As an email marketing professional, I’m always on the look out or trying to think of new ideas on how to engage my email list. We all know that the more times customers open or click an email; the more likely they are to make a purchase. In a world where customers are email savvy and almost immune to marketing, it’s more difficult than ever to get them to take the actions we want them to.
Just the other day I received an email from my alumni association that was, in my opinion, just short of genius. Whoever designed this campaign connected a few small details from the subject line to the content that were so simple, but really worked in capturing my attention. It made me start thinking about the origins of email and how simplicity of a message could really drive the engagement of the customers in your email list.
(click to see large image)
The subject line first struck me when I read the letters FWD. Even though I wasn’t sure who the sender was, I instantly recognized this email as something that someone thought they should send to me personally. So of course I opened the email to see what the subject line was all about.
Inside I was met with a message that looked as if it was written just to me. There were no pictures or attachments, and the font was a simple black Arial on a white background – otherwise know as plain text. The greeting first captured my attention because it used my first name only and was properly capitalized. The conversational tone of the next few lines intrigued me and really made it sound as if the sender knew me.
The copy of the email actually contained two messages: 1) a follow up to my inactivity 2) the original email invitation. The forwarded email copy really connects the body to the subject line and seemed to be the real tipping point of getting someone to engage with the email. There was a call to action in the email to click on the link to RSVP, however I found myself hitting Reply instead. As soon as I tried to reply to the ‘person’ who sent me this email, I realized that this was a mass communication email. The reply-to address was noreply@xxxx.edu, which was a dead giveaway that this was not a personal email.
Once I realized I couldn’t reply to the email, I went back to the link, clicked it and RSVP’d – or did exactly what they wanted me to do. Now, I’ve worked in email marketing for around six years and have never ‘fallen’ for an email to this magnitude. I’m still perplexed as to whether this was a cleverly designed marketing campaign or if it was just simply someone who wanted to send the email through an ESP to reduce the work involved. Either way, there would be no reporting statistics available since there were no images to download to register or an open and no click tags on the link in the email. One thing is for sure though, all they wanted the recipients in the email list to do was RSVP – and that I did.
The takeaway from this email was an appreciation of how email has evolved over its many years of existence. What used to be a quick, easy and personal way to communicate with people all over the world has transformed into a major marketing stream. There are so many complexities that email marketers have to deal with – from delivery issues to engagement to segmentation to dynamic content – it seems as if we have lost its original intent. When you throw social media and mobile into the mix, it almost seems like we have forgotten how to truly email. That being said, you can bet that I am going to try testing out a message exactly like this one to see if it can generate the same response as I had!
