In reading Vanessa Van Edwards’ fantastic book “Cues“, she shared the story of how Hotmail because so popular early on, and attributed much of that success to the postscript they added to every email. From the book:
“In just the first few weeks, Hotmail exploded in popularity. Bhatia and Smith didn’t realize the postscript is one of the most read parts of a message. In his research, communications consultant and author Dr. Frank Luntz found that the postscript is the second most read part of a message after the opener.”
For reference, the postscript in this case was simply:
“PS: I Love You. Get Your Free Email at Hotmail.com.”
However, was the data accurate? Is the postscript really the second most read part of an email?
I couldn’t find much to support (or dispute it), but this Medium post from Chris Keating, which summarized the work of Prof. Siegfried Voegele, seemed like a solid source. He summarizes it like this:
“They glance at logo and date, the address block and salutation first, and then skip straight to the end of the letter to look at the signature and signatory.”
Perhaps more importantly:
“Voegele found that 90% of readers stopped to read a PS on a letter, and that if they did, they read it word for word.”
So what should you include in your postscript? Keating shares his thoughts on that as well:
“Don’t introduce a new thought. Don’t say “thank you for all your wonderful support” unless you link it immediately to what you are asking them to do this time. Don’t use this as the place to drop in your customer service contact details, unless the action you really want is for the reader to call you. Don’t talk about another campaign or product they might be interested in.”
“Focus singlemindedly on what your reader can get out of going back to the top and actually reading the letter in full.“
If you send any kind of email newsletters out, it seems that a postscript is a valuable piece to add.
PS: If you still haven’t clicked to read his full post on Medium, it’s well worth your time.
