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Make it Skimmable
Studies show that people skim text (as oppose to reading every word) on the Web or in
an email. The same holds true for email newsletters. To make your email newsletter a
“good read” for your subscribers, you need to make it easy for them to skim it. The
following techniques should help your subscribers be successful “skimmers”:
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Highlight keywords that you want to emphasize. Bold or other typeface
variations are helpful. Underlining is probably a no-no because it will
confuse readers. They may think it is a hyperlink. Hyperlinks can serve
as one form of highlighting and are useful when used sparingly.
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Give lots of thought to writing meaningful headings. It is better to be
straightforward and clear than to be "clever" or cute.
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Put a benefit-oriented “deck” under your article title. A deck is a
journalistic term for a sub headline. For example, if your headline is 10
Common Myths about Snow Tires, your deck might be Get the right
advice now, and drive safely this winter.
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Make use of bulleted lists. Bulleted lists are popular with readers and
make it very easy for readers to move quickly through your thoughts.
More on the use of bulleted lists in the next section.
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Package” your articles as lists tips, myths, tricks, stories, warnings…
Readers can’t resist what I call “text tools” — lists of facts or actions or
insider tips they can put to work right away, or pin to their corkboards to
have handy when needed. 10 Dangerous Myths about Snow Tires, Five
Real-Life Investment Mistakes You Can Avoid — these are article titles
that say read me or suffer the consequences.
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Use principles of good writing such as one idea per paragraph. Layout
your idea early in the paragraph. Readers will skip over additional ideas
if you don’t grab them early with the first sentence or two of a
paragraph.
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Keep the word count down. Just as you would do when writing an
editorial for your newspaper, keep the word count of your email
newsletter down. One rule of thumb for newsletter writing states that
you should “half the word count”. In other words, write about 1/2 as
much as you would write for a more conventional piece of writing, such
as a business report. Some people like to adhere to a 500-to-1000-word
limit. Articles of that size are perfect for the email medium.
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When a reader first opens your email newsletter, they should be able to
quickly "get" what the page is about. That means the information should
be visible without having to scroll too much.
Towards a Good Read
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