As customers become increasingly inundated with more and more messages from more and more communications channels, marketers will have to tighten up their messages to ensure they connect with recipients.

As discussed in my recent blog on value proposition, focusing on the three "p's" can help ensure that you engage your customers. Conveying a distinctive personality via copy, images and design is one way to differentiate your messages. Also, your emails should clearly articulate your value proposition (the specific value provided to subscribers) and your positioning (how your emails are positioned relative to your competitors). Otherwise, you risk developing unfocused content that can frustrate readers.

Positioning

Once you know your value proposition, you have to make sure your newsletter expresses it through positioning, which helps you distinguish your email program from your competition.

All the elements you use in your email program will support your position: email name, promotion efforts, design and content, even frequency.

Suppose your email promotes one great travel deal a day from across the Internet. Do the email name, design, length and copy reinforce that positioning?

A bland "Travel News" says nothing, but "Your Daily Getaway Deal" tells readers how often the emails comes (daily), your market (travel) and your value prop (bargain hunting). Even "Your" makes the email slightly more personal if you don't personalize your emails.

Other elements that promote positioning:

• Value proposition: As discussed above, the core value proposition of your email program should drive how it's positioned uniquely from competing offerings.
• Email design: A short daily newsletter should package key content on one screen. A comprehensive or in-depth newsletter with a mix of editorial content should include navigation to various points in the message, including destinations "below the fold" or in the bottom half of the message.

  Ideally, this all flows from your Web design, because you don't want readers to see a big disconnect between your Web site's look and feel and that of your email.

• Frequency: Are your competitors sending out a detailed and monthly newsletter? Perhaps there's an opportunity for your company to stand apart with a short, easier-to-read weekly approach?
• Personality and voice: Your emails, including ecommerce and promotional emails, should have a distinctive voice, attitude or a point of view to help you stand out. (See earlier post on Personality.)