the more they will want to hear. Use the body of your newsletter to convince your subscriber that you have what they want and they will feel a need for what you are offering. You are writing to build up motivation for your subscriber for what you are offering with your newsletter.

Action – Your newsletter should have a purpose and your writing should lead your subscriber to a clear call to action. You’ve now convinced your listener that you have what they want. Make it easy for them to do something about it! This action could be clicking on a link, purchasing a product, or even replying to your newsletter. You should structure your mailing in a way that is likely to generate a direct response from your reader.

Now, a word about subject lines or what we have noted as your all important hook. While you want to make this interesting enough for your subscriber to have a reason for opening your mailing you are going to want to exhibit caution. Think of the subject lines that you see in your spam box. You are going to want to be weary of using dollar signs, too much punctuation, or appearing needy as these are often techniques used by spammers. The subject line is important because you do not want to ruin the integrity of your list by being seen as spam. If you google top 10 spam subject lines you will get a good idea of what you want to stay away from.

A good rule of thumb is to keep your subject lines consistent and familiar to your subscribers. You can start with the same words so that your recipients recognize you. For example, “ActiveCampaign Newsletter: Name of the Newsletter” as a lot of email clients will cut off the end of the subject line. Try to keep the length of your subject line below 50 characters. Some internal testing may come in handy to see the maximum number of characters you can use before the subject line is cropped. You need not worry about this too much as you want to use as many characters as is necessary to get your subject across. The trick to writing a good subject line is to appeal to your subscriber’s interest which should be some combination of your target audience and relating the purpose of the newsletter to their needs.

There are many stylistic ways of holding your subscribers interest. Be succinct in your writing. This means giving your subscriber relevant information in as few words as possible. The more succinct your writing is the more weight your words will carry.

Include the most important parts of your newsletter in the beginning. Subscribers will read the introduction first before they decide whether the rest is worth their time. Many subscribers are going to scan through rather than read everything you write in your newsletter so arrange your text accordingly. This may include using dashes and bullet points as well as blocks of text rather than chunky paragraphs. You would write a newsletter differently than you would write a term paper or a thesis.

You can also engage your subscriber’s interest by using the active voice in your writing. This conveys a powerful message because when the verb of a sentence uses the active voice, the subject is doing the acting. When you use the passive voice the subject is being acted upon which can make your writing sound weak.

Keep your newsletter personal. Make your subscriber feel as though you are talking directly to them. One obvious way to do this is through using personalization tags such as the subscriber’s name.

Write to your audience. You can find out more about your subscribers demographic by using a tool such as A/B split to find out what your subscribers respond to. You do not have to be overly formal as in traditional business or marketing writing. It is perfectly alright to be irreverent at times so long as you are not overly casual and risk setting the wrong tone for your audience. It is important to know who your subscribers are before setting a tone for your audience. Remember you can set up separate mailings that target specific market and customize each campaign accordingly.

You’ll need to take in a few more technical suggestions into considerations with your newsletter. It’s best to avoid URLs altogether in your links. If you do use URLs in your mailing make sure that is reduced in length and that it fits on a single line. If you must use two lines for your URL then tell the subscriber how to piece the composite URL in their window. Also along those same lines, be sure to wrap all text at 68 characters per line. Although all email clients vary, all email applications will correctly display text at 68 characters or less per line. Also many email readers will only read ASCII characters. Be sure to avoid the use of “smart quotes.” Use a text editor and not a word processor when composing your messages.

Email Marketing plays an increasingly prominent role in running a 21st century Political campaign. In the 2008 US Presidential Election, which has generated worldwide interest, both candidates relied on email marketing to generate web site traffic, enlist volunteers for running a ground game, collect financial contributions from small donors, and to motivate their base to get out and vote. Whatever your political affiliation happens to be, or wherever in the world you happen to be, you can expect email marketing to play a prominent role in political campaigns from here on out.

In this article we’ll talk about what you need to do to run an effective political campaign by using email marketing. Email Marketing is a form of mass communication which is a discipline which is not altogether different from public speaking. Everyone can send an email to someone they know and write to that person in a way they will be understood. If you send the same message to a whole group of people you may get a different reaction from everyone you send it to. This is the tricky part of email marketing and a good politician will act as a good public speaker in their email marketing correspondence. This means they will carefully research their audience’s needs and carefully craft their words in order to make everyone in their audience feel like they are speaking directly to them. Once you have a message that resonates with your audience you will want practice good message discipline. A candidate is a type of brand which must be carefully controlled and their every word must be monitored. If a candidate goes off message then they give their opponent an opportunity to expose a weakness in their language in a way that would not be possible in carefully scripted language. In politics, often times what you say and do matters more than what you mean or what your intentions were.

You’re going to want to keep a consistent FROM address in your emails. You’ll use a different “From” name in your campaigns. Sometimes your From Name will be from the candidate themselves and other times it will be from the campaign manager or any number of key figures from your campaign. Keeping the From address consistent so that it is something like info@yourcandidate.com will keep consistency in your supporters email clients and will help avoid your message from being placed in junk mail folders.

