I blogged just a moment ago about – Skinny People Make More Money Online, Fat People  Get Ignored !! which I found very insightful to shortform and longform email copy. It was written by Ian David Chapman on his site IanDavidChapman.com – Again so very insightful into a topic I had never really thought to much about. Read the rest below:

Following on from that I wrote a quick 7 point list
showing the reasons why writing narrow email messages
will increase you response rate and make your communication
more effective

1)  Narrow Messages Are Easier To Read

A narrow  message  allows you to scan through it  quickly.  Your message can be absorbed in a single glance. The foveal vision in our eyes can only see detail in a small  area of the screen; Everything on the periphery is ignored. Peripheral vision is designed to detect movement.  Always be  respectful of human physiology.

2) We Are  Conditioned  To  Read Newspaper Columns And Magazine Print

Our  brains are already trained to read things in this format so make your messages feel  familiar, Observe the style of your favourite print newspaper or magazine and replicate it in your messages

3) People Have A Limited amount Of Time And  Attention

By making your message brief and to the point you are respecting peoples time. If you don’t grab peoples attention in the first 3 seconds you will lose them so summarize your whole email in the first sentence so busy people can decide if they want to read further

4) Mobile Devices Will Be The New Way People Consume Information On The Internet

Ipod,  Iphone, Nokia N95,  Amazon Kindle;  A whole new generation of technology is awaiting  adoption by the mainstream, look ahead and make sure you can communicate across the platforms of choice

5) As People Get  Older Their Eyesight Can Degenerate

The number of older people using the internet is increasing.  Don’t alienate a huge potential audience. Use large sans serif fonts  and  choose 14 or 16 point text. For someone with poor eyesight a well formatted email made up of short sentences is much easier to read than a huge block of text

6) You Can Take Total Control Of Your Formatting.

Using hard carriage returns ensures your message will be read exactly  as you intended it to be on any browser and in any device.  If you are using embedded hypnotic commands and emotional triggers this can be crucial to their effect and overall impact

7) You Want People To Take Action

You want people to read your  message  and know  what you want them to do next. Top marketers usually  convey the essence of their entire message in the opening sentence followed by an immediate call to action. they include several links at different places and  they use services like tinyurl.com to make their links shorter and more attractive.

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This post was inspired by a Marketing Online Live Podcast  from Paul Colligan and Alex Mandossian. I Love Ed Dale in case you were wondering and hope he has a good sense of humour

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