An Email Creative Tip Sheet

Subject lines that stand out and body copy that produces the clickthrough.

By Bill Mickey
Monday, January 4, 2010

Beyond the technical issues that could hamper email promotion delivery, there are about as many tactics to produce creative copy that entices the reader to open and click through as there are products that they hawk.

Tim Langlitz, director of online business development at F+W Media, shared some of his favorite tactics in a recent Audience Development Webinar entitled “Mastering Email Marketing for New Business and Renewals.”

The Subject Line
“When you’re designing the subject line, it’s very important to consider how that shows up in your readers’ in-box,” said Langlitz. To do that, he highlighted two tactics:

1. Make the Subject Line Powerful
To do this, put the value proposition, or your most important element, in the front of the statement. “Generally, you’re safe to stay below 60 characters to make sure it’s read,” said Langlitz. For example, “Win $3,000 with Your Short Story” achieved a 34.2 percent better open rate than “Your Short Story Can Win $3,000.”

“The $3,000 is very important and present in both of those,” said Langlitz, “but by putting the value emphasis up front making sure the $3,000 stood out immediately, regardless of how much of the subject line was visible, had a very key benefit.”

2. Keep the Subject Line Concise
In F+W’s testing, shorter subject lines outperformed longer ones by a huge margin. This is probably not a shocker, but the temptation to provide extra detail can be hard to ignore. “The 2nd ‘Neon Dragon’ Peffer Workshop Now Available” performed 53 percent poorer than “New Workshop: Nancy Reyner’s Acrylic Revolution.”

The Email Body
Langlitz noted that direct mail habits don’t necessarily translate to email. People read more slowly online than in print, he said. “This means visuals are critical. Don’t assume the three or four-sentence text that works in your print direct mail package or flyer is going to be as effective online. It’s not because it’s consumed in a different way.”

1. Avoid the Second Scroll
“Make sure you have that clear message. When possible, try to avoid the second scroll. The longer you get, especially with subscription messaging, the lower your response is going to be,” said Langlitz.

2. Engineer a Quick Response
Make the call to action prominent and be clear about what the reader is supposed to do, said Langlitz. “Direct them out of their inbox onto the sub form.”

Also create a sense of urgency. “People, quite frankly, do not go back to promotional messages if they don’t have a good reason to or a sense of urgency. In this type of marketing your competition is everywhere—Facebook friend requests, Twitter messages, Google alerts they’ve set up. Any single thing coming into the inbox is competition,” said Langlitz.