Jul 06
One could argue the email marketing subject line is the most important part of an email marketing campaign. That being said, it’s pretty amazing how little time most senders spend creating and testing them. The subject line is one of only two things (along with from name) a recipient will see that help them determine if they want to interact with a message or not. So how do we construct the perfect subject line? Let’s give it a shot.
- Who Are You? – First and foremost, you should identify yourself. A recipient should at a single glance know who the message is from.
- What’s the Purpose of the Message? – A great subject line should tell me what the email is about before I open it up.
- Anticipation – A subject line should truthfully tease the recipient.
- Keywords – Not unlike blogging, the subject line should contain relevant keywords just like a title.
- Length – I like to see subject lines under 60 characters. There’s no reason to go longer and risk losing an important part of your message.
The reward for a great subject line is increased open and click rates. Increased open and click rates mean increased engagement. Increased engagement means better deliverability. Better deliverability means more revenue. The best thing is that you can very confidently test the results.
Jul 01
What is email marketing strategy all about? It’s sometimes a challenge to explain to friends and family exactly what it is that I do. Honestly, the question sometimes goes beyond friends and family, and is asked by email marketers. Over the years, I’ve worked out a bit of an “elevator pitch” to answer that question.
“I work with companies to help them design and send out email that their customers enjoy reading.”
That’s my passion in 17 wonderfully descriptive words. If you can execute on that short sentence, you will be a successful email marketer. It’s so much fun to work in an industry that has a clearly defined and executable goal. I love working with a client and watching the light bulb come on when they understand that this business is as the core very simple. My experience allows me to help senders cut through the noise and get to the business of success, but it can be transferred and learned. Teaching is what I do.
What is email strategy? Strategy is assessing the current program and opportunities. Strategy is working to build a plan of action for the short-term and the long-term. Strategy is working with senders to craft just the right message to arrive at just the right time. Strategy is making sure that you are optimized for deliverability. Strategy is testing the right way. Strategy is analyzing numbers and working together to make them better. Strategy is also having someone to bounce ideas off of and come up with the next killer concept.
Let’s talk strategy!
Jun 22
A transactional email is a message that is in direct response to an action that a user has performed. Purchase confirmations, shipping status messages, password changes, and bill statements are some great examples of true transactional messages. Open and click rates for these messages dwarf most other types of email marketing messages. The numbers are fantastic because these are the type of messages that your customers refuse to do without, and WILL call your customer service line if they don’t receive them.
Transactional messages are about as good as it gets for an email marketing program. How do you make sure you are getting the most out of these messages? Here are some tips for improving your transactional email stream.
- Timing is everything – When people book a trip, purchase an item, or request a new password, they want to do it now. Don’t batch transactional messages. Send these important messages as soon as the action is performed.
- Identify Your Company – The From Name and Subject Line should be very clear and easily identifiable. Don’t allow these messages to get lost because someone doesn’t recognize a subject line.
- Cross-Sell – You can safely use about 30% of a transactional message to market to your customers. Make sure the advertising is very relevant and expect to see big returns. If your customer buys a camera, offer them a camera case. If your customer books a flight, show them car rental deals. Relevance is the key to conversion in a transactional message.
- Keep It Simple – Don’t lose sight of what you are doing here. This is a transactional message that should be a quick visual confirmation of an action.
- Track – I know many senders who don’t record or study the numbers from transactional streams. I would submit to you that these statistics will tell you more about the true value of your list than any other type of email that you send.
I encourage you to take a quick spin through your transactional email chain. Make sure things are happening the way you think they should be.
Jun 16
What’s your favorite email message to receive? I know that you’ve got one. There’s one special subject line or from name that brightens your day. The instant gratification that an email can bring is just about unmatched in advertising. Helping customers create those special messages is one of the best things about my job.
My current favorite email is one that I receive (but not enough) from American Airlines. The email letting me know that I have been upgraded to a first class seat is fantastic. I get excited thinking about the big leather seat, hot towel, snacks, and meal I will be chomping down on during the flight. It all starts with an email.
My wife loves shipping confirmation emails. A status update letting you know that special gift, great online bargain, or Ebay auction win is on the way is always fun. People will watch their inbox like a hawk waiting to know that package is on a truck or airplane somewhere.
Some other email people love:
- Email from kids and grandchildren
- Auction victories
- Sales notifications – The best for someone in business
- Payroll notifications
- Travel Notifications – (With the exception of your plane is delayed messages – those are the pits)
What’s you favorite message? What email makes you click the “check mail” over and over again?
Jun 09
As the old saying goes, timing is everything. I can’t think of many areas that this is more true than in email marketing. Great email marketing is all about timing. Prompt welcome messages, great educational messages, instant confirmation messages, and relevant and timely offers are the basis for good programs. It’s a good idea to do a periodic “timing tune-up” to make sure things are flowing smoothly.
I believe there are a few key times when you can get your message out and establish a strong relationship with your customers.
- The Welcome Message – A quick thank you message is crucial. Acknowledge that you have my information.
- Education Messaging – I love the series of messages after sign-up that do nothing but tell the customer about your site, where to get help, what to expect from the email program, and other great things you offer. Customers are open to this type of dialogue after they sign-up and appreciate the fact that you aren’t hard selling them right away.
- Confirmation Messages – These are so critical from a timing perspective. When we make a purchase, we’re conditioned to look for a confirmation email right away. If we don’t see it, we start to panic. Panic leads to a call to customer service, which leads profit right down the drain.
- Relevant Messaging – Nothing better than a company anticipating what we want before we want it. It’s impressive to the consumer and keeps you top of mind.
