Why We Love Grandpa: The Art of Storytelling in Marketing (1 of 6)

Hasn’t there always been something compelling about a good story? The idea of our Grandpa putting us on his knee and telling us another tale never gets old. Even in an age where we all seem to have less time and limited attention spans, we make time for a good story and someone who tells it well.

And business is no different. The art of storytelling should always be a consideration when approaching your marketing efforts. In today’s market, it’s not just about distributing product or service information, but it’s about getting people to identify with your brand/company. It’s about having followers and advocates, not just customers.

I don’t know a lot about Dos Equis, but their humorous stories about “The Most Interesting Man In The World” had me laughing my way to the pub to order one. TOMS shoes has such a moving story, and communicate it so well, that I’ve purchased several pairs of their shoes. When you purchase a pair of TOMS shoes, you become a character in the company’s story and help TOMS fulfill the vision of distributing shoes to needy kids.

Over the next few months we’ll be going over some storytelling tips to help with your storytelling identity. We’ll show you how to apply these to your email campaigns to create content that your audience will be more compelled to read.

Upcoming topics include:

-    The Guy Everyone Wants To Know: Creating A Compelling Story
-    What The Hell Is A TOMS? Making Your Clients Part Of Your Story
-    No One Likes A Courtesy Laugh: Using Humor In Your Story
-    He Said, She Said, He Said Again: Details That Matter And Ones That Don’t
-    Once Upon A Time In A Galaxy Far Far Away: Your Story’s Opening

With the power of storytelling in your marketing grasp and driving your campaigns (email and beyond), you’ll have more powerful engagement with potential customers… and you’ll make your Grandpa proud.

Email Tips: 3 Ways Action Wording Produces Action

In the last email you sent, what were you trying to communicate? Here’s the more important question: What idea did you ACTUALLY communicate? When communicating a message in writing within your email, there are steps you can take to communicate more effectively. Using action words and present-tense wording is one of the most effective ways.

Why does the body of your email need an action word “makeover?” Because a call-to-action should be more than a button or link at the end of your email; It should be an attitude that is carried through the entire email. There are three specific ways that action words can help you achieve this:

1. It Empowers Your Recipient.
Get away from the idea that your recipients will be empowered in the future. You want them to feel like they’re empowered now, by you, in the present. They’ll want to pursue that feeling and will further understand the need for your service. For example, read this average sentence:

You can manage orders more efficiently and will be able to track shipping with ABC software.

Now look at the following sentence containing action-oriented wording:

Efficiently manage orders and track shipping with ABC software.

The second sentence makes me feel like I have the power to manage orders and ship right now, with the click of a button. More than just being informational, it makes the reader feel like they can interact with you.

2. It Shortens Copy.
It’s been said that when you write something you should take what you’ve written and cut it in half. Then you should take what’s left and cut it in half again before settling on your final message. When you look at the two examples above you’ll notice that I have removed the phrases “you can” and “will be able to”. The sentence went from 16 words to 9. When you remove future tense wording and move towards present tense you can shorten the amount of copy needed to communicate with your recipient and the amount of time they need to read your message.

3. It Gets a Higher CTR.
Just look at this study from “Which Test Won?”. Testing shows that action-oriented copy produces better results. While the second ad is clearly informational, there is a clear call to action throughout which helped it receive nearly twice as many clicks. At the end of the day, that’s what we’re all hoping for, right?

Make the message you’re sending more than just informational. With the use of action words you create a feeling and an opportunity that is greater than any content-heavy campaign. You’ll lead your recipients to the next step and closer to the goal of winning their business.

The Big Red Monster And Why Color Matters

I love Netflix. I love their service. I love their ease-of-use. I even love their logo. I hate getting their emails. There, I said it. There’s just something about that bold red box in the middle of the page.

It looks out of place to me and it seems to swallow copy like a big red monster, along with my desire to continue looking at it. While red is obviously the bold color of the Netflix brand, the “redness” of their email brings up another issue in the world of email marketing: Color matters.

I know that’s old news to some of you. After all, why would we have all these artistic designer-types around if the color and design of our messages doesn’t matter? But do we really comprehend how much the color of our message is affecting our reader?

