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Previous topic: Personality
Next topic: The human voice
If you think of the email newsletters out there, we can divide them into four types, according to how they say what they have to say.
- sales.
- factual.
- traditional corporate.
- human.
The sales approach pitches everything in sales speak, offering enthusiastic encouragement to click, buy, visit, subscribe, whatever...
Tired of brushing your hair yourself? Get the new Brownlow 2002 auto-brush today and qualify for a special discount! Click here now!
As we've said, this isn't really an email newsletter, this is email promotions.
The factual approach is dry and impersonal. The newsletter simply conveys the required information.
A new auto-brush is now available from Brownlow, Inc. It replaces the old auto-brush 2001.
The traditional corporate approach uses marketing speak. It's safe, but often contrived and jargon-filled, and talks from the company perspective, speaking as if "the company" (rather than a person) was writing the email.
Brownlow, Inc. is pleased to announce the launch of their new auto-brush product. The combing speed of 24kph was achieved by the application of TX7 Sidewinder technology developed by the hair plastics division in Frankfurt. Custom-curved handgrips have added a new dimension to traditional combex materialling.
The human approach involves writing like a normal human being.
I have bad hair days so often, I prefer to talk about "good hair days". Here's a product launch that might interest you if you've a daily struggle with unmanageable hair, too. From what the manufacturers say, the new Brownlow 2002 auto brush...
Many newsletters are, of course, a mixture of two or more of these approaches.
In the long-term, which approach is likely to resonate best with readers? Common sense tells you that in nearly all cases, the human approach would be best.
The sales approach is suited to short-term promotions. The factual approach is efficient, but fails to build any kind of rapport with the reader. The traditional corporate approach just goes in one ear and out the other. The human approach, however, touches the reader at a personal level.
Before you start arguing with me, yes, there will always be a place for the different approaches. There are specific audiences that will respond more favorably to, say, a factual approach. But most of the time, the human approach will always win out when it comes to long-term loyalty and influence.
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