Oh, those darling emojis: red heart, face with tears of joy, naughty eggplant. Surely they have a use in subject lines for marketing emails.

Indeed, they do, say the conservative folks at the Nielsen Norman Group.

They say emojis in subject lines can:

• Draw attention to your message in a crowded inbox
• Help communicate the topic of your email
• Add emotion and context to a message
• Even replace words — a heart for love,for instance — if used carefully

But beware. Emojis:

• Can be hard to distinguish on a desktop — let alone smartphone — screen
• May not be correctly displayed across all email clients, browsers and devices
• Might confuse people unless you choose only very familiar emojis
• Might be seen as mass mail and “marketese”

Still, used carefully — and with the blessings of the NNG researchers — why not give them a go? At least A/B test emojis and find out whether they work for you.

ALL CAPS: Use it? Or lose it?

WE THOUGHT IT WAS YELLING, BUT … capitalized subject lines get opened significantly more often than upper and lower case, according to a study by MailChimp.

A couple of caveats:

• Personalizing? Avoid all caps for names. Recipients are especially sensitive to seeing their name in all-caps in a subject line, especially when the rest of the subject line is in sentence case or title case, according to the Nielsen Norman Group. Instead, capitalize the first letter of the recipient’s name only.
• Don’t be afraid to use questions in your subject lines. But skip exclamation points.
• Be careful. MailChimp is an outlier with this advice. Proceed with caution. A/B test.

___

Sources: Kim Flaherty, Amy Schade, and Jakob Nielsen; Marketing Email and Newsletter Design to Increase Conversion and Loyalty, 6th Edition; Nielsen Norman Group, 2017

“Subject Line Data: Choose Your Words Wisely,” Mailchimp, Nov. 13, 2013

The post Should you use emojis in email subject lines? appeared first on Wylie Communications, Inc..

Nobody wants to miss out: Adding a sense of urgency to your subject lines is one of the best ways to get recipients to read your email.

Or so conclude four organizations that study the science of getting your emails opened, clicked and read.

1. Urgency No. 1.

Urgency headed the list of the most effective subject lines approaches in a study by Return Path, a global data and marketing firm. Return Path analyzed 9 million subject lines sent to 2 million subscribers.

Still time was the best performing phrase in the Return Path study. It got the email read an average of 34% of the time and scored a keyword influence on read rate of 15.54.

But not all “urgent” words and phrases fared so well:

2. Avoid daily urgent emergencies.

Highlighting a sense of urgency can drive people to act, says Phrasee, a London firm that uses artificial intelligence to optimize subject lines.

Phrases like sale starts, back in stock and sale now can increase opens, click throughs and click to open rates.

But pushing deadlines and time limits can also get old fast. Some products seem to be perpetually on a limited-time sale. Readers become numb to those repeated urgent offers.

Bottom line: Find words that create a sense of urgency, but that aren’t boring.

3. I love you, Tomorrow.

Tomorrow increased open rates by 10%, found HubSpot in a survey of 6 million emails. But quick  did not affect opens.

And subject lines including tomorrow outperformed those including a day of the week by 31%, according to Worldata Research.

Choose concrete numbers and times: Pay last year’s fees for next year’s workshops: Book by 12/31.

4. Be creative.

Don’t just pick the words on Return Path’s list. I loved a subject line from Carol Tuttle that said This. Is. It. Final day for DYT jewelry!

5. Urgent sells.

The words urgent, breaking, important and alert increase open rates, according to an analysis by Mail Chimp. The king of mass emailers studied 24 billion emails with subject lines composed of 22,000 distinct words.

Create a sense of urgency.

Bottom line: Words stressing time prod people to open emails.

So:

1. Use words that imply urgency: urgent, breaking, important, alert, tomorrow, now.
2. Add deadlines, cutoff dates and other timely detailsthat move people to act now. These techniques can nudge your readers to open your email message today instead of leaving it languishing in the inbox.
3. Choose concrete numbers and times: Pay last year’s fees for next year’s workshops: Book by 12/31.

Remember, though, your email really needs to be urgent. Don’t oversell. If you say this is the last time, it had better really be the last time.

___

Sources:

“The Art and Science of Effective Subject Lines,” Return Path, Apr. 2015

“Email subject lines that sell,” Phrasee, Apr. 2015

The post Create a sense of urgency in email subject lines appeared first on Wylie Communications, Inc..

