Well I have just been talking to a emarketing consultant last week. One of the things he said was that a personalised email (i.e. has your name on it) is 600% more effective than a general email. Now I know there are lies, damn lies and statistics but that struck me as a huge difference even if you halve the claim. [...]
Halving a claim makes it more likely to be real? Pro-tip: avoid casinos
Having said that... in my years of experience, personalising emails - not only with the salutation but also in the subject line [e.g. "Hey, simisker - heard about our free 'lying telescopic donkey' offer?"] can reap
some rewards over the more anonymous kind. Not as much as a couple of years ago, as people are getting fatigued by companies getting all faux-personal, but it can definitely increase response.
But...
If the key message isn't
utterly relevant to the recipient, it's much less likely to invoke a response.
In fact, if you're not careful in what you send and who you send it to, then not only will you see a disappointing response, but future campaigns may also be affected due to ISPs blacklisting you after sufficiently peed-off recipients go clicky-clicky on "OMG Spam abuse!" buttons rather than unsubscribe.
Which reminds me, another pro-tip: Unsubscribe links top and bottom. If someone wants to go, let them go - or they can create more problems down the line than trying to keep hold of them was worth. This is something that people in marketing have a real problem getting their cute little money-led heads around; "But our list will shrink! This is one of those FAIL things that I've heard the cooler internet kids use!".
No, your list won't shrink, it'll
become more concentrated.
Anyway, before I veer off into the Forest Of Not-so-relevant Rant again, some advice for PsychomIKE:
- Keep it short, unless there's a damn good reason
- Keep it simple: everyone skim-reads these days
- Do a separate text-only version
- Keep the HTML code back in 1990s-mode [i.e. tables for layout and inline styling]
- Don't put your key messages in fancy fonts that you have to have as images, as these images will get blocked and your key message hidden
- Put some thought into the subject line: if it doesn't sound interesting enough to open, all that effort and expense invested in the email itself is wasted
- Use a send address that'll be recognisable to the recipient
- Don't be tempted to push a hard sell... but it's worth putting in something about what your company does to refresh people's memories
- Put the company's registered trading address and contact details at the bottom of the email. It's the LAW!
Phew.
Good luck. There are lots of little gotchas with email marketing, but if you keep to common sense and - above all - respect the recipient, you can't go far wrong
