This is a tale of someone who gets it…and a company that doesn’t.
Zed Williamson of Clear Channel/New Orleans sent me a nice message:
I was showing someone in the office how effective your email subject lines are at getting someone to at least open the message.
The subject lines are worth it by themselves.
I walked past a sales rep as he was typing an email. The title was “Advertising Package.” Or, in other words, “Hey, I want you to give me money for something I’m sending to every person on the planet with no specific design for it to be effective for you.”
It turns out that this client refuses human contact by phone or by person and requires everything by email.
I personally believe they would not have opened that email, so we changed it to:
“This may not make sense for you…”
The client opened. And bought.
Why I am writing about email marketing?
Because the “Subject” line of an email is the equivalent of the opening line of a radio commercial. It’s your one chance to capture the attention of your target audience.
In a radio spot, the opening line is the commercial for the commercial. In an email, the Subject is the commercial for the email.
Today I received an email from a company that doesn’t quite understand:
Holy cow! It’s here! I can customize a newsletter from some company whose list I’m on but who I don’t quite remember exactly who they are or what it is they do!
I guarantee their “open rate” could be greatly improved by a better Subject line.
Are you a radio advertising person? Do you agree that Subject line is embarrassingly bad?
If so, I assume you now will go back and rewrite every commercial that begins with “It’s that time of year again” or “(CLIENT) proudly announces….”
Right?
