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Get creative with your email messaging

The easiest way to differentiate your company from your competitors is to speak to them differently. The words you choose when writing your email campaigns will make or break the campaign so be sure you choose your words wisely. Listrak hosted an exciting webinar with DMA Hall-of-Famer Herschell Gordon Lewis entitled “The Impact of New Media on Direct Response Copywriting” that gave participants the information they needed to make their voices distinct, urgent, and relevant. This strategy is as important in the subject line of your email messages as it is to the body of the email as it will help your messages stand out in an overcrowded inbox. Recipients determine whether or not to open your message based on the subject line, so it is extremely important that you entice them by being clever and unique. For example, using “Buy gifts for your family – hundreds of items on sale and shipping is free today ” as your subject line certainly conveys a sense of urgency and promotes your offer up front, but how does it stand out in an inbox packed full of holiday messages offering free shipping? Instead, get creative - try something like “Special savings and fast, free shipping takes the hassle out of the holidays,” or “Save on our best selling gifts – shop today and shipping is free.”

Also, the more specific you can get the higher your open rates will be. Phrases like “Gifts for baseball loving dads” and “What every artsy mom needs” drive up open rates as long as your messages are targeted to the right segment of your audience.

Well-crafted subject lines should lead to creative, well-crafted messages that speak to your subscribers on an individual basis. If you have products that span different age groups, chances are you’re already speaking to each group differently. You might use a more formal voice for the 35-50 group, a more casual voice for the 25-35 group, and maybe you even use chat slang for the younger group. However, you should also speak differently to your subscribers who read all of your messages and ones who read your messages sporadically. Phrases such as “last time you learned about…” or “picking up where we left off” provide continuity to your messaging and rewards your best subscribers with more personal and friendly emails that connect with them. It keeps your subscribers reading your messages and it helps them get to know you in a way that differs from your competitors.

It is crucial that your messaging is carried over into your Alt tags and email pre-headers as well. Both are very simple tasks yet they are commonly overlooked. An Alt tag is the text that appears in place of images before images are turned on in messages. You have complete control over what text is placed in the tags so it should be used to promote your offers. After all, many of your recipients will view the message without turning the images on, so this is your opportunity to keep your offer in front of them. Alt tags may contain offers, such as “20% off entire purchase – use code A123” or “Free shipping on purchases over $25,” or they may contain relevant information on your email message, such as “Don’t miss Listrak’s webinar with Herschell Gordon Lewis on Nov 5.” Either way, you are giving your recipients important information that they might miss otherwise.

Email pre-headers are another tool you can use to promote your messages. As the name suggests, a pre-header is the space above the email message that many companies use for statements such as “Add us to your address book” and “Click here to view this message as a web page.” While these are useful to your recipients you are not limited to those statements. Take advantage of the space by posting your offer or message. It might be the only part of the email your recipients see, so make it count.

Your creative messaging shouldn’t be limited to your email marketing campaigns. If you aren’t already using social media channels like Facebook and Twitter, and if you aren’t blogging about your company, you are missing out on the opportunity to stay in front of your customers while reaching out to new ones. The messages you post on these sites should be written in a conversational tone, not a “salesy”, corporate tone or you’ll turn off your audience. However, if you write informative, interesting posts that are useful, you’re audience will use these channels to interact with your company and brand. Unlike email, these channels don’t provide direct metrics that you can easily capture and use, but you’ll be able to identify many of the listeners who are following your posts and you can track all of your web site traffic generated through these channels through web analytics.