We all want to believe our e-mail messages are of the utmost importance, particularly when we are promoting our businesses. In reality, a message on our high importance list (e.g. the latest New Listings Realtor Newsletter) is not really of high importance from a recipient’s perspective. In fact, the end result of inappropriately flagging your messages with High Importance may actually have the opposite desired effect on your marketing efforts. Think of it as a virtual equivalent to “crying wolf” – eventually your email recipient will stop believing you and actually start to tune out your messages.
To Flag or Not to Flag
It’s usually best to leave the flagging to the recipient. Even messages which are truly urgent may come across too strong or imposing when flagged as high importance. Generally, a recipient wants to maintain control over prioritizing the messages in their inbox.
The Solution
The best approach to grabbing your readers’ attention while still following proper email etiquette would be to catch their attention with creative and call to action subject lines. Think about it from a recipient’s perspective. When your inbox is being flooded with messages, which messages are you most likely to open and read? For me, it’s usually the messages with subject lines that grab my attention with humor, intrigue me with a desire to learn more, or create a sense of urgency or a missed opportunity. Coming up with creative subjects line may require a little more effort on your part, but both you and your email recipients will be much happier with the results. Happy Flagging (or Not)!
Have you been the victim of high importance flagging? What are your thoughts?