Eye-catching opening line!

I’m intentionally leaving some of my email template intact here. You’re getting a glimpse at how I help myself write better emails faster.

This little trick is also used by great developer companies, as we learned when AWS accidentally sent its template out.

Yep. Their empty template, without anything filled in. Somebody had a bad day.

The upside is we all get to take notes on what AWS does well: include directions within the template. That’s a great way to avoid boring boilerplate like this newspaper uh-oh:

By the way, images like that can help break up content. You can also grab the skimmer’s eye with some bullet points:

• Always
• Be
• Conversational

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You’ll find more ideas in this post on developer content templates. You can use these ideas beyond email—in tutorials, blog posts, sample apps, and video scripts.

Then bring it home with a closing line, perhaps.