This is the third in a series of articles on "Writing Effective Emails to Improve Your Marketing Response Rates." I identified a need for these articles after noticing a significant decline in the quality of marketing emails sent to me from a number of opt-in mailing lists.

"Writing Effective Emails to Improve Your Marketing Response Rates." (Part 3)

Part 3 of "Writing Effective Emails" addresses the complimentary closing and postscript of the email. Part 2 covered the body of the email.

The complimentary closing and postscript follow the email subject and body. The closing, or complimentary closing, complements the salutation. Formal letters typically use either "Yours sincerely" or "Faithfully yours" followed by the writer's signature (name). If the salutation included the person's name, then the "Yours sincerely" is used. Otherwise, "Faithfully yours" is used.

As I said, that is how formal letters are closed. But when writing emails, less formal complimentary closings such as "Best regards" or "Kind regards" are acceptable. Even "To your success" is used as a means to convey a connection to the email reader.

The signature (name) area of the complimentary closing is important depending upon the amount of personalization used. Personalization can include telephone number, email address (or skype address) and website URL, each on a separate line. Including any or all is a personal preference.

An example of a complimentary closing with signature is:

Best regards,

John Smith
skype: john123.smith
999-555-1212
http://www.mybizisgood.com

Adding a personal title to the signature block is unnecessary and, in many cases I have seen, pretentious. For example, I have seen titles such as "Expert Internet Marketing Consultant" or "Webmaster." This tells me the writers are amateurs. Experts do not need to add titles; their name alone would be or should be recognizable.

Next, the postscript comes after the signature. The postscript is identified by the letters "P.S." Many experts consider the postscript as the second most important part of a sales letter, second only to the title or subject line. The postscript should highlight the emotional impact of the major benefit of the subject of the email. This is the final call to action.

One final comment about postscripts is the use of an ad instead of a postscript. Typically bottom ads are set off from the text by use of special characters (+*=# etc) to create an ad box. The ad can be used to reinforce the subject line. But too many advertisers use the ad box to promote another product or service. The thinking is that if the reader does not like the first product offer, then they may like the second offer. Big mistake. The email should focus on one subject only.

The decision to personalize the email is a personal preference. My best recommendation is to test your email ads to see what combination of subject lines, ad copy, complimentary closing and postscript pull the most results.

One other comment about personalization to consider is the fact that some mailer programs do not allow personalization. The program software does not insert the recipient's personal information on behalf of the sender. In those instances, you could use a generic greeting such as "Dear Fellow Entrepreneur" or "Hello Fello Member" or something similar.

I hope you found this series of articles useful in your marketing efforts.