Epicenter Network Blog

I have been getting a lot of junk mail lately. This morning alone I had 35. I used to scan through them to double check that nothing legit got sent there by accident, but now I just hit the ‘delete all’ button without looking. Maybe I’m missing out on some good stuff, but chances are that it actually is spam and opening them would be a waste of time.

Emails that end up in spam or junk inboxes usually come from untrustworthy sources or have some kind of security related issue – giving them a very short life span. If you are an emailer, this is definitely not the longevity you are looking for.

So what gives an email a longer life span? Keeping it out of the spam folder is only the first step; you must also convince the user to 1) not delete the email 2) save the email for later or 3) open the email 4) click on your links and then 5) take action.

The majority of these steps have to do with creating excellent subject lines and also who and from where it is sent. This is how I would break down the different life spans of an email, from shortest to longest:

• When an email lands in my spam folder – deleted immediately.

• When an email lands in my inbox with an unfamiliar e-mail address as the sender’s name – Glance at the subject line – if it interests me I will save it for later, otherwise it is deleted.

• When an email lands in my inbox with an incomplete/unappealing subject line or if it doesn’t fully display – Delete.

• Newsletters – only open these when the subject line catches my attention. Also, open membership exclusives (mostly only from REI).

• If the email has a legit sender and subject line, but content sucks – delete after a second or two if I can’t find a good reason to click on the links.

• If the email has a legit sender and subject line, good content and easy to follow links – I will either click on the link or save it for later.

So besides making a good name for yourself, make sure to spend some time crafting your subject lines and doing some testing of what works best. Also make sure to categorize your lists and try to target groups individually. Double check your content and make sure that you are getting your point across in the least amount of words possible.