No man is an iland

So, do you think this email would work?

Maybe it would. Maybe it wouldn’t. But we probably all feel a little uncomfortable with the idea of this kind of message as a marketing email, no?

Why?

It is, after all, the ultimate expression of much of the (sensible) advice around on email marketing:

• Renders correctly everywhere
• Is mobile-friendly
• Optimized for the preview pane
• Skimmable, scannable, readable
• Concise and to-the-point
• Clear call to action

So why do we feel uncomfortable?

Well, there’s the intuitive role of fonts, copy, colors, layouts and images in guiding the recipient’s perception of the sender and encouraging response:

• One ESP examined its clients campaigns and found HTML emails correlated with an average 59% higher CTR than plain text messages
• An email agency lifted total clicks by over 50% by adding a small image near to the CTA

So a marketing email is about balance. Ensuring functionality and usability are high, while delivering a good impression and a persuasive case to take further action.

Yet there is a seductive pull to the idea of the purely functional email, as expressed in the above example.

Especially when we keep hearing how little time people have…and how unwilling they are to do more than skim and scan and pick and peek and pass over and pass on to other things as quickly as possible.

So we pare things down, eliminate editorial, increase headline fonts, skip the chatter, keep to the facts and feel good about doing so.

All things considered, it’s is no bad thing, except…

Too much focus on functionality can also commoditize and dehumanize your email and take away your ability to reach the people who really matter.

Crowds, character and the diminishing competitive edge

The first danger is that the way your email looks and reads begins very much to look the way a lot of other emails look and read.

This is an especial danger with image-lite B2B newsletters (including my own), where we’re all starting to follow the same “functional” template. Small logo top left, table of contents, headlines and teaser summaries.

Combine that with less text (because people don’t read) and the email can begin to lose character. It’s harder for recipients to distinguish between senders…harder for senders to stand out and deliver a memorable “email experience”.

You’re then left to compete increasingly on the inherent value of your content or offer.

This can certainly work as a strategy (some top B2B marketers use plain text newsletters), but not all of us are lucky enough to have unique or leading offers or content to work with.

That’s why I often talk about the key role of personality and non-functional optimization as a way of adding value to your emails and competing when you…um…can’t compete.

The non-transactional audience

A second danger is an over-emphasis on functionality assumes that all recipients act like machines: simply computing the relative value of buying the product, reading the article, “learning more” about the event…or not doing so.

Your emails then pander to the unemotionally involved…and these are not necessarily the people you’re really trying to reach.

And, frankly, nobody acts rationally anyway…whatever people may say and think, they are influenced by form as well as function.

Sure, there are some people primarily interested in “the facts”. Maybe even the majority. But it may be that your best customers, your loyalists, your real fans and real followers are being shortchanged by a purely functional approach.

For example, most people will not read the friendly editorial at the start of a content newsletter. So let’s dump that and get straight to the content.

But wait…

“Most” isn’t everyone. And the people who do read that editorial are likely your best, most engaged, subscribers.

Engagement versus reach

Which brings us back to the idea of balance.

Perhaps it’s better to keep the editorial and accept that some folk not so emotionally connected with you or what you offer will skip your email entirely: a smaller, more engaged audience, usually beats a bigger, disinterested one.

Or can you find ways to connect with those loyalists without disrupting the purely function-based approach to your emails that the rest are taking? For example, with a table of contents that lets people skip straight to the newsletter meat.

So what’s more important to you: functionality or personality? What do you think?

P.S. I’d still be curious how that email would work out…

Find related articles:

• Channel: Email design

Ah…subject lines!

We do know an awful lot about what they should achieve and how.

But I also know what a painting should achieve and the key role of brush, paint and canvas. Yet, curiously, none of my efforts are hanging in the Louvre (last time I checked).

Sometimes we need to see what others are doing before we turn theory into practice. So following on from an earlier post on sites to inspire your design and tactics, here some resources to help you construct that winning subject line:

Subject line collections and campaign databases

Chad White’s near daily “AM Inbox” posts at the Retail Email Blog include the “subjectivity scanner”: a list of notable subject lines from that day’s retail emails. Be sure to also see the Subject Line Halls of Fame, dating back to 2006.

