You spend hours prepping email copy, design, dissemination... and when you look at your stats, no one has clicked through to your site. "What happened?!" you ask yourself.

Yes, a lot of science is used to strategically reach readers, sending out the blasts on particular days, targeting by age group, sex/gender, geographic location and interests. But even with science and stats on your side, what about the basics? Was the subject line catchy? Did you give the readers something they actually care about?

Though it's not pretty to admit, filtering through emails is a very self-centered process where the reader basically asks themselves, "What's in it for me?" "Is this going to help me save money?" "Am I going to learn something relevant to my work or lifestyle?" "What's the bottom line?" and "Why should I care?"

Next time you are putting together email copy, think about these four basic email components and ask yourself these questions:   

By taking a step back and approaching your email content from both the designer's and reader's point of view, you stand a better chance of giving your emails the right edge to make them more appealing to your readers and avoid that dreaded DELETE!