Archive for December, 2008

Re: the misuse of the Re:

Monday, December 22nd, 2008 at 8:22 am

I’m getting way too many emails these days that have “Re:” at the beginning of the subject line, even though the person isn’t replying to an email.

I’m sure they do it because it increases open rates. But I delete those emails instantly.

Even worse is when they add a message like this at the beginning of the email:

Yo Anita

Got a bounceback for some reason from your email address last
time. Just wanted to make sure you got this in time…

A bounceback. Yeah, right. Tell me another one.

Sorry, but using the “Re:” is inauthentic. Try increasing your open rate with great subject lines and content instead.

Email subject lines of the week: of mortgages, toilets and marketing geniuses

Wednesday, December 10th, 2008 at 5:59 pm

Comments

My pick for the best subject line of the week (using my own delightfully subjective criteria, of course, and limited to those that surfaced in my inbox) is Ryan Healy’s “Can’t sell your house? Stop making payments.” Not the most cheerful of topics, of course, but I opened that one right away out of curiosity and clicked on over to the blog post.

Next up is “Emergency Fix for a Clogged Toilet” from Boardroom’s Bottom Line Secrets newsletter. What a practical subject line. I didn’t have a clogged toilet handy at that moment but I was curious enough to read the email immediately. Plus, I was wondering if they were really going to give the answer to that question or just tease the reader, as they are famous for doing in their newsletters. But they did answer it and now I almost want a toilet to become clogged so I can try it.

Mike Geary from Truth About Abs sent out an email with this subject line: “article marketing disaster — don’t use this company.” Notice how there are no capital letters (not even at the beginning) and the subject line is rather long. I couldn’t help but read that article right away even though I don’t use a company for article marketing. A side note: I notice that Mike doesn’t send out emails that are 50-65 characters in width, like most marketers. He’s OK with long sentences. I’ve long wondered if he’s tested this. I also can’t help but note that those in the fitness niche tend to be the best at sending out interesting emails on a regular basis.

Sean D’Souza of Psychotactics used this subject line: “Why we struggle with our writing.” I liked that one. It isn’t dramatic and isn’t heavy on the curiosity but it uses empathy (”we”) and I liked that it wasn’t focused just on copywriting but on writing in general, so I opened the email.

And, finally, this one from Perry Marshall: “the odd characteristic that most marketing geniuses share.” Again note the absence of capital letters in a long subject line. I think longer subject lines are easier to read when only the first letter is capitalized (or there is no capitalization at all). I usually only ever capitalize every word when the subject line is very short.

Feel free to share your own favorite subject lines in the comments.

Tip for broadcast emails

Wednesday, December 10th, 2008 at 12:24 am

Comments

Just read a Twitter post from Michel Fortin in which he says: “After an email broadcast of a new blog post, add it to your autoresponder cycle so that future subscribers will eventually see it too.”

This is great way to get extra mileage from an email that you only write once. I’ve noticed Michel doesn’t have dates on his blog posts so this probably works best if you switch off the dates for the links to your blog posts.

One of my most popular emails

Tuesday, December 9th, 2008 at 6:27 am

Comments

I figure it’s only fair I show examples of my own work from time to time.

So here’s one I wrote for a client in the self-help niche. The persona is a middle-aged male.

Their customer service person who manages their email replies says this one resulted in a huge number of positive responses. Go figure.

The email is content-only, no selling.

Also, at the end, I asked the reader to write back, which no doubt increased the response.

I write emails for this client on a monthly basis, which gives them the luxury of sending out content-only emails from time to time.

It is essential to be concerned about this type of response rate from your list too, not just conversion rates.

Are you connecting with your list and getting responses from them? That type of response rate leads to higher conversion rates.

OK, here’s the email:

Subj: How long can you live on a good compliment?

Hi firstname,

Mark Twain said he could live two months on a
good compliment.

I’m still living on a compliment a store clerk
gave me 14 months ago. I stepped into the store
after attending a conference and she said she
never sees people dressed like how I was in real
life, only in magazines. Glad I looked so pulled
together that one day anyway.

If a compliment from a stranger can mean so much,
a compliment from a loved one can mean so much
more.

Yet, as we all know all too well, we often
neglect to compliment those we love.

With people we love, or people who hope to
attract to us and form a loving relationship
with, it’s good to take compliments to an even
deeper level.

And that’s with encouragement.

Encouragement can take the following forms:

* Reinforcing them after they second-guess
themselves after a difficult decision.

* Drawing attention to their progress on a
project.

* Thanking them for their unique perspective
(even if you disagree with it).

Verbal appreciation like this is a powerful thing.

How have you been encouraged lately?

Have you encouraged anyone recently?

