Uncle Sam wants you to write emails his employees can read
By Diane Owens
Did you know that the Department of Defense automatically converts employees’ emails to plain text?… Read the full article
Online communications
How to write a table of contents
Help email newsletter subscribers find stories without scrolling
When you have a longer email newsletter, add a table of contents to help subscribers see all of the stories available without having to scroll.… Read the full article
What’s the best email readability?
Aim for the 3rd grade reading level
How easy should email newsletters and e-blasts be to read? Very easy, according to a study of more than 40 million emails by Boomerang.… Read the full article
3 email newsletter formats that work
Lists, headlines & blurbs, single stories most valuable
The most valued email newsletters in the Nielsen Norman Group’s latest round of usability studies used these formats:
What’s the ideal email length?
Short, but not too short
From the Can’t-Win-For-Losing Department: Although subscribers’ No. 1 piece of advice to email newsletter creators is to keep e-zines short, those same subscribers generally get frustrated when newsletters are too brief.… Read the full article
How long should email subject lines be?
Do shorter ones get higher open rates?
Call it the Goldilocks Conundrum: What character count is “just right” for subject line length?
If ever there were a question with an “it depends” answer, this is it.… Read the full article
To shorten email, find your focus
Expand on, but don’t exceed, the subject line
When a Toyota dealership wrapped up its car-maintenance-and-new-models e-zine with information about getting more protein into your diet, subscribers were surprised.… Read the full article
How long to make listicles
Don’t include too many items … or too few
Thank you, David Letterman.
The Top 10 list rules the web — or at least, Buzzfeed.… Read the full article
When to use a bulleted list
6 reasons to list lists
Lists comprise some of history’s most memorable content — from Moses’ 10 Commandments to Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses, from Stephen Covey’s Seven Habits to Ben Franklin’s 13 Virtues.… Read the full article
Reading online hurts your web visitors’ bodies
Screen reading causes insomnia, backache — even serious illness
Yes, reading that blog post does make your butt look bigger. But mushy thighs are just one of the symptoms of screen reading.… Read the full article