Useful information is among the top three reasons people share information via email or social media, according to research by Chadwick Martin Bailey:

• Because I find it interesting/entertaining (72%)
• Because I think it will be helpful to recipients (58%)
• To get a laugh (58%)

Those findings echo research by three professors at Carnegie Mellon University. They found that the best way to write subject lines that get opened is to show that your email contains useful information.

In a series of “think-aloud” studies, these professors asked participants to sort through emails in their own inboxes and in inboxes developed for the study.

The answer? Readers are most likely to open emails with subject lines that focus on utility, or relevance — on “information I can use to live my life better.”

So how do you write useful, helpful, relevant subject lines that get opened?

1. Lead with the benefits.

Best subject line ever? This one, from Dawn Grubb, got opened fast:

Margaritas today at 5? I’m buying

Opportunities, offers and discounts drive the most opens, according to Lyris Technologies. So focus on what’s in it for the recipient, not what’s in it for the sender.

This one, a promotional email from Portland Monthly’s Shop Talk, had me at Tim Gunn:

Talk to Tim Gunn | Free Kiehl’s Product | Bad Mall Photos

These two benefits subject lines got opened by subjects in a Nielsen Norman Group test — despite the fact that recipients didn’t know the sender (And overcoming sender unfamiliarity isn’t easy!):

Z100 Pays Your Bills!

Lonely Planet’s top 10 beaches

“When users are looking through their inboxes and dealing with vast amounts of email, any indication that a message with worth opening is helpful,” write Kim Flaherty, et al., in Marketing Email and Newsletter Design to Increase Conversion and Loyalty.

This classic advice for every message you write — no surprise! — also works for subject lines: Write about the readers’ needs, not about us and our stuff.

So think benefits.

Benefits words are verbs, not nouns. And the voice of benefits is the imperative.

We learned in school that the imperative voice was the command voice, and it can be:

Go to your room! Do the dishes! Take out the trash!

But used for benefits writing, the imperative voice becomes the invitation voice:

Save money! Make money! Save time!

No wonder benefits verbs like add, open and try increase email reading, according to a study by Return Path, a global data and marketing firm. Return Path looked at more than 2 million email subscribers from 3,000 retail senders over a month last year.

(So, for that matter, do command verbs, like register, download and click.)

Phrasee adds weight to this evidence. Phrasee crunched the numbers on more than 40 billion successful (and not so successful) emails to identify what works and what does not in subject lines.

When it comes to verbs, experiential words like celebrate get top results. Commands like spend perform less effectively. (Because who wants to spend?)

And verbs like continues? Those are lackluster, too, probably because continues is a third-party verb (Wylie Communications continues to be great!)

Readers care more about themselves and their needs that about your company and its stuff. I think continue would have fared better (Continue to become a better writer every day.)

Adestra obtained similar results. Adestra analyzed more than 3 billion emails (free download) to learn which words work — and which don’t — in subject lines.

The U.K.-based email service provider found that verbs like buy and save outperformed adjectives — including free. So consider call-to-action subject lines.

So does this mean that Register! Celebrate! Save! is the best subject line ever?

Not at all.

What it does mean is that leading with a benefits-oriented verb, using the imperative voice and focusing on what the reader will get out of your email is a best practice for subject lines. Just like it is for every other thing you write.

2. Write how-to subject lines.

How-to information is the No. 2 type of content that gets retweeted, according to research by Dan Zarrella (PDF), viral marketing scientist for HubSpot. Tipsheets and service stories — aka “how to” stories — are also more likely to be read, used and acted upon.

No wonder Zarrella’s list of the 17 words that get clicked most often include tips and latest.

So find readers’ pain points and offer ways to address them. Words and phrases like how to and secrets suggest the kinds of value-added service stories that readers seek.

And, though Return Path didn’t test it, How to has always been a winner for service stories. Why not test that phrase for your subject lines, as well?

3. Use the magic word.

It’s the most retweeted word in the English language, according to viral marketing scientist Dan Zarrella: You.

You is the most retweeted word in the English language.

— Dan Zarrella, viral marketing scientist

And no wonder. Starting your message with “you” pushes the benefits to the front of the sentence and focuses your message on the reader’s favorite subject.

