By Richard Buss

You’ve heard it over and over again: “Sometimes less is more”. The saying has never been truer than it is with email campaigns.

Marketers tend to believe end-users want long, vivid descriptions, but the goal of email marketing is to get the end user to the product. Readers need a short description that gets them excited about whatever it is you are trying to sell them. You want to get their attention, not bore them with extra text.

Short, exciting email marketing messages are the most effective way of engaging potential customers. Short can be exciting. Engaging your customers via email with brief, enticing subject lines and content will result in a higher open rate and better click-through rates.

Are your email open rates dropping? If so, it might be time to try something different — starting with shorter and more exciting subject lines and, perhaps, pictures.

Here are four easy ways to make your email campaigns more effective.

Be a showoff

Why not show email recipients your product instead of merely telling them about it? Words sometimes turn off potential customers, but if you show them a picture, you can catch their attention and keep them entertained. Images also provide an added benefit: Less text gives automated filters less to chew on, so you may experience better deliverability.

You have pictures of your product, right? Include them in your email campaigns to help engage potential customers. Even if you are selling a service, you can include an image. For example,  medical office marketing campaigns often include a picture of a doctor and/or a nurse.

Use images instead of text

Images can create an instant emotional response and connection. You can convey a message quickly with a single picture instead of paragraphs of text. Images are a rapid way to pass on your message, and they can help you establish a friendly rapport with recipients.

Words can create images

When writing a short email, the goal is to get your reader to visualize your message quickly. To accomplish this, you need to paint a mental picture. When readers visualize your message, they connect to your email and your product on a whole new level. Your open rate will go through the roof.

Choose words that quickly and vividly convey your message and transform it into an mental image.

Try humor

Humor is a great way to reach out to a reader and get their attention. Consider television and radio commercials: The ones people remember and talk about are the amusing ones. People —and your readers — like and respond to humor. Employing amusing stories, punch lines and puns to paint a picture makes people happy, puts them at ease and is much more memorable than dry facts. Humor makes readers more interested in your email, and also more interested in your product.

Humorous emails can help customers connect with your connect quickly and easily — and remember it long after they’ve discarded the original message. Open your text with something witty, and then follow up with an explanation of what you are selling and why the recipient should be interested. Then, watch your subscribers click on that call-to-action link and increase your click through rates.

Richard Buss is the senior account manager for YNOT Mail and director of products and services for YNOT Group LLC.