Email Body Width

[mrdanger503]

Sort of a copywriting question...

How wide do you like your email copy to be...and why? I see some emails that are so narrow that each line only has a few words, and some that are just the opposite.

I'm send email in HTML via Aweber, so I usually create a table about 400-450 pixles wide. But I have no data to prove that's any more "readable".

Just wondering if there was any sort of "rule of thumb" on this.

Cheers.

[Rick Johansson]

I always keep emails under 60 characters in width. ... I feel it's a good compromise between long lines and really short lines with a couple words.

Rick

[Jay White]

Around 50-60 characters seems to work pretty well for me.

YouTube- Broadcast Yourself.

[RickDuris]

ok, with all respect to those who have already commented, I am going to take a bit of a contrarian point of view.

Question: When you are writing personal emails, do you format your email for 60 characters or less?

Sure it may be easier in the eye and more consumable/understandable. But if you want to be sincere and authentic, precisely formatted emails are NOT the way to go.

If anybody knows me, my email formatting is not perfect. In fact, I may have occasional typos and errors in grammar.

Big Frickn' Deal.

I say that even having a bit of perfectionism in my DNA. But the point has been driven home to me via testing that perfection does not have integrity when it comes to copywriting.

I'm human and my readers are human too. They inuitively get when a REAL person is communicating to them personally.

This post is kinda like a copywriter's encouragement to "write like you talk." Throw the high school grammar book out the window.

Well, I write like I write. And when I want to make a personal touching email, I will not format to predetermined formats, even like html.

There's also another principle which which is drilled into our heads as direct marketers: Ugly works.

It works for a reason. It's genuine, it's authentic and it's personal.

- Rick Duris

PS: Those of you who have commented that you format emails to 60 characters or less, if you care so much about your reader and their ability to "get" your message, why didn't you do it in your response to this question? Hmmmmmm.... Again, this is with all respect to those who have contributed.

[lenlatimer]

Hi,
Probably 70 max - must choose 60.

[Loren Woirhaye]

In emails and forum posting I generally go about 60 - I usually
eyeball it so my widths vary and even increase or diminish
as the piece goes on.

I'm kind of dumb I guess because I haven't figured out how
to make the text editor I use do a return at 60.

Anyway, I think 60 is easy on the eye and I shoot for about the
same when I send HTML emails with tables in them.

The reason for going with 60 is some of the older newsreader/
email client software things only go to 60... but I would think
that the standard is becoming outmoded as more folks are
using newer monitors with higher resolution.... however we
do have the factor of people reading emails on cel-phones and
other portable devices.

60 or fewer characters imitated the column format commonly
found in newspapers and magazines. It also matches the
10-12 words per line found in most print books meant to be
read by general audiences. You can find books with 20 or
more words to the line, but it's usually because the publisher
wants to save costs by using less paper. I find 20 words to
the line dreadfully fatiguing to read.

[mrdanger503]

Perfect, just what I was looking for. And Jay...thanks for the "0123456789" tip. Brilliant.