March 3, 2016 Heather James

Want to Make a Good Impression? Start with your Email!

Want to Make a Good Impression? Start with your Email!

By Amy Crump, TVG CFO

What’s that saying? You never get a second chance to make a good first impression? There are lots of first impression opportunities that may come to mind, like a first date or a job interview, for instance. But what about your email subject line? It may seem small, but it could mean the difference between getting a new client or getting your email immediately deleted.

During this past holiday season, emails were flying into my inbox like crazy. Many of them had spelling errors in the subject line. I must admit, some were funny. A company invited me to try a new flavor of coffee—Caramel “Sandae”. I’ve accidentally eaten my fair share of sand and, sadly, it never tasted like caramel! It made me wonder—how did that slip by? Why didn’t someone at the coffee company catch that? Didn’t anyone proof the email before it was sent out to thousands of potential customers? I bet those very questions came up at the coffee company marketing department meeting.

The truth is, we’ve all made that kind of mistake. Our minds and our typing fingers aren’t always in sync. We hit send, someone replies and there it is! Plain as day. Staring us in the face. An error in the subject line or in the body of our email. Horrors!!

So what do we do? Some good old fashioned advice still holds up:

  • Slow down. Speed never replaces accuracy.
  • Check you work. Sit back and read your document from subject line down. Read it aloud if that helps.
  • Before hitting send, recheck everything. If it’s a very important document, have a co-worker proof it as well.
  • Your email is not a text message. Spell out words and refrain from using unfamiliar abbreviations that could confuse the recipient.
  • Make sure the subject line goes along with what the email is about. This will help you find the email in your sent folder down the road if you need to reference it.

I recently opened my email to find that a nonprofit organization had invited my dog to attend a snowshoeing event to raise money and awareness. I’m puzzled how they got her name and my email address. Also, I’m certain they don’t make snowshoes in her size. I feel another blog topic coming on…“When Robo-Marketing Emails Miss the Mark”.

 

Need help making sure your email marketing pieces hit the mark? TVG can help! Call us at 314-991-4641. And while you’re at it, tweet us your funniest email mistakes @VandiverGroup 

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