Invitations In Email: Make It Fun and to the Point

From time to time you might want to send an invitation to your subscribers. Maybe there is a private event, a new store opening, a special sale or other event that you would love your subscribers to attend.

I recently saw a great invitation email from Shutterfly.  Shutterfly uses a template very similar to personal event email invitations (namely “e-vite”) to promote their “exclusive sale”. It gives the user a more personal, special feel, just like they are being invited to a special party by their friend. Simple, personal, and straight to the point. Nice!

The Subject Line is: Feel the love. Save 20% at our invitation-only Insider Sale.

RE: at the start of the subject line? Good idea? Bad Idea?

I recently received this question in my inbox from an EmailMoxie.com reader.

"I read somewhere that the use of 'RE:' at the start of an email subject line gives the message a better chance of not being thrown in a spam filter. Is this true?"

What do you think about adding RE: to the beginning of a subject line? Is it deceptive? A good idea? Does it work?  Share your thoughts with us!

Header Redesign: Simple Changes Can Make Big Differences

Header text is a must have best practice for any serious email marketer. This text will display in an email even when images are blocked and formatting is not quite right. This actionable area, at a minimum, should deliver the point of the email and have a link to the online version. Header text should be clear, clean and actionable.

The specialty kitchenware retailer and culinary mecca, Sur La Table, recently updated their email header text. The new text not only follows header text best practices, but it also conserves precious email real-estate, and looks great.

Here is the updated header text. Notice the links are all click-able and are in one line at the top of the email.

Here is the original header text. The text is not all click-able, is a bit long-winded, and takes up valuable, above the fold, email real-estate.

What do you think about these updates? Have you updated your header text? Please share your experiences and thoughts with us!

The Great Gender Debate

Online and offline marketers should always try to keep their marketing databases and lists updated whenever possible. This data can include current email address, postal address, name, age, and gender to name a few. Having this data is one thing. Using it successfully and appropriately is another. Sure, first name personalization is great. Geo-targeting is awesome. Age appropriate marketing rocks. But what about gender? 

Do men only want to receive content geared toward men? What if one of these men wanted to purchase something for a lady in his life? What about those whose gender is not known? What should these people receive?

There is a particular retailer that I used to love. I usually purchased items from them in-store. This past Christmas I purchased something for my wife from this retailer online via an email. From that point on I have only been receiving the female version of the catalog at my home. In this case this retailer assumed that since I bought one female item that I am an exclusively female shopper. This is a risky and potentially costly assumption - partly because of the way they have treated me since then, this retailer is no longer my favorite.

I recently saw an Express email that helps alleviate gender misunderstandings. There is a link towards the bottom of the email which links to the other gender. The female version of the email that links to the male version while the male links to the female. Brilliant!

It would be great (and maybe lucrative) for Express to highlight this feature and move it up in the email. This is like sending two emails to your list for the price of one! A simple test should tell if moving this link has any positive or negative results.

Here is the complete female version:

Here is the complete male version:

URL in the Subject Line? - http://www.R-U-Serious??

I was reading a ClickZ post today about what you should and should not do in email. One suggestion struck me as odd.  It was that you should put URLs in the subject line!  Really? Why?  The author thinks this is a good idea and might catch on.

With the popularity of Tiny URL and other link reducing sites this is entirely possible.   

How do you feel about this?

Would you click on an email with the subject line Click here to register: http://tiny.cc/58vqd  Win Big!

Share your thoughts with us.

Transactional Email Message Best Practices

Do you send transactional email marketing messages? Transactional messages include order confirmations, shipping confirmations, demographic updates, registrations etc.

Here are some transactional message best practices:

1. Since the main communications objective of transactional emails is to give the user their order/shipping information; the message should be presented clearly and above-the-fold with minimal visual clutter.
2. A good ratio of transactional data vs. promotional offers within a transactional template is 70/30 with the promotional content further towards the bottom
3. Consider making the total width of your transactional template 580 pixels for easy printing in case the user wants a physical record of their purchase. Most transactional templates have regular email widths of 650-700 pixels, but it's something to consider.
4. When providing the user with recommended products based on their purchase, product content should be placed within a right hand column. This column should take up 35% of the total email width, with the other 65% reserved for the main order content.
5. The overall design of the template should be minimal since it's only meant to present one message.
6. Include a link to opt-in to receive email! A transactional message doesn't necessarily mean the user is also a subscriber of the main email program.

Here is a great example of a well done order confirmation from 1-800-flowers.

A Primer On Email Subject Line Testing

Subject line testing is not a new concept to email marketing or to this blog.  However, it is an important key to email marketing success. Subject line testing is easy to do and offers concrete results, but is often neglected.