The VerticalResponse blog also regularly features collections of themed subject lines. For example:

• 50 All-Time Great Retail Subject Lines
• 29 Great B2B Subject Lines
• 20 Holiday Subject Lines

Subject lines are also a particular feature of the Email Institute’s gallery and the eDataSource, Emailium, Email Campaign Archive and Emailtastic campaign databases.

Twitter

Tweets with links need to get people to click while staying under 140 characters in length. Driving action in just a few words? Hmmm…sounds a lot like the subject line challenge.

Track the tweets of top stores, bloggers and media sites to see how they make use of limited space to get a response. For example:

• Dell Outlet and Amazon.com Deals on Twitter
• The “No turn on red” retail blog aggregates tweets from top retail and ecommerce Twitter accounts on this page
• The 100 most influential news media accounts
• Twittorati.com aggregates the tweets of the world’s top bloggers

In particular, when an article or offer is published look for other people retweeting the message. Many simply repeat the original tweet verbatim. Some will rewrite the headline and often improve on the original.

I’ve learnt much about headline writing from how others tweet about my articles.

Google Reader (or any RSS tool)

Talking of headlines…that’s another piece of copy obliged to generate interest and encourage further reading in just a few words.

The traditional media world helps here: look at the headlines and teasers featured on magazine covers, newspapers, news broadcasts etc. for examples of short and punchy action drivers.

Use an RSS reader like Google Reader and sign up for feeds offered by bloggers, retailers, competitors etc.. Set the reader to list headlines only and you can scan your way through dozens of headlines for inspiration:

AdWords and other Google tools

If you’re doing a lot of paid search marketing, you’ve probably researched keywords and PPC ad headlines that work well for your audience. Can you transfer those concepts to your emails?

Even if you’re not doing paid search, you can still exploit the tools search marketers use to come up with popular keywords that reflect audience interests or trigger attention/action: Christopher Penn outlines how you might use the Wonder Wheel and AdWords Keyword tools to identify subject lines to test.

And finally

While Tweets, AdWords headlines, blog post headlines, etc. may have some similarities to subject lines, they still operate in different online contexts.

So think of them as starting points which you can adapt to fit the special requirements of email subject lines in general and YOUR emails in particular.

Remember also that inspiration works in reverse. If you have some winning subject lines, they can provide inspiration for your AdWords campaign or next tweet.

So, where do YOU get your subject line inspiration from?

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• Channel: Email subject lines

Today’s online marketing world is full of lovely words like engagement and empowerment, communication and conversation, interaction and integration, friends, fans and followers.

Many of these keywords go back to the age-old idea of building a strong relationship between your organization and the members of your audience.

Little of this is truly new: email was one of the first digital relationship builders…a regular touchpoint that strengthened the bond between sender and subscriber.

However, this idea of email marketing as relationship marketing has become an all-pervading truism worthy of little comment or analysis.

Shame.

Because if we gave real thought to this relationship idea, we wouldn’t make half the mistakes we do. Relationship neglect sees many marketers led astray by their assumptions or failing to make appropriate adjustments to how they use email.

Here are four examples…

[This post was inspired by Sharon Long of the We Know Words group of freelance copywriters, who kindly asked me to muse briefly on these issues for a book she's writing.]

Problem 1: Showing a lack of interest in starting a relationship

If email relationships are important, we need to make the effort to start them.

The first step in the relationship is simply to inform a potential subscriber of the very existence of the email list. Yet many organizations still insist on, for example, inviting website visitors to play “where’s the list?”

Any contact point with customers and prospects is an opportunity to pitch for a sign-up. But at the very least, a sign-up form or link needs to be on every page of your website, in as prominent position as you can give it.