According to some recent research compiled by Kiss Metrics and pictured in this infographic they produced, 93 percent of consumers felt that color and visual appeal was the most crucial aspect in their buying decision. Considering that we only get six seconds (roughly) to get our message across in an email, the color of your email should be considered as a pivotal part of that message. It should further our interaction with our email recipients and urge them into the direction we want to take them.

Various colors evoke various emotions. For instance, the color red increases heart rate, creates urgency, and can instill a feeling of anxiety. The color blue creates feelings of security and trust, and is calming. If you want something to seem sleek and luxurious, then black should be your color of choice.

So from now on, when you’re putting together an email, ask yourself this question: Does the color and design of this email engage my reader and represent my message? …Or do you have a big red monster terrorizing what you want to say?

Email Tips: Using the Preview Link as a Call to Action

I received an email today and was pleasantly surprised to see a relatively new tactic executed to perfection. Let me set the stage. Everyone has seen the obligatory link above the body of an HTML email that says something like “Having trouble viewing this email? Click here.” Here’s a common example that I received this week:

It’s a common practice (I’ve mainly seen it in B2C emails) to add an offer to the preview link area as a way to increase response. For example, Pro Flowers always adds their promo to the preview link area like this:

The “Preview Link Offer” is generally only included to make an impact to the reader if you are viewing this email on a mobile device or other email client that doesn’t render the HTML properly. What I received today. however, actually made the link a usable part of the email – even for recipients that can see the HTML.

This email from Adobe-Omniture not only used the “preview link” as a call to action, but it was so effective I skipped reading the rest of the email and went straight to the landing page from that link.

Here’s the four things Adobe did right:

1. Font Size: The font was readable in HTML. Most preview link offers are so small that you can’t read them unless they are rendered in text only.

2. Link Placement: The link was butted up against the HTML creative which made it a part of the email which I actually read first.

3. Compelling, Concise copy: A simple, but compelling line of copy summed up the offer in one sentence. Adobe also removed the “View HTML Version” copy altogether.

4. Clear Call to Action: The link text made it clear what action I was going to take – “Download webcast”.

With the constant barrage of communications in the B2B world, more companies should be employing this tactic. While I read through some of the email, I really don’t have the time to look at all the copy. And I’m sure that’s true for many other marketers.

THE TIP: Don’t waste that link at the top of your email anymore. Use it drive conversions – even for people that get your full HTML version.

Email Tips: Outlook and CSS Formatting

I’ve been working on an email campaign for a client over the past couple days and have been running into some fun formatting issues with Outlook 2007 when working with DIV tags and a nested TABLE.

The Problem

I’ve got a table sitting inside a DIV that has a left and right border to create a very nice container look. The rounded corners and the top border of the container is an image.

This screenshot was taken from IE which shows the nice container wrapping around both sides of the content (see arrow).  When viewed in Outlook however, something horrible happens. For some reason the TABLE floating in the middle of the div (and yes it’s about 25 pixels smaller than the div) starts mangling the right-hand border and makes it disappear.

My initial thought was that the right border style is not showing up, but when I remove the table contents, the container looks perfect. So the issue comes down to a conflict with the DIV and the TABLE tag. The DIV is set to a width of 610px and the TABLE a width of 574px. If you notice in both screenshots, the table’s content is in exactly the same spot. It’s the same distance from the right border of the container.

The Solution 

As a general rule with email formatting, it can be best to go back to basics. Email clients often misread DIV tags and definitely don’t care that much for STYLE tags, especially the newer ones. What I did to solve the problem was rudimentary HTML formatting. I removed the DIV tag in the container altogether and went old school – I used a TABLE tag. By dropping a 3 column table in it’s place, I was able to create the same design and formatting as the div. I realize it’s more code, but it solved the problem.

My container table had two 1 pixel columns on either side of it to mimic the border style of my DIV. It’s not my choice, but the results are worth it. Stable rendering of the container by Outlook 2007.

Let me know if you’ve found any other email formatting tricks with DIV tags and Outlook.

Why the ‘Inbox Preview’ Test is Critical for Success

I received an email this morning from a great online vendor – ProFlowers.com. I actually enjoy getting emails from ProFlowers because they are targeted based on my past purchase history (unlike so many other emails I receive). It’s a pretty simple model for personalization and it works.

