Proper Email Structure

I Should Probably Use that Degree...

Have I ever told you about the story of how I wasted thousands of my parents’ dollars?  You know the one.   It starts off where I go to college for four, ok, fine.. five years, to get my degree.  That degree I really wanted, so that I could be a high school English teacher.

Then, I got offered a job and decided to turn it down, so I could be married and have kids instead.

It’s a great tale. Unless you’re my parents and you’re out all of that college funded money.

Up until today, the main way in which I used my fancy degree was that I can speak the language fluently.  That’s right folks.  I can travel to England and can speak like a native!  Cheery-O, mate.  Wait.  Wrong country.

Today, we’re going to talk about writing copy in your email.

Do Your Emails Put People to Sleep?

I get hundreds of emails a day and I’m sure you do, too.  Some are promotional, while others are important and are worthy of a response.  When it comes to the promotional emails that hit my inbox, I primarily delete 50-75% of them without even opening them up.  If I’m lucky, gmail will do all of the work for me and they’ll end up in the promotion tab which basically just sends my promotional email to my spam filter.  When it comes to the promotional emails that are left, I only read a few  on a consistent basis because I enjoy reading them or I find their information valuable.  Otherwise, I’m outta there.

I’m guessing your assessment of your inbox is about the same.  What does this mean to you as a golf course operator?

Guess where your golf course’s email is ending up in your customer’s inbox?  That’s right.  It’s heading right for the promotion tab where it basically turns to unread spam.  Cue the wah wah waaaaaah.

If it’s lucky enough to sit in the promotions tab with a slim chance of being read, then your subject line has to put up a big fight and do its best to appeal to the reader until it’s (hopefully) opened.

If your email doesn’t have what it takes, then it’s going directly to the trash pile.