Getting Prospect's Attention with Emails

Nick Usborne has a post on writing intro copy at the beginning of emails in order to get the reader's attention.

He points out how busy everyone is that they usually don't have time to read emails and therefore they scan as opposed to reading them. His solution is to offer the core message within the first few seconds of the email in a format that makes it stand out. Here is a example that he uses:

********************************************
Sign Up for Widgety News Today and
we’ll send you 3 FREE Widgety DVDs
********************************************

Nick makes a very important point. With research indicating that 79% of people scan as opposed to read on the web, it's becoming increasingly important to grab potential client's attention within a few seconds. On the web, information is only a click away and if prospects don't get what they want quickly, they are gone somewhere else.

I would also like to add that getting prospects attention in the subject of an email is even more important. If you fail to get their interest in the subject line, the email won't even be opened. Writing compelling email subject lines is a topic for a future post. :-)