The ‘PS’ in an email or the ‘just one more thing’ in a presentation is a powerful technique. Traditional advice is to use it sparingly, but in many cases, our audience has been trained to expect something on the end. Steve Jobs made it into a feature at Apple. It’s an integral part of most new action movies.
For some reason, as an audience, we like that, and we pay attention to it. Of course a ‘PS’ in a sales or marketing email shouldn’t be the focus of the email, as some readers won’t get there, but it can salvage an offer. Ideas I’ve seen for a good ‘PS’ include:
- Re-stating the Call To Action
- Prompting readers to go back and assess the offer
- Adding urgency by introducing a limited-time element
- Unveiling a clinching testimonial
- Making an additional special offer
- Directing uninterested recipients to something else
If the email is short, and the ‘PS’ clear, research shows that there will even be a proportion of the audience who will go straight to it, skipping over the body of the message. If that’s likely to be an issue, the first two ideas above make the ‘PS’ a critical element.
For those unsure about the effectiveness or desirability of a ‘PS’, was there ever a more obvious candidate for an A/B testing exercise? Send out half the emails with the PS, and half without, and see what happens.