Below is a typical inbox. Which subject lines best grab your attention? Which approach would work for your brand? Which one do you think is the worst performing? There's only way to know - test it out!


Keep in mind:

• Best-in-breed email programs consistently test their subject lines.
• It is important to verify your past findings and current theories about subject lines instead of making assumptions.
• If you can increase your open rates even slightly by optimizing your subject lines, the potential to increase click and transaction rates increases.

Do:

• Be clear and direct.
• Be short – keep subject lines to 50 characters or less.  (test this out to make sure shorter is better for your brand)
• Do tell subscribers what’s new in this message.
• Remind subscribers when sales/events are ending.
• Try wistful, fun or emotional subject lines.
• Test personalization, symbols (%, $) and capital letters. Also, I have seen pipes (|) used successfully.
• Set your subscribers' expectations during the opt-in process about what kinds of emails they'll be receiving.
• Try incorporating offer codes in the subject line.

Don't:

• Be deceptive.
• Be too long-winded.
• Deviate from your brand voice too much.
• Scream (use words in all CAPITAL LETTERS).
• Test once and then make long term decisions.
• Be afraid to have fun!
• Don't confuse newsletters with promotions. If your email is a newsletter, put the name and issue of the newsletter in your subject line. If your email is a special promotion, tell the subscriber what's inside. Either way, don't write your subject lines like advertisements.

Subject line recommendations and solutions are not a one size fits all solution. Discover for yourself about what works best for you and what does not work. Don't forget to document both your testing failures and successes. You do not want to forget what worked and did not work as you perform more tests. Also, you do not want to lose any testing knowledge as employees come and go.

Some subject line testing scenarios include:

• Short versus long.
• Mentioning a product type (shoes, savings accounts, cars, travel destinations).
• Mentioning of brand or style type advertised (Nike, Cargo Pants, Harry Potter, Rolling Stone, Jolly Ranchers).
• Using and testing placement of free shipping, percent-off or discount offers.
• Using language indicating urgency (limited time sale, 3 days only, etc.).
• Using language evoking curiosity or inspiration.
• Using first name personalization
• Including the company name.
• Using capitalization and abbreviations appropriately or intentionally inappropriately (Di$count 4U!).
• Including offer codes in the subject line.

A sample subject line test scenario: The 10-10-80 split

1. 10% of the subscriber list received Subject Line 1.
2. 10% of the subscriber list received Subject Line 2.
3. 80% of the subscriber list received the winning Subject Line.

The winner is most often determined by unique open rate but not necessarily all the time. In the case of including an offer code in the subject line, the winner might be determined by the number of sales generated by that offer code. In this case the subscriber does not even need to open the email for you to make a sale because they can often see the code from the preview pane alone.

If you are having a difficult time deciding what subject lines to create, get inspired by the content of the email or by your web analytics data (to see which content is recently popular on your site and which popular keywords are driving traffic).

When it comes to email marketing, the best subject lines tell what's inside, and the worst subject lines sell what's inside. But don’t take my word for it – you need to test, test, test this for yourself.

Subject Line Testing in Email: Just Do It!

An important key to email marketing success is testing. One of the most important components of a campaign to test is the subject line. The subject line is the teaser copy that entices the recipient to open your Email.
Keep in mind:
- Best-in-breed email programs consistently test their subject lines.
- It is important to verify your past findings and current theories about subject lines instead of making assumptions.
-If you can increase your open rates even slightly by optimizing your subject lines, the potential to increase click and transaction rates increases.

Here are some Subject Line Do’s and Don’ts.

Do

• Be clear and direct.
• Be short – keep subject lines to 50 characters or less.
• Do tell subscribers what’s new.
• Remind subscribers when sales/events are ending.
• Try wistful and fun subject lines. (But test on sale emails)
• Test personalization, symbols (%, $) and capital letters. Also, I have seen pipes used successfully.
  
• set your subscribers' expectations during the opt-in process about what kinds of emails they'll be receiving.

Don't

• Be deceptive.
• Be too long.
• Deviate from your brand voice too much.
• Scream (use words in all CAPITAL LETTERS).
• Test once and then make long term decisions.
• Be afraid to have fun!
• Don't confuse newsletters with promotions. If your email is a newsletter, put the name and issue of the newsletter in your subject line. If your email is a special promotion, tell the subscriber what's inside. Either way, don't write your subject lines like advertisements.

Here are some Subject Line Testing – Test Scenarios
-Short versus Long.
-Mention a product type (shoes, shorts, cars, candy).
-Mention of Brand or style type advertised (Nike, Cargo Pants, Lexus, Jolly Ranchers).
-Use and placement of Free Shipping, % or $ Offer.
-Use of language indicating urgency (limited time sale, 3 days only, etc.).
-Use of language evoking curiosity or inspiration.
-Use First name personalization
-Include the company name.
-Use capitalization appropriately.

