Spoiler alert: This blog is intended for professional SALES people not marketing people.
Marketing people are excited by clicks and opens.
Sales people by action and results.
It’s a big difference and it’s easy to be fooled by amazingly ridiculous (read that old or new school translation!) claims.
When you see blogs that trumpet: “Increase your open rate by 140%,” maybe it’s true. But don’t get discouraged when your results don’t change one iota.
Open does not equal action.
Crafting subject lines that get best results ALWAYS depends on three thing, in this order:
• Your brand’s personality
• How well you know your reader and where you are in the sales process
• Your personality
Here’s a start:
When your brand prides itself on being fun, quirky, hip and modern, yes, you can use humor (gently and carefully).
When your brand is conservative and appealing to a conservative demographic, humor will almost always backfire. You may be fun and quirky but everything revolves around your brand personality and your customer persona.
But this is what is KEY to subject-line success.
1. Be authentic.
2. Don’t use a subject line just to get your email opened and then do a bait & switch and write about something else. (There MUST be a transition between a clever subject line and your content.)
3. You’ll never piss anyone off and will likely get better results with a subject line that is relevant, concise and is a truthful summary of what your email is actually about.
Curiosity based on a clever subject line may increase open rates but research proves a decrease in click-through rates and conversions, too.
BONUS
Don’t get carried away with how clever you are, even if you are very very clever.
A good friend of mine is a humorist and when I hear him live, I’m dying because I laugh so hard. He is seriously and hysterically funny.
But he sends his Friday Funny thoughts in a blog type thing and when I read his material, often it’s not even groan worthy. Without hearing his delivery or seeing his face his words bomb.
This is a professional who gets hired for A LOT of money and even he can’t make humor work when he can’t control other factors.
An authentic summary that gets to the point of your message is is relevant to your buyer will get you best results.
For information on a customized email sales writing workshop for your group, please email
Su*@Sp********.com
or complete our quick Interest form to check Sue’s availability. Count on boosting productivity, professionalism and profits!
