Here’s something I would like to say about Email Marketing. Yesterday I received this email:
So, the subject is:
Corso MikroTiK MTCNA e nuova CPE etc
(MikroTiK MTCNA course and new CPE etc etc etc)
Years of copywriting studies, email marketing, how to write effective titles, etc.: all wiped out in an instant. Montale, Ungaretti, Hermeticism… amateurs.
This singular case stimulates some reflection:
- If that’s a code message from some hostile secret service, let’s give up because we’ve already lost the war.
- If, on the other hand, it is the new advertising campaign for the Settimana Enigmistica, that’s brilliant.
- But if it is a business email, and by chance it arrives in the box of those who speak that same unknown language, maybe it gets a fantastic opening rate. I’d be curious to know.
- And if it reaches the wrong target (as in my case), it is still so anomalous that it has the merit of being noticed without bothering.
- As for the contrast between the cryptic title and the definition “the unmissable course”: if it is intentional, it is a masterpiece; if it is not intentional, it is disarming. I would almost subscribe.
Ultimately, to be serious, I am ANYTHING BUT CRITICAL towards this email. I suspend the judgement because that title might have a reason of its own: everything depends on whether it works on its target. And if so, who cares if the title is beautiful or ugly, understandable or hermetic, and if it responds or not to the canons of copy.
Moral:
(valid wherever there is a title: email, web pages, ads, etc.)
- the perfect title, beautiful, elegant, respecting years of lessons on copywriting, exists … but it’s not important.
- The effectiveness is judged by numbers, and numbers depend on the target audience you are targeting.
- if the title makes the reader open the email, you win, even if it’s a bad one. Otherwise you lose, even if it’s nice. And all this regardless of whether or not it adheres to the canons of copywriting.
Sooner or later I will create a product on copywriting, and in particular on writing engaging emails for the reader. But in the meantime, I’m starting to talk about it, one theme at a time, in the B2B Club Newsletter.
The October number is in progress. That’s what it’s about:
- The first article describes just the ingredients to write a hypnotic email
and then:
- the method to understand how much money you are leaving under the carpet without noticing it
- the Asocial CEO: if you are a manager or entrepreneur who does not believe in social media (as I was until some time ago), I put a flea in your ear to make you understand how they might be useful in your business.
- what’s in the customers’ heads?
Finally
- Tips for those selling hardware or software products that require a demo