Tips for a Successful Email Marketing Campaign: Power of 8

Make the first 8 words you write compelling.

Email has become the bane of most email boxes.  Every time you want to view articles or receive content on a web site you usually have to give up your email address.

In some cases, the emails you receive are valuable but in other cases the information is a waste of time.

In many cases going through your emails is a game of technical Russian Roulette because you can’t see what the email is about.  And this is where the power of 8 comes into play.

When running a successful email campaign make sure that the first 8 words of the subject and email are compelling to the person you are marketing to.

For example, I get daily alerts from the Harvard Business Review where the subject is “The Daily Alert from Harvard Business Review” and the first words of the email are “Are you having trouble viewing this email?”

This is a waste.

The subject of the email should be specific to the email content such as “Keeping Your Entrepreneurial Faith from Fading” and the first words of the email message body should be “To succeed you have to believe in something with such a passion that it becomes a reality.”  These two things are usually visible in the preview for most email browser and desktop clients.

I am surprised that Harvard Business Review is making this mistake as they are supposed to be “practicing what they preach” but instead they are making one of the most fundamental email marketing mistakes.  I know Harvard knows what they are doing as I took all 30+ Harvard Management Mentor training classes.

Remember to make the first 8 words of whatever you write, say, or email compelling so you improve the possibility of someone listening to you, reading your email or diving into your article.