It occurred to me recently that I often talk about how, as marketers, we need to focus on what our customers want to receive in their inbox and not what we want to send them – yet I rarely write or talk about the consumers' experience. This month I have put myself in the shoes of a consumer and this is what I have learnt.

The Good

At the start of the month, I received a campaign from a national florist that gave me a clear choice of offer within the subject line, '10% OFF or 50% Extra... you choose'. This really stood out to me, as it felt very personal without actually using any personalisation. Using words like you, your etc within subject lines was quite common several years ago when email databases held less personal information than they do now, but perhaps it is time for it to make a comeback. Have a think about how you can empower your recipients in the same way that this subject line empowered me.

On the subject of personalisation, I was shocked by how few businesses are actually using any personalisation in their email campaigns. Only 52% of the marketing emails I received last month had any personalisation.

One of the emails that stood out in my inbox came from a holiday company. Rather than the traditional 'Email not displaying correctly, click here to view the online version' at the top of their email, they had changed this into a real positive 'Prefer to see our great holidays online, click here'. The two links do exactly the same thing, but the second link means the text at the top of the email sounds far more exciting and positive. Can you use your web link to greater effect?

One of my favourite campaigns from this month has to be what one dot com business has been doing with their email marketing. A recent change has seen their emails promote a sale on the website at certain times of the day. So as an example, I would receive an email at 07:00 in the morning with the subject line 'today at 10am: 50% off hotels, from £33 + more'. Why is that so special? Well I think it works on two points, firstly, it stands out. It seems far more special than just another email saying 50% off. Secondly, it actually creates some urgency, a real need to visit the website at 10am rather than leaving the email and thinking I will come back to it later. What innovative subject lines can you use?

The Bad

This week, I received an email from a car dealership inviting me to attend an exclusive preview of their forthcoming sale. The message was simple and had one single call to action 'Find out more...'. Clicking on the link then took me to a page entitled 'Sorry. The campaign you were looking for has now ended'. A straight forward lesson in the need to test the links in your email no matter how simple the campaign is. I must also give the dealership some credit as within an hour the link was working correctly again.

On the subject of mistakes, I received two marketing emails this month apologising about the mistakes made in the previous email. Again a reminder that we should test our campaigns comprehensively as email gives us the power to reach so many people so quickly, but what else can we learn from their mistakes? Admitting the mistake and saying you’re sorry doesn’t necessarily damage your brand, it just proves you are human.

I have recently started looking for a house, which has involved registering on a number of property sites for email updates as new properties are added to the market. As part of the process, the sites have been running joint promotions with some property developers which have been emailed to me. The problem is that they are all using the same subject line 'Dear James, New homes in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne'. The first campaign from the sender got opened, the second unsurprisingly didn’t, as I thought it was just the same email again. So what can we learn? Well I would suggest if you are buying data for a joint promotion it is important to understand when that data was last sent to and what they were sent.

Another interesting observation from my inbox, only 38% of the emails I received could be identified from the sending brand when images were turned off in my preview panel. Have you checked whether your brand is clear even when images are turned off?

The Ugly

Since the start of October, one retailer has sent me at least two emails a week pushing different products and providing different offers. I have not bought anything from them for over three years and before writing this article I can’t remember the last time I opened their emails. Rather than talking about how they should have pruned from their list (I am actually reasonably happy receiving the emails as one day I might want to buy again) I do want to highlight that if something isn’t working then change it. Why not ask me why I am not opening the emails? Send to me less frequently? Send me something other than just another offer? As a recipient of their messages, if nothing changes then my actions won’t change. How do you encourage recipient to re-engage with your emails?

On a related point, 80% of the messages that I received were simply offer / newsletter type promotions, not only can offer types of communication add value to the recipient, but they can also get them used to interacting and looking out for your emails within their inbox. Of the 20% that were more than just an offer type email, I got welcome emails, customer surveys, order confirmations and my favourite, a reminder for an appointment I had forgotten about!

It is interesting that actually putting yourself in the shoes of the consumer (however you do it) can really help you learn about how to make your email programme more valuable to them and ultimately to you.

James Bunting
Director of Strategy and Research
Communicator Corp
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