My father is a hard man to impress.

Growing up, his German parents taught him the importance of looking good.

Having your clothes clean and pressed.

Shoes buffed to a high shine.

He knew the impact of a well-dressed man.

When he became a salesman, he took those lessons to a whole new level.  Almost obsessive, actually.

He bought John T. Malloy’s book, Dress For Success. It became not only his ‘bible’ but our family’s.

I wouldn’t be allowed to step outside the door for an important event until my outfit was inspected by my father.

Any loose threads… snipped. Hems… straightened. And if my clothing was wrinkled?

Off it went to get a quickie with an iron.

The point is, my father understood the importance of a first impression.

He knew the moment someone looked at me, they’d decide in minutes whether to give me the time of day – or not.  In fact, he was ahead of his time.

Human attention span – and what you can learn from it.

In 2005, Malcolm Gladwell published the book, Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking.  Gladwell told the story of a psychologist who tested college students on their perception of college professors.

How fast could they accurately assess the effectiveness and capabilities of a professor?

Turns out, pretty doggone fast.

She had a group view 3 10-second videos with the sound turned off of a professor lecturing a class. The students in the psychological test had no trouble rating the effectiveness of the professor.

Then the psychologist cut the clips back to five seconds.

Again, the students accurately got an idea of the professor’s skill as a teacher.

Finally, the psychologist cut the clip to two seconds.

Two freakin’ seconds!

And guess what?

The students were still able to assess ‒ in what  would be considered a snap judgment ‒ just how good this professor was.

The psychologist compared these assessments to students who had taken a full semester of classes with the professor. And the assessments were remarkably similar.

The bottom line is this: you only have one chance to make a first impression.

How this relates to email.

In our hyper-connected world of technology, this still holds true.

Take email, for example.

How many times have you skimmed over an email and quickly determined whether it was worth your time (or not)?

How many times have you glanced at a subject line and decided whether or not to open the email?

That email could have had the power to change your life. But if the subject line was boring, you’d never know.

Because BOOM! You quickly deleted it.

I have a special holiday offer for my readers only… and I’m only offering this email special from now until Thursday, December 22.  

Do you have an email that you want… nay… NEED for it to make the very best first impression?

It could be an email to a prospect or a potential joint venture partner.

Or even to your list, if you have one.

I have a “Done With You” offer where I’ll work with you on creating the very best first impression possible.

You’ll get an email that will get opened and read.  And responded to.

Because we’re going to make this email irresistible.

Interested?

Usually, my email copy starts at $250 and can go higher, depending upon the length and purpose of the email.

But you’re going to pay only a fraction of that amount. In fact, all this creative is only going to cost the equivalent of a nice dinner for two.

For a limited time, you’ll receive over 60% off my starting fee… $97 clams.

That’s all.

An absolute steal when you start shopping around for ‘copy chiefing’ services.

Get the ball rolling by sending an email to mrmagmark”at”gmail”dot”com. Put “Email Special” in the subject line.  

I’ll respond promptly so we can get your message out there as soon as possible.

We’ll dress up that email so fine that you’ll have admiring glances all the way to the bank.

Your Email ‘Dress For Success’ designer with impeccable taste…