If you haven’t given or received much
encouragement lately, begin each day with a
thought of gratitude about at least one area of
your life.

The more gratitude you have, the more the
compliments and encouragement will flow your way
and the more it will also flow from you to others.

Feel free to write back and let me know your
thoughts.

Peace,

10 worst and 10 best subject lines of the year

Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008 at 1:43 pm

Comments

A major email marketing firm posted their 10 worst and 10 best subject lines of the year.

Bruce Wedding posted these as a test at the Copywriting Board. I thought it would be fun to do the same here.

Each question has a best and worst subject line. In the comments I’ll list the right answers and also link to the marketing firm’s original article.

Here goes:

1.
A) Top 12 Email Newsletter Mistakes
B) Target Referrals & Abandons

2.
A) Simple Email Link Change Lifts Clicks
B) Eastern Europe Factbook

3.
A) Buyer’s Guide to Top Survey Vendors
B) CAN-SPAM – Must-Know Updates

4.
A) Your Input, Please: Annual Marketing Questionnaire
B) Best Time to Send Email: Test Results

5.
A) Call for Speakers – Email Summit & Expo ‘09
B) 6 Actions to Lift Clickthroughs: New Data

6.
A) Turn Customer Queries Into Profit
B) Your Copy of Annual Email Study Results Enclosed

7.
A) HTML vs Text: Which Works Better?
B) Tailor Lists to Reach Exec Moms

8.
A) Newsletter Design Exclusive Data
B) How Wholesaler Lifted Orders 13%

9.
A) Email Audit PDF: How-to & Checklist
B) Test Your Email Practices; Friday Award Deadline

10.
A) How to Conduct Email Surveys
B) Alert: Analysis of New CAN-SPAM Rules

Email subject lines of the week: spanking, peeing and organ massages (yikes!)

Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008 at 1:54 am

Comments

My favorite subject line of this past week was Clayton Makepeace’s “The Spanking of a Lifetime.”

Plus I liked the content that went with it. Copywriters should read his post about how he lost a recent split test.

I was also very interested to note that he usually only has one day to write a sales letter! Of course he makes a ton of money from these clients, but still, 24 hours to write a 14-24 page financial sales letter is amazing. I hope my clients don’t start getting any ideas!

The other subject line I liked was Matt Furey’s “Massage Your Organ.” I assumed it was going to talk about how the bodyweight exercises he recommends also massage your inner organs. But it was about how in China there are people who will give you massages that specifically massage your organs to remove any, um, blockages, and they’ve done this for thousands of years. Sounds better than a colon cleanse anyway.

Finally, I also liked Ben Settle’s “Why I “Pee” On My Sales Letters.” Don’t worry, PEE is his acronym for “persuade,” “engage” and “entertain.”

Now that I’ve written a few of these email subject line of the week posts I’m starting to wonder…is it possible to use subtlety instead of shock value or entertainment in a subject line and still get a good open rate? I’d like to see more subtlety in my inbox. I use it a lot in my subject lines for clients’ email copy. I might have to post some of them here.

As always, feel free to leave a comment with your own favorite email subject line.

Ditch your landing pages and embed your opt-in in your PDFs

Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008 at 1:24 am

Comments

Too cool. You can now ditch your landing pages and put opt-in forms within our PDFs and white papers.

Not only that, you can capture data from readers and survey them as they read your content. There are all kinds of other statistics that Docmetrics will give you too.

If anyone has used this, or something similar, feel free to leave a comment with your opinion.

I don’t know what the price is so I’m not sure how accessible this is to smaller businesses but it sounds cool.

Inspiring opt-in forms

Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008 at 12:46 am

Comments

Have you come across any opt-in forms lately that inspired you to sign up?

I admit I’m a sucker for those Instant Slideup forms and want to start using them. They are unobtrusive even while being more noticeable than the typical form. Plus they are attractive so I’m more inclined to sign up even if the free goodies don’t interest me. You can see one in action at Michel Fortin’s blog.

Dali Burgado shares an opt-in form that she liked:

“Email List Name” – A Different Kind of Email List

Get the email newsletter that isn’t an email newsletter. ______ is more like getting short emails from your friends . 2 or 3 times a week, I have cool links and short bits of behind-the-scenes advice on _________, _____________-, ____________. Basically, it’s great stuff you’ll never see on the blog.

Subscribe now and get a 38-minute audio download of _____________ !

And yes, I will sell you stuff from time to time (what did you think, LOL). If you’re not comfortable with that, don’t sign up.

Sign up now:

Email:

I would sign up for a list like that. Plus I like the “38 minute” video; they are being specific and witty at the same time.

I’m going to keep my eye out for opt-in forms and share them here, like I do with email subject lines. If you have any you’d like to mention, please leave a comment.