Here is a sample Subject Line test scenario.
A 10-10-80 split was used in this test.

1. - 10% of the subscriber list received Subject Line 1.
2. - 10% of the subscriber list received Subject Line 2.
3. - 80% of the subscriber list received the winning Subject Line. In this case the winner was Subject Line 2.

Subject Line 1 - Free Shipping this Easter - Offer Code Inside (13% open rate)
Subject Line 2 - Free Shipping - Happy Easter (16.6% open rate)

The website and email marketing provider MailChimp looked at some of its clients highest performing and lowest performing subject lines.

MailChimp said that people who are new to email marketing often ask them, "How should I write my subject lines so that more recipients will open my emails?"

In order to answer that question, MailChimp recently analyzed over 40 million emails sent from customers through MailChimp. They found the subject lines with the highest open rates and the ones with the lowest open rates. Then they pulled 20 from each pile and put their subject lines in a side-by-side comparison. The wining or highest open rates were in the range of 60%-87%, while the losing or lowest performers fell in the dismal 1%-14% range.

Here are the results:

Do you see a pattern in the results?

On the winning side, you'll notice the subject lines are pretty straightforward. They're not very salesy or pushy. On the losing side however, notice how the subject lines read like headlines from advertisements you would see in the Sunday paper. They might look more creative but their open rates are horrible. It's as if those email marketers assumed that subject lines have to jump off the screen and GRAB THE READER'S ATTENTION! Unfortunately, most people get so much junk mail in their inbox, anything that even hints of spam gets removed immediately.

In this test case it looks like the best subject lines simply described the content of the email. It is that simple.

If you are having a difficult time deciding what subject lines to create look at the content of the email. Also, use your websites web analytic data. You might be able to use keywords searched on your site and keywords used to send visitors to your site.

When it comes to email marketing, the best subject lines tell what's inside, and the worst subject lines sell what's inside. But don’t take my word for it – You need to Test, Test, Test this for yourself.

Emails and Thoughts From The Past Week - August 11th to 17th, 2009

Below are some NOTEWORTHY EMAILS from my inbox this past week. Enjoy!

- Gap does something unique and cool with an animated gif. In this email they use an animated .gif to promote their Social Media sites. This draws the eye to the changing text. Nice job! - The winner of the first Christmas Email of the year that graced my inbox is from... Walter Drake. Only four months to Santa! - This is a cute email from Armstrong Garden Centers. They are offering 20% off of every product that is yellow. This type of sale is not only interesting but it is FUN. - The warehouse store, Sam's Club, does a classy job with this email. They are informing their subscribers about their green initiatives in a frank, non-sales format.

The subject line is also clever and fun:
Simple steps to saving green with Sam's Club


- The last topic for this week is taking a clever or interesting email creative and having a related and similar themed landing page. All too often we see cases where there is an engaging creative but an irrelevant or disappointing landing page. This is NOT the case in the three examples below. These examples come to us from Ralph Lauren, Bluefly, and Victoria's Secret.

The Ralph Lauren creative is engaging, artistic, and promises the viewer that in three simple steps he or she will be able to create an article of clothing unique to them. The subscriber can select a color, choose a monogram or pony, and make it their own. Hopefully the landing page will deliver all of this...

...and it does! The landing page takes us to an easy to use, step-by-step, page that allows us to create our own garment.


The second example is from Bluefly. The Bluefly hook is less obvious in the creative but is promoted in the Subject Line. The Subject Line for the email below is New Fall Coats! Check Out The Latest Celeb Obsessions!

The engaging aspect of this is the question what does a Celeb Obsession have to do with coats? This is screaming open the email and find out! The link about celebrities is in the bottom right corner.

The landing page for the link is the Bluefly blog, Fly Paper. Before I selecting this link I did not know 1- that celebrities wear Bluefly gear 2- That Bluefly has a blog that appeals to their core clients.

Bluefly did a great job not only promoting their products but also promoting their blog. 2 for 1. Nice!

The last example of a clever email having a relevant landing page comes to us from Victoria's Secret. In a recent email from them, there was a banner below the main image. The part of the banner that caught my attention was the text "Check out the 24 new schools that made the cut for 2009." This piqued my interest to see if my school made the list and what other schools are on it.

The landing page reinforced the message located in the banner and also listed the schools (including the new ones designated by an *) that are included in the Collegiate Collection. This is especially relevant now that school is in session or starting soon.

That's it for this week! Se sure to check back for next weeks week in review. Also, later this week I will be posting 2009 back-to-school creative examples. Be sure to keep a lookout for those.

Feel free to send my any questions, comments, or creative exmaples that you have found.