The Lost Art of Email Marketing

By Marilyn Latham

I read a lot about email and I’m signed up on a number of email lists. At times, it seems to me that marketers have lost their way when it comes to their email marketing. It’s as if, for them, effective email marketing has become a bit of a lost art. Those of you responsible for your email marketing know that in many ways, it is an art. But there is some science to it too—and guidelines that should only be broken by the most daring of experts in the most unusual of circumstances.

For example: crafting a compelling subject line is indeed an art. How can you get your readers to open your email in just a few short words? A good subject line is like a really good TV commercial—your hand is on the remote, but the commercial, just in the first couple of seconds grabs you, and instead of changing channels (hitting the delete button), you’re a rapt and willing audience to whatever the commercial is selling. In some households, spouses and children are shushed when the Apple vs. PC ads come on. Your subject line needs to have this same attention-grabbing effect.

Now, no one can tell you exactly how to create this compelling subject line—that’s the art. The science though tells us that whatever the subject line says should actually reflect the content of your email. Really. Don’t sell an article if it’s the fourth article in your newsletter when your readers open it. They’re looking for it in the featured article position. And never fib to your readers that you’re offering them something that you’re not. Be witty, be engaging, be enticing—but whatever you do, be honest.

Another important piece of your email is the call-to-action. Like the cheers performed at a high school football game, your call to action is your rabble-rousing command to your readers to go, go, go—go shop, spend, download, contribute, sign up, attend. Your call to action should compel them, give them a sense of excitement and urgency. As if, if they don’t act now, they might miss out on something really fabulous that they’ll regret forever. So, your call to action should not be “maybe you’d like to check out our new inventory” but instead “shop now and save!”

Because really, your call to action is the whole point of your email. Except for the newsletter that exists for no other reason than to inform (and even then, the point of most newsletters, in addition to providing information, is keeping the recipients engaged with the company and their mission), your email marketing program exists to get your recipients to act. If they read your email but don’t buy anything, don’t contribute to the cause, don’t attend the concert, don’t download anything, then what did you achieve? The all-important “conversion” was missing, a casualty to a call to action that just didn’t compel them to act.

Of course, not everyone will be converted. If you could truly convert 100% of your readers, well, you’d be as near to walking on water as you could expect to get. You can’t expect to perform miracles, but you can optimize your call to action for its greatest effect. Some simple rules to follow:

• Pound for pound, verbs are worth more than nouns. It’s a call-to-action, therefore an action-word should be invoked! Use verbs and make it active, never passive. You can’t command people with nouns.
   
• Tease to please. Better than “shop now and save” is “shop now and save 30%!” Let your subscribers know what they’ll be missing if they don’t act on your offer. Make sure they realize this offer will expire and if they don’t act now, they’ll forever regret it.

• Say it early and often. Like the old adage for computer users to “save early and often”, your call to action should be both prominent and repeated. Repetition, they say, is the mother of invention. Okay, I’m taking liberties with that quote, but repetition is one key to marketing that should never be forgotten or squandered.

Maybe you’ve always invoked these best practices in your email marketing. If so, good for you! But we all get busy sometimes and start to forget some of the basics. So whether you’re a seasoned email marketer or a newbie, these are tried and true practices to remember. Every time.

Marilyn Latham is the Marketing Manager for Lyris Technologies.

Contact us at editor@lyris.com to share your ideas. We may include it in the next issue of Making Mail Work!