If other website pressures prevent this, then at least provide a sign-up opportunity at key website points, such as:

• Typical exit pages (identified through your web analytics)
• During or after purchase/download processes
• At the conclusion of other interactions indicating strong interest, such as a sign-up form at the bottom of a long article
• Paid search landing pages (you paid to get them there: if they don’t take the desired action, an email address at least gives you a chance to keep the communication going)

But it’s not just about making people aware of your email list.

Potential subscribers need encouragement to…um…subscribe, and thus begin the email relationship.

Sign-up forms and pages need to demonstrate the benefits of doing so. And they need to set expectations to avoid later remorse and disappointment.

Problem 2: Not all relationships are equal

Our personal relationships have different strengths. I don’t talk to the postman like I do to my wife (I sincerely hope she feels the same way).

And I don’t talk to the postman now like I talked to him five years ago.

So it is with email subscribers.

Yet we tend to use the same voice, content, style and design for everyone.

It seems an obvious argument for segmenting subscribers by relationship. Which brings the problem of definition: segment how? (Not to mention costs.)

Possibilities might be:

• length of time on list (a topic touched on in this article on template changes)
• purchase history
• open/click history
• website browsing history
• propensity to share

If the data challenge seems daunting (it does to me), the segmentation by relationship approach begins simply with the welcome message.

New subscribers tend to be thrown into the same stream of email messages that long-time subscribers are getting. It’s like conducting a first date as if it was the twentieth. Instead, new subscribers first need to get one or more welcome emails which, for example:

• thank them for joining the list (possibly with an unexpected gift, like a free download or coupon)
• remind them of the benefits of joining
• inform them of any important administrative functions (like a subscriber preference center)
• introduce them to the kind of content or offers they’re likely to get in future

Other examples of segmentation by relationship include lifting email frequency to your “best” subscribers, or specific emails designed to re-enthuse subscribers as they approach the threshold “time on list” when response fatigue sets in significantly.

Problem 3: If it’s not mutually beneficial, it’s not going to work

The strength of any relationship largely depends on the benefits received by each side: you can’t expect selfless love from your subscribers.

Email marketing is a value exchange.

The subscriber gives you an email address and attention and, in return, you deliver value to them. Either through useful, timely and/or entertaining content or with relevant offers and promotions.

If subscribers don’t get enough value out of this relationship, they leave (unsubscribe) or ignore you.

Nothing revolutionary there. However…

Many of us play lip service to this concept, but our obsession with technology and numbers leads us to lose sight of the fact that subscribers are people, with human needs and wants.

And we’re often hitting a targeting glass ceiling. We look to squeeze a few percentage point increases to opens, clicks and/or conversions by fiddling with subject lines, or refining the offer or topic content in our standard broadcast emails.

But if the email relationship is to really blossom, we perhaps should look to additional new ways of delivering value and increasing relevancy, for example by:

• using trigger emails that respond directly and relevantly to subscriber actions
• looking to increase the emotional value we deliver through style, personality, voice, etc.
• investing in content marketing

Problem 4: It’s not actually a relationship

I’ve had a brand’s beer but not a beer with a brand.

One of my favorite topics is overestimating the strength of an email relationship: for most subscribers it’s an extremely tenuous commitment. Marketers who forget this often assume unconditional love, meaning subscribers will always forgive the occasional (or regular) transgression.

Some may, but all subscribers have their limits. Particular traps here are:

• Abusing permission by assuming implied permission: sending the kind of email that subscribers aren’t expecting.
• Abusing the privacy needs of those subscribers. As Rick Buck wrote recently:

“Getting permission from your customers means more than getting an opt-in to receive your e-mail and texts. Conditionally, it is about presenting them with a value proposition that instills confidence that you will respect and protect the data they choose to provide…”

• Coasting: assuming that loyalty, response and the sender’s image remain unaffected by a long break between emails, thin content, irrelevant offers, sloppy writing, etc.. Unfortunately, the typical subscriber is not a forgiving partner. Delivering value is important, delivering consistent value also.

So, do you agree? Is it time to rediscover the relationship aspect of email marketing?

Find related articles:

• Channel: Email strategy