{"id":3523,"date":"2009-12-16T02:22:17","date_gmt":"2009-12-16T07:22:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/37d57f8fa2.nxcli.io\/blog\/?p=3523"},"modified":"2010-03-03T16:05:42","modified_gmt":"2010-03-03T21:05:42","slug":"time-not-side","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.marketingforsuccess.com\/blog\/email-marketing\/time-not-side\/","title":{"rendered":"When Time Is Not On Your Side"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back when we were fresh out of college, my friend Tom told me his theory about picking up women: The better looking you are, the more time<\/em> you have to make a good impression on a stranger.<\/p>\n

If you’re average looking, Tom concluded, you have about two minutes. A little better than average, a little more time. A little worse than average, a little less time. In my case unfortunately, this worked out to negative<\/em> time, which essentially meant that I had to make a good impression on a woman about 30 seconds before I arrived.<\/p>\n

In any case, and while I’m not sure about the numerical accuracy of Tom’s conclusions, I do think that he had a valid point in general: First impressions matter, and the more intriguing something is at the beginning \u2014 for whatever reason \u2014 the more willing we are to give it a chance to prove itself.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Consider for example, the opening sentence of the book, Free Agent Nation<\/span>, by Dan Pink:<\/p>\n

“I suppose I realized that I ought to consider another line of work when I nearly puked on the Vice President of the United States.”<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I don’t know about you, but I would find it practically impossible<\/em> to read a sentence like this and not continue. It’s so intriguing and so seemingly out of context that you can’t help but wonder what comes next.<\/p>\n

Which is why I spend more time on the opening sentence of each newsletter I write than on any other part of the entire issue.<\/strong> Given that from the point of view of the reader, the cost of deleting a newsletter \u2014 both in terms of money and effort \u2014 is nearly zero, I’m very conscious of pulling him or her in right from the start.<\/p>\n

Some recent examples from my newsletter:<\/p>\n

“If you ask me, winter in New England (like pregnancy) is about a month too long.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

“You’ll be happy to know that my five year old son Jonathan has taken an interest in the game of Checkers.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

“The birds in my neighborhood like to poop on my car.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nothing Earth-shattering here, I admit. Still, I think you’d agree that each of these opening lines is unusual enough and intriguing enough to grab your attention and give you a reason to dive in.<\/p>\n

And that, in a nutshell, is the key to starting each issue of your E-Newsletter.<\/strong> Rather than slowly warming up to the good stuff, find a way to pull people in right from the beginning.<\/p>\n

After all, most information-oriented communications \u2014 whether in the form of speeches, articles, memos, newsletters or whatever \u2014 begin exactly as you’d expect: On point and on topic.<\/p>\n

There’s nothing particularly wrong<\/em> with that approach, but there’s nothing particularly captivating about it either.<\/strong> And in a world as busy and cluttered with options as ours, captivating is what it’s all about.<\/p>\n

Now if only Tom and I had realized that 25 years ago.<\/p>\n

– Michael<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
About Michael Katz<\/a><\/strong>
\n<\/strong><\/a>www.BluePenguinDevelopment.com<\/a>
\n Related Resources<\/strong>
\nMore Posts by Michael Katz<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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