In the noisy and crowded place that is our inbox nowadays, many people receive so much email that all they do is scan visually for ones they recognise then delete the rest.
Traditional email analysis says that readers look first at Sender ID and second at subject line.
I am no longer sure that is the case. I believe, based on talking to a broad range of people, that subject line might be the first point of recognition - especially as so many sender IDs have been highjacked by Trojans.
It seems that people are starting to scan just the subject line - as they feel it gives them a truer indication of whether the email is of interest or not, and generally disregarding sender ID.
If this is true, then the whole issue of subject lines must be re-examined and greater importance placed on those few words!
Showing posts with label Subject Lines. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Subject Lines. Show all posts
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Don't change the subject
Right now there's a lot of talk about subject lines, maybe too much talk, to misquote Bono. But it is an important issue, and one where opinion is sharply divided between the email cognoscenti, and your average corporate email marketer.
Industry advisers urge a conservative approach - be exciting and engaging without being spammy, yet users seem determined to "win free double your money" in the subject line wherever possible.
This week ASB, after much internal huffing and puffing, relaunched their email marketing programme with a new, and when you dug it out of the spam file, quite interesting newsletter.
But it did go straight into the spam folder.
Their subject line was: Celebrate 10 grand years with $10,000.
Now spam filters, especially here in NZ, are not known for their sophistication, so matching up a spammy subject line with a domain which had not sent anything for a while and coming up with Spam was a simple move.
How badly this will impact upon ASB we have yet to see - being a good citizen (even though they declined to use our services) I replied with some advice about subject lines, but of course it was sent from one of those Oh-so-clever noreply@ addresses.
When you are launching or relaunching a newsletter, initial audience engagement is a worry. Using a really exciting and enticing subject line is tempting - because getting recipients to open that all important first message is crucial. In fact, I predict that shortly we will see the arrival of a new type of email sub-specialist - the subject line writer!
Subject lines are another component of the design / delivery compromise equation - is it better to get sexy and compelling marketing to 50% of your audience of good solid marketing to 95% of them? (more on this soon).
To my mind, delivery into the inbox is crucial - so rein back a little with those subject lines.
Industry advisers urge a conservative approach - be exciting and engaging without being spammy, yet users seem determined to "win free double your money" in the subject line wherever possible.
This week ASB, after much internal huffing and puffing, relaunched their email marketing programme with a new, and when you dug it out of the spam file, quite interesting newsletter.
But it did go straight into the spam folder.
Their subject line was: Celebrate 10 grand years with $10,000.
Now spam filters, especially here in NZ, are not known for their sophistication, so matching up a spammy subject line with a domain which had not sent anything for a while and coming up with Spam was a simple move.
How badly this will impact upon ASB we have yet to see - being a good citizen (even though they declined to use our services) I replied with some advice about subject lines, but of course it was sent from one of those Oh-so-clever noreply@ addresses.
When you are launching or relaunching a newsletter, initial audience engagement is a worry. Using a really exciting and enticing subject line is tempting - because getting recipients to open that all important first message is crucial. In fact, I predict that shortly we will see the arrival of a new type of email sub-specialist - the subject line writer!
Subject lines are another component of the design / delivery compromise equation - is it better to get sexy and compelling marketing to 50% of your audience of good solid marketing to 95% of them? (more on this soon).
To my mind, delivery into the inbox is crucial - so rein back a little with those subject lines.
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Recognition
In the ever increasingly loud place that is email, to make yourself heard is getting harder. After a weekend away from the office, someone's inbox will be full of junk, spam, and a few valid emails. More often than not they simply delete the lot.
What do people look at? Sender ID and Subject line are the two key factors that determine if people notice and read your email - so follow the golden rules - do not sacrifice functionality for creativity.
Sender ID must remain the same - sender IDs are what get you onto whitelists, into address books and most importantly get you instantly recognised by recipients. So give some thought to getting the right sender ID when you start a campaign.
Subject lines are getting harder. Subject lines need to change each time, otherwise recipients will assume you are sending them the same email time and time again. If you are publishing a periodical newsletter, then you are on safe ground - you just need to change the date, and the constant of the title will help recognition.
However........assume you are not publishing a regular newsletter. You want to use an eye catching, engaging and action prompting subject line. You need to remember that most of the good words have already been taken by spammers, meaning that if you use them your email may get filtered or blocked. It is not easy to strike the necessary balance.
Nowadays, subject lines are a skill in themselves. they need careful thought. A good one will work wonder for your open rate, but a bad one may result in many bad things, not least of which could be you being blacklisted as a spammer. So think first!
What do people look at? Sender ID and Subject line are the two key factors that determine if people notice and read your email - so follow the golden rules - do not sacrifice functionality for creativity.
Sender ID must remain the same - sender IDs are what get you onto whitelists, into address books and most importantly get you instantly recognised by recipients. So give some thought to getting the right sender ID when you start a campaign.
Subject lines are getting harder. Subject lines need to change each time, otherwise recipients will assume you are sending them the same email time and time again. If you are publishing a periodical newsletter, then you are on safe ground - you just need to change the date, and the constant of the title will help recognition.
However........assume you are not publishing a regular newsletter. You want to use an eye catching, engaging and action prompting subject line. You need to remember that most of the good words have already been taken by spammers, meaning that if you use them your email may get filtered or blocked. It is not easy to strike the necessary balance.
Nowadays, subject lines are a skill in themselves. they need careful thought. A good one will work wonder for your open rate, but a bad one may result in many bad things, not least of which could be you being blacklisted as a spammer. So think first!
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