# Making the most of automated e-mail messages

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2004/01/06/making-most-automated-email-messages/
- Published: 2004-01-06T00:00:00+00:00
- Author: Howard Lake

Newsletter confirmations, unsubscribe responses, autoresponder replies and other
automated e-mail messages are often overlooked as valuable marketing tools, according
to Jakob Nielsen.
In last month’s Alertbox column, usability expert Jakob Nielsen
looked at how automated or transactional e-mail messages are seldom as effective
as they could be as marketing tools.

“Thank you for your message”, “your donation has been received”, “you have successfully
subscribed to our newsletter”, “you will receive a response within 24 hours”, “thank
you for your pledge”. Charity Web sites are sending out thousands of standard, automated
e-mail messages every day. Although they are valuable tools in developing and retaining
customers, have you reviewed how good they are recently? Or are you using the standard
blurb that the system designer created for you?

Nielsen observed users reacting to 40 sample automated email messages, examining
how they interacted with the email in the in-box view and read individual messages.
His report looks at how these messages can be better written and constructed in 
order to satisfy the customer or donor, and avoid appearing as spam in an over-filled
in-box.

## Advertisement

Not surprisingly he recommends that messages should be brief, and that writers must
focus particularly on the content of the subject line and “from” field. For example,
messages with the subject “Important information” tended to be deleted.

While confirmation e-mails can build trust, a badly constructed message can harm
an organisation’s brand.

The full 108-page report on the usability of confirmation e-mail and transactional
messages is available at $199.

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