At the end of my emails, after I “sign” my name, you won’t find anything more than a link to my website.

No social media links, logos, or images. No list of my credentials, disclaimers, or anything else.

This is true for both my newsletter and personal email.

Why do I do this?

One reason: I don’t want to look like everyone else.

When everything is pretty, you stand out by being ugly. When everyone’s email looks like an ad, a magazine article, or a web page, you stand out by looking like someone who banged out some words (to a friend) and clicked send.

I don’t want to look like I’m trying to impress anyone, or pushing products or services like a carnival barker.

That doesn’t mean I don’t promote anything. I do that in almost every email. But unless I’m writing a full-on sales pitch, my promotional efforts lean more towards “informing” or “recommending” rather than selling.

Email is a medium of personal communication. Even if it is sent to thousands, it’s just the two of us spillin some tea.

If you like what you read, if you’re interested in learning more, you can follow the link to my website, or follow the second link I provide to the applicable sales page, and see what it’s all about.

Like this: If you want to learn more about using email to build your practice, check out my email marketing for attorneys course.

I’ve seen a lot of attorney’s newsletters. Some provide excellent content. Many don’t.

Some are interesting and are well-written. Many aren’t.

Some reflect the personality of the writer. Most don’t. Especially the “store-bought” (canned) newsletters.

Some are written in html and look “pretty”. Some (like mine) are plain text and look ugly as hell.

But despite these differences, most of these newsletters share one trait that makes it much less likely anyone will read them: they’re too long.

They have too much information, too many links, too many calls-to-action. They ask you to read too much and do too much and most people who get these missives do none-of-the-above.

Most people (even now) are busy. They don’t have time to read a long newsletter, even if they’re interested in the subject(s). What do they do? The same thing you and I do when we don’t have time to read something, we save it for later (which almost never arrives) or we delete the sucker.

Yes, there is value in having people see that you wrote them, even if they don’t open the email. They see your name and are reminded that you’re still around. When and if they need your services, they’ll go find one of your archived emails and read it.

(So don’t stop emailing.)

But, let’s face it, having people read your newsletter is a ‘ho lot better. They get to know you and trust you and feel a kinship with you. They get to hear about how you’ve helped other clients. They find out about other matters you handle.

All of which results in more clients for you.

So, if you want people to read your emails, keep ’em short. Short enough that they can read them in a minute or two.

Like this one.

Want to know how to write emails that get read (and acted upon)? Get my Email Marketing for Attorneys video course.