However, one thing ProFlowers didn’t do when they sent me an email today is test the rendering of their HTML email in various email clients. Here’s what I saw when I logged into my web inbox:

I don’t ever “intend” to pick on a vendor for their mishaps and it’s not personal, but this is kind of critical. The email subject line was compelling. The offer was on-target. Then, when I scrolled down to see the beautiful 100 Peruvian Lilies for $29.99, I got the big red “X”. The photos of the flowers were the deal closer and they lost me.

So what happened? Did the image server for the ESP (email service provider) botch the serving of the flower images? The answer is no. But something in the email code caused my “online inbox” to not receive those critical images.

The email did render correctly in Outlook:

Unfortunately, ProFlowers probably has no idea that thousands of their readers may have not seen these beautiful blooms.

Email rendering issues can make the difference between success and failure for your campaigns. Test your emails in advance to prevent this from happening. Many ESPs, such as Exact Target, and Marketing Automation vendors, such as Eloqua, have a built-in ”Inbox Preview” test that let’s you see how your emails will show up in different online and traditional email programs. If your ESP does not have a test built-in, you can work directly with Return Path or Pivotal Veracity to test your emails.

Using “impersonalization” in your email campaigns?

A number of research studies have been conducted over the past few years that quantify the power of using personalization in your marketing campaigns. The conclusions, as you would expect, state that the effective use of personalization in a campaign can lead to increased response and conversion rates.

But one thing the studies really haven’t covered is the impact of bad personalization, or “impersonalization” as I like to call it. What happens if you have an engaged customer that holds your content in high regard… and they receive a campaign that looks like this?

This happens to me each time I get an email from a particular email service provider (you’d think they would know better!). The content of their newsletter is quite helpful and full of some decent tips, but I can’t help but feel a little unimportant when I read “Hi Unknown”.

As marketers, the use of personalization is key, especially in this day and age. Customers and prospects are inundated with email and a personalized communication stands out in the crowd. But let this be a word of caution to all email marketers: If you are going to personalize, make sure it works like you intend it to. It’s better to have no personalization, than to call your prospects “Unknown” or “Null”.

Of course, this issue goes deeper than just the email. In my next post, I’ll be covering the related topics of data quality and email tool functionality as it relates to effective personalization.

Email Crimes: When “images turned off” is a Real Turn Off

I really didn’t plan on writing another post about this so soon, but today I was compelled to when I received another criminal email  from a reputable source. I bought from 1-800-Contacts multiple times with no complaints. However, when they send me an email that looks like this in my inbox, I cannot sit quietly.

I would like to believe that most email marketers know that Outlook automatically disables images. And because that is true, you might want to have something in your email that is not an image. I cannot see any content or offers and therefore have no compelling reason to download the images in this email (except to see if it renders correctly ;) ).

Drum roll, please.

Ouch. And to top it off, if 1-800-Contacts is lucky enough for me to download images, the formatting is messed up. 

To all email marketers, please learn this lesson: Send your most compelling offers in TEXT, not images. If your customer or prospect never downloads your images, they still can see your offer. ALT tags within images are also a great way to send a message to people when they are looking at the red “x”. And, as I mentioned in my last post, please test your emails in different email clients to ensure proper formatting.

Email Crimes: Formatting your HTML

Not to pick on Geico, because generally I’m very happy with the coverage they provide, but I got an email last week that made me feel a little embarrassed for them. Imagine you’ve just sent our your biggest email campaign of the year and everyone is banking on the responses that you are planning to generate from this campaign. Then, when your prospects or customers open the email in their Outlook inbox, they see this:

I know it’s not the end of the world, but is this the impression you want to leave with your customers? Email formatting and testing is really important. If you don’t have a testing tool to test your emails, get one (Return Path is a good one and so is Pivotal Veracity), or team up with a partner (like Sure Shot Media) that can test your emails before they get out the door. It’s not rocket science and it can be the difference between success and failure.

And just to prove my point, I honestly have never read the end of the email that Geico sent me. It just didn’t matter after I looked at the banner being split in two. I’m sure some people will read the message, but in today’s world no one can afford to lose one reader after they’ve taken the time to actually open the email. Formatting should never be the reason.