In fact, we’ve known since 1934 that people love to read about themselves. That’s the year Ralph Tyler and Edgar Dale conducted a study that proved that second-person pronouns — you — increase reading, while first-person pronouns (I, me, we, us) reduce readability.

Now we’re learning this lesson again, this time from Return Path’s study. People are less likely to open and click through emails with first-person pronouns (I, me, our, mine) in the subject lines, according to Return Path. Researchers found that you was the only pronoun that increased email readership.

It’s about the reader! Folks, that’s 85 years of research telling us to write about the reader and the reader’s needs — in subject lines as well as everything else we write. And still, day after day, year after year, we show up at work, open our laptops, and write — once again — about us and our stuff.

So if you want to reach your reader, write about the reader. Don’t write about your organization and its products, services, programs and ideas — aka “us and our stuff.”

In subject lines, as in so much else in life, better you than we.

4. Ask a question.

When auctioneer Dick Soulis let his list know about an opportunity to help producers of a new TV series, his subject line said:

Do You Have A Piece of History?

National Geographic Channel Wants You

And Angie’s List sent asked this question in a subject line:

How long will your paint job last?

Why questions in subject lines?

When the facts are on your side, asking a question is more effective than making a statement, according to research by Daniel J. Howard and Robert E. Burnkrant at Ohio State University.

That’s because people receive statements passively. But with questions, they actively come up with their own reasons for agreeing.

And researchers at the BI Norwegian Business School in Oslo found that people are more likely to click on question headlines with the word “you” than on declarative statement headlines.

Their advice: Ask intriguing questions that make people think, rather than questions with a simple yes or no answer.

What question could you ask to draw readers into your message?

5. Add a number.

Email Labs ran a split test of these three subject lines. Which do you think was most effective?

• Using Link Click-Through Tracking to Segment Your List
• 3 Tips to Improve Your Newsletter’s ROI
• Build Your List Through “Piggy-Back Marketing”

If you guessed the second, you’re right. “3 Tips” produced both higher open and click-through rates than the other two.

Why? Numerals in display copy sell because they promise quantifiable value. So think 3 Tips, 6 Ways, 7 Steps.

Oddly, odd numbers sell better than even ones. So 7 Steps is better than 10 Tips.

6. Add a sense of urgency.

Subject lines that conveyed a sense of urgency were the top performers in Return Path’s study.

So consider reminding recipients that there’s “still time” to take advantage of an offer.

7. Avoid exclamation points.

The average open rate for subject lines without exclamation points was 18% in one study; those without averages a 17% open rate.

The more exclamation points, the lower the open rate. Subject lines with two exclamation points netted 16.7% opens. Add a third, though, and the rate went down to 16.5%.

Make your subject line work.

Some 35% of email recipients use the subject line to decide whether to open a message, according to a study by DoubleClick.

Which means that this teeny-tiny piece of copy does the heavy lifting when it comes to getting your email opened and read.

To get higher open rates, make the most of your 25 to 40 characters: Show your email list that your email is relevant, valuable and useful to your readers.

Learn more digital marketing tips.

• How to write good email subject lines: These subject line strategies can result in more opened emails.
• How to organize content marketing pieces: Make this your email template.
• How to write a case study: Show what you can do by illustrating what you have done.
• Content-marketing-, social media- and blog-writing tips: Get Clicked, Read, Liked & Shared.
• Think Inside the Inbox: Learn more email marketing tips.
• Reach Readers on the Small Screen: Write to be read on mobile devices.

The post How to write email subject lines that get opened appeared first on Wylie Communications, Inc..

Email receivers have a new definition of spam. They now use the word to describe generic mass mailings not customized to them — even if they signed up for the email in the first place.

As technology and targeting capabilities evolve, subscribers are used to getting just-for-them content. They have negative opinions of generic mass mailings and unsubscribe or delete them or put them in their spam filters.

In this environment, send customized e-zines and email blasts, recommend the Nielsen Norman Group’s Kim Flaherty, Amy Schade and Jakob Nielsen, authors of Marketing Email and Newsletter Design to Increase Conversion and Loyalty, 6th Edition

Here’s how:

1. Segment your list.

“There might be a good business opportunity in creating more targeted newsletters aimed at more granular audiences,” write Flaherty et al.

