Believe it or not, your customers aren't really that interested in your company or what you are up to – not when they're reading email newsletters or surfing the web, anyway.Online they generally only want to know if you've got what they're looking for.

This might sound harsh but it's a reality on the web – and your email marketing content should take account of this or it's not going to be as successful as you'd like.

Immediate results

When your customers receive your email newsletter they immediately want to know if it has something to offer them. If you need ideas for Christmas presents you might be tempted to open an email from Amazon with the subject line: '12 Days of Christmas Deals: 1GB MP3 players from only £24.99 + up to 70% off in Books - hurry, ends Dec 1' Imagine if you open that email and the main promotion is an article on the latest industry award Amazon has just won, followed by a feature titled 'Under wraps' about Christmas gifts and a rambling article on what the CEO thinks about er… rambling.

Quickly scanning the newsletter you can't see any of the things you're looking for. No promotions for 'Christmas Deals', no mention of MP3 players or book discounts. How long does it take you to close the email and move on, feeling slightly worse about the brand than you did a moment ago?

Focus on the right words in the right place

Although you'll never know it, the newsletter was actually promoting the Christmas Deals it had promised. It had just used the wrong language in the wrong place to do so. You'd have found all of the deals promised in the subject line by clicking on the 'Under wraps' link – you just didn't know it.

There is a simple lesson in this scenario – understand the language your customers expect to see, then use it everywhere they'll expect to see it. You can transform the response to your email marketing by focusing not only on the right words but by concentrating on where you put them. It's no good having a great hook in your subject line if you don't follow through with it in the email and on your website.

Here are three easy steps to improving email response by using words properly:

• Understand what your customers want
• Identify the words they use to describe it
• Use these words where your customers expect to see them

Understand what your customers want

This might sound obvious, but many companies miss this fundamental point and instead try to sell their customers what they think they should have.

You can start by asking your current customers to describe what you do and particularly to describe what they bought from you, both in terms of the service and its benefits. You may be surprised how different their version is from your own.

Your customers are very task driven on the web. They generally go online to achieve a task, whether to buy a cheap flight, find a contact address, find ideas to improve their email marketing performance or check the credibility of a supplier.

It is important to remember when they come into contact with you, via your email marketing for example, they will be looking to achieve a task. You will get a better response if you know what that task is.

Identify the words they use to describe it

The web and email are mainly word-based media. When users read email newsletters and websites for help to achieve a task they look for words which describe what they want to do.

Again this may seem obvious, but you would be surprised how many companies do the opposite. In a desire to differentiate themselves from their competitors they use new words to describe their product.

Here's an over-the-top scenario to describe what I mean: a misguided cutting-edge bookshop decides to differentiate itself by using the term 'integrated reading devices' rather than 'books'.

Their potential customers have never heard of 'integrated reading devices' so if they see this phrase they will ignore it. They won't think: 'That's a more sophisticated type of a book, I must check it out'.

By using the word 'book' you will ensure your customers see you as an option. You then have the opportunity to highlight your differentiating factors to close the sale.

To discover the words your customers are looking for you must do your research. Look at your competitors' websites and emails, talk to your current and potential customers, use search analysis tools to see what people are searching for on the web and of course use the reporting tool on your email system to analyse what people are clicking on.

Content guru Gerry McGovern suggests you compile a list of 100 phrases, or 'carewords' as he calls them, and get all your customers to pick their top 10.

Use these words where your customers expect to see them

On the web, users scan pages very quickly to see if they can find what they want. Usability expert Jakob Nielson recently found that this is an even faster process on email. On average readers spend 51 seconds looking at an email newsletter.Offer them what they want or they will move on.

When your customers receive emails they will scan their inbox to see who they are from and the subject lines. If they see words that could help them achieve a task they have in mind they are more likely to open that email, eg 'Save 50% on books for Christmas'. They are not generally looking in their inbox for your 'May Newsletter' or 'Did you know?' or even 'Special offers'.

When your customers open an email they are scanning for words which relate to the task they would like to achieve, based on the promise set out in the email subject line. They need to see the words again.

According to research by Jakob Nielson, readers of email newsletters only skim the introduction and look at the first couple of words in titles, then possibly the beginning of the first sentence in paragraphs.

It is important to include the words and phrases you have identified in these places. You then have the best chance of achieving a click through.