Good Monday morning, marketers. Ready for the week ahead? Here are few news items to help get you off to a great start.
The increasing value of email-generated data
Writing on the Return Path blog, Kevin Kelleher says “the inbox is becoming a go-to source for business intelligence” and predicts it won’t be long before “business professionals throughout organizations will be digging for and discovering incredible new insights” in the data that email generates. “With 2020 on the horizon, marketers will move beyond opens and clicks to developing complete customer profiles based on actual purchases and brand affinities as seen in the inbox,” he says.
Tips for high-performance email content writing
Citing the growth of smartphone usage and (related?) shrinking attention spans, Campaign Monitor says that that good writing is more important than ever in email marketing: “If you can’t write a great subject line that captures people’s interest, then you’ll never get them to open your campaign. And if you can’t explain your offer quickly and easily, you’ll never get them to click-through and purchase your product.” Suggestions include using a familiar “from” name and a short, benefit-focused subject line; making sure your pre-header text is compelling; crafting simple, clear body copy; and make strategic use of button text.
Punctuation marks and email performance
Recent reporting about the demise of the period in digital communication prompted Dela Quist to examine the impact that punctuation marks in subject lines might have on email performance. He looked at the impact of periods, question marks and exclamation marks on open rates, and found that their use did indeed affect performance, both positively and negatively (although question marks generally performed poorly). His bottom-line advice: vary the way you use punctuation marks. “Overall, it’s clear that the winning strategy here is one where you’re constantly mixing things up. Changing punctuation often is a great way to catch your subscribers’ attention and keep them interested in what you have to say.”
Reconnecting with unengaged subscribers
Writing on Business 2 Community, Janna Hartley examines the quandary email marketers face when dealing with unengaged subscribers, who she defines as “those on your list who have not engaged with (opened, responded or clicked) any of your emails in at least six months.” She lays out several reasons that subscribers become unengaged, why these subscribers are bad for your lists and offers three strategies for reconnecting with them. She also addresses the painful reality that sometimes you have no choice but to bid unengaged subscribers farewell.