Email is the most cost-efficient marketing medium available to organizations today. For example, marketers who leverage subscriber behavior and use that data to segment and target their subscribers deliver mailings that are nine times more profitable than their peers who simply broadcast. The Direct Marketing Association reports that every $1 spent on email marketing drives more than $48 in revenue. 80 percent of marketers report email is their strongest-performing media buy ahead of search and display advertising.

In our digitized world, email ADD is not going to get better. Gaining an understanding of the implications of email ADD is only the starting point. Knowing how to work within constraints to define effective and successful messages is the only way to gain control of the conversation back. By the way: do not forget about a targeted email list.

Here are three important techniques:

Always put new content in context before the user hits Delete. If your email reader has no context for the message they are reading, your message equity is at risk. In other words, if you send an email to Joe with fresh content and no mental notes for him to refer to (reminders of prior conversations, links, and so on) and Joe scrolls through the email on his BlackBerry while boarding a train to D.C., your message equity has dropped to 33 percent or less. Conversely, if your message has associated notes (content callouts, links, or other information), you stand a much higher chance of having your message resonate and be responded to.

Define the e-mails benefits in terms of the readers long-term goals. If your email does not clearly and concisely state why the message will help the reader achieve their long-term goals and fulfill future needs, it is at high risk for low comprehension. Good examples might be, Get access when you need it or Save this message for when you need to Creating language that is clear and concise and that conveys how your reader will benefit in the long run will pay off many times.

Leverage attention nodes. An attention node is some type of formatting in the email that clearly grabs the readers attention. In marketing messages, this is most commonly done with a callout box, action tag/button, or other imagery. In a text for personal email, attention nodes can be any creative use of spacing or character keys that help clearly drive where the attention needs to be placed. For example, you can use three asterisks (***) to signify importance. Generally, we are lucky if more than the content in the attention node is read.

Combine these efforts by also leveraging the power of three, and you will succeed. Based on proprietary testing weve done over the past ten years, three is the optimal number of times you should put a message in front of your readers to maximize clicks. Three is also the number of emails a new subscriber will read to determine whether they will stay engaged with your brands email program. And finally, three is the average number of email subscriptions a reader opts in to for a given category.
Acknowledging that every email (personal or business-related) will need to not only battle reputation, relevance, and delivery but now also email ADD, and understanding how to leverage the power of three to help you do that, can move you three steps ahead in creating a successful conversation.