He may be a Spuds Spurs fan, but Red C Account Director Steve White is not completely useless. He knows an awful lot about Email Marketing for one thing. So when he gave me a 700-page document from MarketingSherpa called Best Practices in Email Marketing I thought to myself, this is probably worth reading.*

MarketingSherpa is a research firm that specializes in tracking what works in all aspects of marketing (and what does not.) Their goal: to give marketers of the world the stats, inspiration, and instructions to improve their email marketing results.

According to their Research Manager Stefan Tornquist this guide was written “to provide one-stop guidance on building a ‘best in class’ email program, whether you’re managing an enterprise level marketing department or a small business.”

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I really like Andy Maslen. Next to Drayton Bird he’s probably the man whose books I’ve learnt most about copywriting from. I’d recommend his first, Write to Sell to anyone, and do quite frequently in fact.

He’s just released two new ones, the first of which I’ve just finished. It’s part of a series called 100 great ideas. Andy’s contribution is called 100 Great Copywriting Ideas.

It’s not a book you should read from start to finish. As the dust jacket says it’s “more tapas or dim-sum than three course meal. You can start anywhere you like and pick and choose whatever takes your fancy.”

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I really like reading. My problem is I buy books faster than I can read them. The drawers on my bedside cabinet are buckling under the weight of unread hardbacks, paperbacks, novels and non-fiction. I’ll be honest it’s starting to get me down a bit. Too much to read, too little time. Your customers have the same problem…

They’re bombarded with things to read every day. So if you’re planning on adding to their pile, you’ve got to make sure it’s easy to read. And there is one very simple way of doing just that.

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