One absolute joy of working at home is that you don’t have to “get dressed up.” Cut-offs, PJ’s, sweat suits, jeans…. anything comfortable is Okay because no one can see you. Right? …Sort of….
Your body and surroundings can be as comfortable as you can make them…..but your mind must remain in a “business attitude” to work effectively online.
Take a look at the advertisements you are placing. Are these ads something YOU would respond to? An ad that is all capital letters is shouting….and what it shouts is “the person who placed this ad is a newbie.”
Are your ads for your service or product informative….or just hype, hype, hype? Are words spelled correctly….margins justified; is the ad a true good reflection of the site or product a visitor will find if he acts on the ad?
Equally important are the emails you send. No spam, of course. (Do I need to repeat that? No spam, of course!).
Are your emails formatted to appear neatly on the recipient’s computer monitor? Short paragraphs of 3 or 4 lines each are much easier to read than one big block of text. Line length should be as uniform as possible and kept at about 65 spaces per line. Lines much longer than 65 spaces may require the person who receives the email to scroll back and forth from one side to the other to read your message.
At best, that dilutes your message…. At worst, it simply will not be read by the person who receives it. Anything that makes your message more difficult to read and understand also makes it less likely to be read at all.
If you find it difficult to write an informational email, I suggest that you first outline it. What points do you want to cover? In what order? What are the facts about Point A that you want to emphasize? How about Point B? Skip the adjectives….just outline your keywords and key facts. With a good outline, the writing is almost done…just put it in paragraph form and smooth it out a bit and you’re finished.
If you are one of the lucky ones who find it easy to just write down (or, in this case, keyboard up) your ideas, go for it. Then, for an important email, go through it again and remove all the excess words.
By excess words, I mean those words you tend to overuse. We all have words like that — hugely, typically, really, specifically, truly…it seems to be words that end in “ly”!
I call this “tightening up” your email (or whatever else you have written) and it is something text editors have advised for years. Excessive words and phrases detract from the message you are sending.
Then use spellcheck if you need it (and you know if you need it) and make certain that all sentences have punctuation in the right places.
One last point about using emails — look at the address you are using. I recently received a well-written email promoting a new marketing tool. The email was well written and links in it led to an attractive website. The product sounded good and the price was reasonable. When I clicked the “send e-mail for more information,” I found the email was being sent to me something like “cutesy tootsie”…and I never want to read more.
Don’t agonize over an email name. “[email protected]” is just fine. Although a “good” email address doesn’t help you present your product or opportunity….an email address that is suggestive, slang or childish/silly can definitely HURT your presentation. Why would anyone take that chance?
By projecting a business attitude in your advertising and in your communications, you will send your prospects and customers an image of an efficient, competent business person …without offend the recipients.