The types of emails you send should be short text based messages that are clear, focused calls to action. These contain low-commitment calls to donate small dollar amounts or volunteer.  You can easily provide substance for these emails by posting links to ads or campaign videos, spin negative coverage by appealing directly to your supporters, report on gaffes by your opponent, provide information on meet ups and rallies, impassion your base by calling attention to negative attacks, and to otherwise focus your message in a way that will excite your supporters. Mainstream media isn’t powerful because people lack options on where to get news. The power of the media comes from its ability to write compelling stories that attract an audience. You will want to keep this in mind when using email marketing to tell your candidate’s story.

Ensure that your mailings are permission based. Your mailings will lose all effectiveness the moment they are regarded as spam by your subscribers. Your sender reputation will suffer and your email deliverability will drop. Candidates work relentlessly to build subscriber lists and they are very well aware of metrics such as open rates and link tracking. You will also want to use personalization tags such as your subscriber’s name to help keep things personal. If your mailing is anticipated, personal, and relevant to your subscriber then it will always outperform spam.

In order to use your subscriber list as an effective base for running a political campaign it’s important to define what that base consists of. A base is a tribe of people that have shared interests and vision. Every candidate has certain strengths with a particular base. Building a new base in politics as in marketing is very risky and expensive. Email marketing is an inexpensive way of building and maintaining a base. However, your success will ultimately hinge on building a base that you can then turn out to vote. This will still come down to your vision and how you are able to connect that vision with core constituencies of your electorate.

Recently I came into the office to find that one of my two workstation monitors was getting no juice–it was completely blank. I’m pretty sure an automatic Windows update blew out the driver for my dual-monitor controller. After a restart, Windows told me it couldn’t find any driver for the video controller, and wasn’t able to find any compatible controllers online either. Tragedy.

It had been a very long time since I had done this job with only one monitor, and it was fairly amazing how difficult it was to go back to it. As you can see in my screenshot below, there are quite a few types of web software I need to have at close reach while I’m working, and there’s no way to deal with them all on a single monitor without constantly switching between windows to see what’s going on.

Which got me thinking: you guys aren’t doing all your work on just a single monitor, are you? The difference in productivity between a single and dual-monitor setup is definitely significant for anyone who is consistently working with a number of different tools. But I think there’s also a health issue here: I felt much more stressed out working that way. I felt cramped up and twitchy. By the time I left, I was a little burned out. And it was much tougher for me to unwind than is usual, even after a long day.

Working with computers all day can be much more stressful than a lot of folks would imagine. And it’s usually not an all-out assault of stress that you could point to as something that was definitely doing you harm. Rather, it’s a slow and steady trickle of stress that comes from paying attention to lots of little things for prolonged periods of time. Most of us are already only too aware that chronic stress can ruin your health, so you should take every possible precaution to ensure that your workday is as relaxed and pleasant as possible.

One of the very simplest things you can do to reduce your stress level is to reduce visual clutter. Allow yourself a little room to move around in, and you’ll find you feel less… imposed upon. This most definitely applies to what you see on your screen(s). I usually even go so far as to keep all of my windows just a little smaller than they could be so that I can see the space behind and between then more clearly. This establishes a sense of depth and expansiveness on your desktop, which not only gives you the visual impression of having more space for yourself, it also makes it easier to feel like each piece of work is a solid and graspable object, not a vast expanse of overwhelming workload.

So if you’re not already using at least two monitors, and organizing your workspace in such a way as to create a sense of natural simplicity and calm, then why not take a break from whatever you’re doing and get it set up right now? Not only will the increase in productivity easily earn back whatever time and money you spent on the setup, you’ll probably also notice an increased sense of well-being and improved overall health.

Another year is upon us and its imperative that as an affiliate marketer we stay abreast of the most current trends in the ever changing world of affiliate marketing. A key online trend to look for would be the evolution of the world wide web from structured web pages to desktop applications such as Google Desktop. Adobe Air allows you to create software applications on your desktop without using a browser. Increasingly we are seeing less of a reliance on web browsers for accessing web content. Along the same lines content is being interspersed in multiple places whereas in the past you were restricted to trying to get users to land on a page for accessing content. You can now distribute content in the form of RSS feeds, widgets, etc. Feedburner, a news feed management provider, is getting attention. What this does is provide custom RSS Feed and management tools to bloggers, podcasters, and other web-content publishers. Affiliates looking to get ahead of the curve should focus on building up their brand.

Todays interactive web community needs more than affiliate links or ads simply stuck on a page to hold their attention. Looking for new ways to draw attention to your affiliate program is a good way of captivating your audience. You could for instance start your own blog. Also, actively research your the products you are marketing in order to come up with new ideas for drawing attention to your affiliate program. Don’t discount social networking sites either. Success may lie in embracing a community oriented approach to the web that goes beyond the one dimensional approach to affiliate marketing that has been used in the past. Just some ideas. Here’s to looking forward and embracing the future. Its a new year and its wise to embrace innovative and exciting new approaches to distributing content for your affiliate marketing program.

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