- Cadence – Do you send too many messages? Do you not send enough messages? A thorough statistical analysis of your numbers can help you determine cadence. Sometimes less is more, and sometimes more is better.
I encourage you to put yourself in the shoes of one of your customers. Walk through the sign-up process and make a purchase as if you were a new customer. What do you think? Do you pass the timing challenge?
Jun 01
Yesterday was “Quit Facebook Day“, but my guess is that you did not. Only 34,961 “Committed Facebook Quitters” added their name to the cause. 34,000 is a nice number, until you remember that there are 40 Trillion Facebook users. OK, I made that up, but I am not far from the truth.
Why didn’t we quit Facebook? The privacy concerns are pretty legitimate. Facebook has always just moved users along from change to change without a lot of input. We do what we’re told, because we love Facebook. We like to join Facebook groups with titles like, “I won’t pay $9.93 a month to use Facebook” or “Facebook should love us all.” What we don’t want to do is actually leave Facebook. We’re addicted to status updates and Farmville. We get twitchy when we can’t see who friended who, or who might have been unfriended.
Social media is here to stay. Facebook is like a cell phone was years ago. We will not go without this technology any longer. Do you remember leaving the house without a cell phone? That is unthinkable today. If you step back and think about it, our need to communicate with friends instantly is much the same. All of my friends post pictures and updates while they are on vacation, or at the doctor’s office, or the park. We see pictures of babies and our parties. I read about my friends job changes, success, and frustrations. Life is truly an open book.
Maybe we’ll quit next month.
May 26
Hotmail is in the process of revamping their service. The past year or so, Microsoft had been attempting to move users to the Windows Live brand. It looks like that course has changed, and Hotmail is back in vogue. There are some pretty important changes and features that you should know about if you send email marketing messages. Most senders have a substantial portion of Hotmail addresses in our lists, so when Hotmail does something like this, you should be prepared.
I’ll hit some of the highlights (or lowlights) for you today.
My top concern is the “Sweep” feature. Sweep allows you to get rid of groups of messages from a sender in one swoop. Microsoft defines these messages like this.
We also know you still get a lot of other mail in your inbox that you don’t want. We call this “graymail” – legitimate mail that you signed up to receive or agreed to receive at one point, but you no longer want. The new Hotmail gives you the first and only virtual broom in any inbox out there, letting you sweep the mail you don’t want right out of your inbox – all in just a couple of clicks.
That’s not good news for email marketers. This only highlights the push to send engaging messages. Now more than ever, as a sender you must deliver content that recipients actually want to open and click on. FYI, the “sweep” will also continue to sweep away these messages until the user says stop, and that’s probably never. Lose the customer once, and you may never see them again.
The second addition is the possibility to manage your Gmail, Yahoo!, and AOL email boxes in the same interface. We’re looking at the real possibility of the addresses that make up 75% of most lists being managed and swept away in the Hotmail interface.
There are also enhancements to sharing, photos, and documents that may make the service attractive again. You can also sync up the email from social networking sites. There’s a lot here to take in. I encourage you to read the blog and watch the video. There’s an opportunity here for senders with great messaging to stand out. There’s also an opportunity for a large portion of your messages to be swept away.
Hotmail Changes Video
May 20
Writing effective subject lines is one of the most critical pieces of the Email Marketing process. Visualize your Inbox. What do you see? You see a from name and a subject line, that’s all that you’ve got. Talk about making a first impression, the subject line is basically it. You want to improve your open rate? It’s all about the subject line.
Here are some tips for writing great subject lines.
- I like to Identify Yourself – It shouldn’t overwhelm the recipient, but I believe familiarity is good.
- Keep it short – 50-60 characters is about right for the subject line.
- Strong Call-to-Action – Open rates are almost entirely based on the subject line, tell me why I should open your email.
- Choose Your Words Carefully – Stay away from “spammy” words like FREE, LIMITED TIME, CALL NOW, CREDIT, AMAZING, and other similar words.
- Tell the Truth – Don’t even think about writing a misleading subject line.
- Test – This is one of the easiest variables to test, try different things.
- Adapt – Don’t remain stale. Familiarity is different from burn-out.
I encourage you to take a new look at your subject lines. Think about the subject line in the context of a brand-new customer. Do you recognize the sender? Are you interested in finding out more? Do you trust the content?
Happy subjecting!
May 17
If you work with me at all, you’ve heard me ask this question. Why do you send email? I will usually preface it with something like. This is going to sound like a an odd question, but… It IS an odd question, but one that almost all of the time, doesn’t get a real answer. It seems strange that we wouldn’t know the reason we send email, but most of us just do it because that’s what other companies do.
Let’s dig a little deeper into my question. Here are some reasons why a company or organization would send email marketing messages.
- Acquisition
- Transactional messages
- Traditional Marketing
- Build Brand Awareness
- Newsletters
- Revenue Generation
All of these are very valid uses of the email channel, but they are all very different. Knowing what you want to accomplish before you actually start trying to execute can make a huge difference in the route you take. Strategy is something that every email program needs. Everyone doesn’t need to spend 50 hours per month analyzing each open and click, but you should have some type of plan. The end-goal dictates what content you will send, how often you will send it , and the construction of the messages. Your audience can differ greatly based on the types of messages you want to deliver. Certification requirements can change based on the types of email delivered. Strategy can mean many different things, but above all it means being prepared with a beginning, middle, and a long-term plan.
You have a budget each month based on how much you make and what you have to spend. That’s all a basic email strategy needs. You know how much of what variable you need to produce, and the strategy is a plan (or budget) of how you need to get there.
I hope when I ask the question in the future, I get some snappy responses. The better prepared we are, the better our email marketing results will be.
