I wanted to share with you my article or questions I answered for Marketing Profs last month which they only published a few of my answers. Since it was truncated I thought you might want to see my full answers to their questions.

A) What makes a good subject line?

Are length, brevity and personalization the keys to good subject lines? I have found that it’s not this magic combination, but the constant testing and versioning of your subject lines. Good subject lines are not simply conjured by a copywriter and often can’t be repurposed time and time again. Good subject lines are ones that are in constant state of flux and improvement.

The Elements of a good subject line are:

1. Clear

2. Actionable

3. Relevant

4. Short

If you can follow these above four items you are on the right path.

B) Tactics for improving email open rates with subject lines:

1. Timing - look at what times your subscriber base not only opens once but when they come back again. These subsequent opens will help you to chart your course.

2. When do they buy/convert or hit a goal page? By tracking web behavior and combining those metrics with email behavior, specifically opens and clicks, you will start to identify patterns which will help determine hot spots to drive the open.

3. Subject line testing. Are you testing dynamic subject lines driven by profile data or by past behavioral data? The secret is not always in using the name but using what’s important to them. What relevant brands or benefits tied to your campaign? Not shoes, but Nike. Not batteries included, but ready to use. Using specific and relevant brands you might sell, and a benefit-focused offer will give relevance and credibility, setting you apart in the inbox.

C) What you believe should be avoided in subject lines for best results.

1. Avoid being “salesy.” Always pushing your sales agenda will reduce the open rate and conversion rate.

2. Avoid ALL CAPS in subject lines. They feel like you are shouting for attention and not being respectful of your subscribers’ time.

3. Don’t be overly creative with your subject lines. Now this might sound odd, but if it is not simple, understood and gives a clear action or value then it will be passed over.

Tip:

Look at the check out line newsstand on your next visit to the grocery store. Notice all of the tabloids that are meant to be quickly scanned, understood and drive you to want to open and buy them to read more. They work.

Step 1: Keep it simple and informative

Step 2: Write to audience, not at the audience

Step 3: Keep the customer lifecycle in mind – think long term

Step 3: Personalize messages based on profile or behavioral data

Step 4: Inject a sense of action - Use a verb

Step 5. Never stop testing

We at eROI are excited to have another new restaurant opening in our neighborhood. After walking through the new space the other day I wondered if they had a website up yet. Of course being in email marketing and working with so many restaurants I wanted to sign up for a newsletter to keep in the know of our new neighbor. 

Well they did have a landing page up for the location but that was it. Okay no big deal as they are not opening for a few weeks and there was a newsletter sign up. So I took the next step to opt in. WARNING: this might be a new shocker to some of you as it was to me. So l clicked the link and found that whomever had put up the site was using a Google Docs form to capture the leads. Well to tell you the truth at first I thought this was an interesting way to go about it, but then I was floored at the way that it actually went down.

Not only was it in a frame, but it then linked to everything about Google’s privacy policy and not their own. Really odd and rather alarming from a data integrity/closed loop opt in standpoint. Not only that but I have no confidence that this data is date stamped, web page stamped, or even close to a double opt in. Now what kind of way is that to do good business.

You can bet that I will be back over there soon to bring it to their attention and even donate our emailROI email marketing platform for a hot plate of dim sum. Can’t have this in our hood, not with me on watch. 

I don’t normally use an email marketing competitiors emails to show failures, but this one is a good one to have a discussion with you. When is personalization needed and not just something that gets thrown in. As you can see when you personalize and you do not have the data point in the CRM, it is simply a FAIL.

Now personalization can be a powerful medium, but when used as simply as “FIRSTNAME” it is weak sauce in my opinion. Would it really lift this newsletter by using my first name in a “Dear Dylan” (oops they did not have my firat name) scenario? Not likely from tests that I have tried before.

What would have been better was if they knew a releavant article or subject line to engage me with instead of JV personaliztion. This is a good example of why you can get into trouble with using it. When you have a small list it is easy to check and see, and even more relevant is that you need a back up plan for any data point that could possibly not exist in just one record. We often use a tactic of coming up with a generic word that would be inserted into any field or rule set that would populate data/elements if none exists.

Do you think that simple personalization works in a scenario like this? It is a newsletter. Something that you send to everyone, so why would my name make it better opened, read and clicked on?

Something to think about before you engage in your next campaign with data elements.

Have you experimented with Coupons lately in email marketing programs? I found this article talking about them used in search but it felt like people might react the same in email. Just yesterday I got an email from the GAP Companies for a 30% friends and family deal. Typically I do not go for the coupon, not sure why really when I love a deal, but I went for this one.

So maybe the idea that I would like to lead with for thought is could search lead email? What I mean by this is could we as email marketers or just marketers take the terms and trends we are seeing in organic search and paid search and build campaigns and offers around these terms/results?

It would not be “behaviorally” based but could be quite relevant to take what we hear when we listen to what the customer is looking for and playing it forward.

Coupon search clicks: Sweet sound for Web marketers By Theresa Howard, USA TODAY

Consumers have a recession message for marketers: Will click for coupons.

As consumers troll online to save money, searches that include value words such as “coupons” rose 161% in December vs. 2007 to 19.9 million and “discount” rose 26% to 7.9 million, reports tracker ComScore.

As a result, spending by marketers on such search words is up, too. They bid online to tie their brands to search terms so their website appears as a “sponsored link” above the unpaid results or their text ad is to the right of the results. They generally offer to pay from 4 cents to $1 each time someone clicks on the link or ad.

Google, which controls 60% of the paid search ad market and whose AdWords is the largest auction system, says ad spending on value-related words such as coupons rose 30% in the fourth quarter over the same period a year earlier.

“Search is very much a barometer of the times,” says John Burke, Google director of industry development.

Coupon distribution and redemption had been flat in 2008 until the fourth quarter, when coupon distribution rose 7.5% and redemptions rose 15% vs. a year earlier, the Promotion Marketing Association says.

“That’s when consumers suddenly starting saying this is for real and marketers said we need to react with more coupons to keep our sales up,” says Charles Brown, co-chair of PMA’s coupon council and a vice president for coupon company NCH.

Brown says the Web is the fastest-growing coupon distribution medium for big marketers, up 80% in 2008.

How they are searching for sales:

•Kraft. Last fall it added “cooking on a budget” and “value” to its search roster. Offers include $1 coupons for Kraft Macaroni & Cheese.

“We are using some different methods of paid search to reach people,” says Basil Maglaris, Kraft spokesman.

•Procter & Gamble. A brand search for Crest Whitening Strips will yield a $7 coupon. “By understanding what search terms to buy we are able to better understand how consumers are searching for our products,” spokeswoman Barbara Hauser says.

•Unilever. A search campaign linking coupon terms with Bertolli’s Oven Bake Meals boosted clicks for a $2 coupon. It’s been “generating a 25% to 30% click-through rate on couponing terms,” says Russel Lilly, senior brand manager. Even better, people buy the meals: The coupon has had a 30% redemption rate.