E-mail Copy: Short vs. Long — Why Not Both?
August 10th, 2008A ClickZ article by Karen Gedney — Who Says People Don’t Respond to Long E-mail Copy?– brought up the question that keeps recurring about the “right” length for email copy that seems to continuously come up again and again.
What I don’t understand is why most emails can’t have the best of both worlds by crafting an email that does both. Have an email that contains a quick nut graf with a call to action high in the message, but then also a copy block with a call to action at the foot of the copy.
This way you get both types of of readers — the ones that completely get the message and are ready to take action right from the preview pane and also the ones that need more background. You don’t lose or irritate the people with the long copy because they never get to it, and you place the call to action where and when the reader wants.
One example — though probably not the best — is one of IW’s events mailings for our Excellence in Action plant tour series http://www.industryweek.com/excellenceinaction/080608invite.html , that has calls to action throughout the message. IW’s Webcast mailings are an even better example, with a 1-2 sentence box at the top describing the event to get the quick registration and then several paragraphs of copy below (I don’t have a link to share here, sorry)
This “mixed” message would seem to be exactly how you want to communicate, in a form that satisfies multiple types of readers.