So consider segmenting your list to offer more targeted, relevant e-zines and email blasts. Instead of producing an e-zine for, say, corporate communication writers, how about targeting subgroups like PR writers, email writers, web writers and social media writers? Or segment those who want to learn more about storytelling or clear and concise writing?

“Because email newsletters are highly precise one-to-one communications, it’s worth thinking of ways to serve smaller (but still substantial) subgroups within your market,” write Flaherty et al. “The more a newsletter speaks to somebody who feels overlooked elsewhere, the stronger their emotional attachment to their subscription.”

2. Ask for details during registration.

Is there a single piece of data you could get during the sign-up process that would help you deliver customized content? E-zine producers have customized content based on:

• Dates. BabyCenter asks subscribers to share their due date on the sign-up page. Then it delivers an e-zine called, “My baby this week.”
• Names. Vets and dog-food producers increase response rates by putting BoBo’s name in subject lines and email messages.
• Location. Use ZIP codes to target nearby conference attendees, for instance. Or filter last-minute flight deals by recipient’s departure airport. Or deliver tomorrow’s weather in your town.
• Gender. Parenting.com addresses subscribers as “Mom.” Why not tag subscribers by gender to avoid alienating the dads?
• Preferences. Give readers a list of topics to tick off. Then send only what they ask for.

If you ask for these details and preferences, use them. Subscribers assume that if they take the time to fill out the form, you’ll take the time to tag and target them.

And give subscribers a chance to update their preferences via a link from the e-zine itself.

3. Use purchasing, viewing history.

Subscribers are sophisticated: They know how email targeting works.

Consider this recipient of a Nike.com email blast, who wished she’d received more relevant product recommendations: “They could have directed me to styles I liked from previous purchasing habits,” she told a NNG researcher.

Take her advice. Tailor content based on previous purchases and page views.

Sender, beware. But be careful with this approach. Make sure you’re segmenting based on good data. As a longtime Blue Apron addict, I get irritated when I get yet another eblast inviting me to give their service a try.

And one Lyst shopper was surprised to receive a reminder to buy a dress she’d looked at on the website — after she had already purchased that dress and returned it because it didn’t fit.

Don’t fake it.

Don’t pretend to offer personalized content. Does your subject line say, “The latest industry news and events — curated just for you, Karelyn”?

Then the message better contain curated-just-for-you information — and not just generic spam.

Learn more about customizing email subject lines:

• Tailor, don’t personalize, email subject lines: Don’t use their names unless you also customize content
• How to tailor email subject lines: Take personalization beyond name-calling
• Don’t personalize, localize email subject lines: Avoid ‘Ann, your e-zine is here’

What techniques do you use to personalize emails?

___

Sources: Kim Flaherty, Amy Schade and Jakob Nielsen; Marketing Email and Newsletter Design to Increase Conversion and Loyalty, 6^th Edition; Nielsen Norman Group, 2017

The post Email personalization techniques: Go beyond targeting appeared first on Wylie Communications, Inc..

Size does matter.

The longer your story, the less of it your readers will read — and the less likely they are to understand and act on it.

That’s according to 60 years of research correlating story length with readership, comprehension, decision-making — even jam buying and 401(k) plan participation.

“We take it, as a given, that the more information decision makers have, the better off they are,” writes Malcolm Gladwell in Blink. But “all that extra information isn’t actually an advantage at all … In fact [it’s] more than useless. It’s harmful. It confuses the issues.”

Increase reading by 33%.

Wilbur Schramm, the “father of communication studies,” was one of the first people to study the effect of story length on reading. In 1947, he interviewed 1,050 readers about what they read, how much and why they stopped. He found that …

• A nine-paragraph-long story lost three out of 10 readers by the fifth paragraph.
• A shorter story lost only two.

That’s the 33% reading gap between a short piece and a longer one. Bottom line: The longer your piece, the less of it they’ll read.

Leave them wanting more.

In his Broadway musical “Fame Becomes Me,” Martin Short quotes another Broadway actor as saying, “Leave them wanting less.” This study shows that the reverse is, of course, better advice.

Want people to read more of your piece? Make it shorter.

___

Source: William H. DuBay, Readers, Readability, and the Grading of Text, Impact Information (Costa Mesa, California), 2007

The post Less is more appeared first on Wylie Communications, Inc..