What is it?

A simple ACROSTIC to keep in mind when writing emails.

Why does it work?

Ensuring the emails you send are correctly written will make all the difference. Too many of us write emails with no plan and no thought to the recipient or the desired action we want them to take.

By taking care with your emails you can increase engagement; this acrostic provides a simple and memorable framework for each email you send.

Event - What's the reason for the email? What has triggered you to act? Is there a specific event, date, time or circumstance that has caused you to send this email. Being clear on why you are sending an email is the foundation to writing better emails.

Message- In as many or few words as possible what are you trying to say? Too many of us "self edit" before we get to the point. Write out in all its messy glory what you want to say- you can then edit and refine but start from knowing what you want to say.

Action- Once the recipient has read your email what do you want them to do? What action do you want them to take? what do you want to happen? Then consider how you will ask for this action- will you use graphics, buttons, calls to action, video? You need to explicitly ask for what you want- don't leave the action to misunderstanding and chance.

Interest - Before your recipient will take action they need to actually read your email in the first place. How will you pique their attention and interest? Remember there are 4 basic drivers that cause us to act, identify the one you are going to focus on and then focus your email to make it engaging and interesting for your reader. It's vital to use your email title to generate interest and focus on why your offering is attractive.

Less is more - The human attention span is 8 seconds and every person in the world receives 122 emails a day on average. There is power in clarity and brevity. How can you reduce the message to it's component parts? Can you use the Von Restorff Effect to make your message clear, short and obvious?

How can you use it?

Whenever you are writing an email- whether it's designed to sell or not, keep in mind these 5 factors to create the most engaging and effective email you can.

An example:

We want to send an email to clients who had bought machinery from us and there is a new add-on which can improve the efficiency of the machine.

Event - The perfect time to send this email is when booking the annual service for the machinery as we are already in contact with the client.

Message - In the most basic terms we want to tell them to buy the add-on and save time.

Action - We want the reader to click through to a buy now link and order the add-on

Interest - To get the reader interested, we need to focus on the benefits of the add-on, namely it makes the machinery more efficient. We need to place this in the title to get them to read the email from the get go.

Length - We need to keep the email short, perhaps not 5 sentences, but we need to be concise.