Is there really a best length for an email subject line?

Yes, there is an answer to the question of what is the right length for a subject line. In the words of Deep Thought, "you're probably not  going to like it". Nonetheless, I am going to tell you. In case you don't know, Deep Thought is the computer in Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy, built to answer the ultimate question of "what is the meaning of life, the universe and everything". Deep Thought was the most powerful computer ever made and took some millennium to work out the answer, it is after all a difficult question. Needless to say great expectation and excitement built up around the day the answer would be given. On that day Deep Thought announced there was indeed an answer, but warned that his makers would probably not like it. Deep Thought pronounced the answer as the number…

10 mistakes to prevent using an Email pre-flight checklist

In my 10 years plus in email marketing I have been involved in sending hundreds of e-mailings and reviewing just as many in my consulting and training courses. Does everybody make mistakes? Yes. Can you make less if you check and double check? Yes. It is good practice to always have a checklist "to hand" when sending an email campaign. I'm guessing you have one, at least an informal one? If you don't have one or want to see how complete your checklist is, try my helpful PDF with a 51 point email marketing checklist. To give you a flavour, let me give you some real life examples of impactful email marketing mistakes we avoided because we did a last minute check. Here are 10 of most worst email marketing mistakes we prevented just at the last moment... Very embarrassing spelling errors (don’t ask). Picture of…

London 2012 template shows Enewsletters don't have to be boring

While this email template didn't entertain me as much as Danny Boyle's opening ceremony I thought I'd share it as an example of "state-of-the-art" email marketing. It shows all these features well: Dynamic content insertion for relevant events/images for days based on location Multi-column design style Accessibility and mobile support through text version Simple social media integration It also ticks many of the boxes in a previous post giving other Enewsletter examples and a 24 point creative checklist.  Maybe something to show your agency when you're next briefing them - it shows a style that could work for both B2C and B2B email templates. I'm not sure who's behind it, but I was discussing it with Tim Watson and he though from eDialog. Not sure how. Tim?…

Subject lines most popular, but landing pages and targeting most effective

Here's some interesting new research for Email marketers from the MarketingSherpa 2012 Email Marketing Benchmark Report:

The reason for the popularity of subject line testing is obvious, that's easier! The research shows that it's worth finding/making the time to become more sophisticated in targeting and tweaking landing pages, that's harder.  …

Basic tactics for building trust in your brand: Part 2

Part 1 of this article outlined the role of familiarity, transparency and accountability in building trust in and through your email program. It also mentioned another set of appropriate "trust" tactics: demonstrating quality and consistency. Well, yeah....you mean keep subscribers happy with worthwhile content or top deals on a regular basis? You might have heard that advice before. Actually I don't mean (just) that. Quality here refers to more than just "valuable content and/or offers". It also covers the quality of the whole email experience, which doesn't just depend on the actual nature of that content or offer, but also on its presentation and context. Here are four examples...

1. Email design functionality

We can argue long into the night about what makes an aesthetically pleasing email. But equally important is ensuring your email retains its functionality and clarity of communication at all times. Specifically: How does…

GetResponse Offers $1000 1st Prize for Email Template Contest

Update: Help us choose the Winners We've had a great response with over 600 entries! The GetResponse team has selected 15 Finalists. To get inspiration from our finalist designs -  click "view entries" at our special Facebook page. You can Vote your favourite and win as well:

My wife is really into scrapbooking and she creates the most amazing cards and scrapbooks. However, no amount of encouragement on my part can convince her of her talent. She believes it’s not her talent, but the plethora of powerful tools and templates available to her which allows her to create the wonderful things she comes up with. Yet, she has the will to be creative and the drive to use those tools effectively. I believe we are all creative geniuses. It’s just that…

Establishing familiarity, transparency and accountability

People with pollen allergies are 23% less likely to click on yellow links. Amazing, no? Well, it would be if I hadn't just made it up. But you might have believed me, given the stat is published at a site that enjoys a trustworthy reputation. The role of trust in evaluating and responding to advice, information and offers can only grow as online choice becomes overwhelming. So how do you build trust through your email program? Wearing my consumer hat, I can pick out three groups of basic tactics that influence my perception of an email and its sender: Build and exploit familiarity Establish transparency and accountability Demonstrate "quality" and consistency I'll review the first two areas in this article, the third in Part 2.

Build and exploit familiarity

One of the things we do when reviewing email is to identify who each message comes from. A clear sender identity is itself a contributor to trust, but by ensuring you're quickly recognized,…

Ideas to improve email marketing response rates by NOT following subject line "best practices"

I've found through testing that in some cases, click rates can be doubled by creating the right subject line. More typical click rate uplifts through use of better subject lines are still a very welcome 25%. So it's well worth being creative to get a better response to your campaigns. What you want to avoid is bland, repetitive email subject lines like these called out by James Hart in his post showing these Email subject line examples. But with so many myths around do’s and don’ts in subject lines, your creativity can be limited, so here I'll reveal some common myths that will help you create more engaging subject lines.

Myth #1 Don’t use CAPITALs in subject lines

I believe this myth stems from the idea that capitals are shouting…

Practical ideas for converting more visitors to subscribers

Bloggers use it, online retailers use it, and social media marketers practically make their living from it. And email marketers? Maybe they should use it more. To quote the ultimate authority on human behavior (er, Wikipedia):

"When a person is in a situation where they are unsure of the correct way to behave, they will often look to others for cues concerning the correct behaviour"

This is the concept of social proof. It underpins the use of such elements as bestseller lists, product ratings and those blog feed & Twitter icons that give prominence to the number of existing feed subscriptions and Twitter followers. All serve to convince or reassure the observer that "buying that product" or "following that Twitter account" is worth doing. Social proof (or the lack of it) is why we tend to avoid restaurants that are empty. So might you use the concept when growing your…

What makes the perfect email call-to-action (CTA)?

The recent post by Kath Pay discussing what makes an effective call-to-action in marketing emails showed how it's easy to get this wrong. No excuses now! Check out this new + useful infographic from Litmus that shows every issue about CTAs you could possibly want to know about. A lot of the ideas are obvious, but the obvious isn't always obvious, particularly when there are other design constraints. Of course, colour and size get a mention, but did you know there is even a law to back this up; this Fitt's Law states that: "The time required to rapidly move to a target area is a function of the distance to the target and the size of the target". I also enjoyed the snippet that showed that buttons with arrows encourage more clicks than those that don't - collectively these small tweaks can make a…