Write emails people will read

Slides from a class at General Assembly on November 17, 2012

Transcript

1. Write emails that people will read.
2. Colin Nederkoorn Co-founder & CEO Hi, my name is
3. Who are you? What’s your biggest fear when you send email?
4. Sending Irrelevant Emails People’s #1 Fear
5. What will we cover? • From Addresses • Noreply • Subject Lines • Transactional • Marketing • Content • The Lizard Brain • AIDA • You vs. Me • Plain Text or Fancy? • How many choices?
6. ACTION REQUIRED: Aspen Sunsetting David Dollar From: Subject: Who is this? Why are they writing to me? Is this spam or important? WTF? Basic Stuff...
7. You’ll need to migrate your Heroku App David from Heroku From: Subject: Who is this? Why are they writing to me? Is this spam or important? It’s David from Heroku! Because I need to do something with one of my apps Important Basic Stuff...
8. Company support@company.com Your From Address David from Company support@company.com
9. “noreply” is for suckers.
10. Subject Lines Transactional Clarity Password reset Weekly Newsletter Receipt Drip campaign Marketing Intrigue or Clarity!
11. Transactional Email Subject Lines Colin Nederkoorn (@alphacolin) is now following you on Twitter! Your Amazon.com order of "The Walking Dead, Book 4" has shipped! ZIPCAR: You reserved Focus Hatchback Flagpole (Inman Sq East) from Tuesday, November 13, 2012, 7:00 AM - 11:00 PM
12. Marketing Email Subject Lines How this ends: Barack Obama From: Subject:
13. Marketing Email Subject Lines Breakfast or Burgers Groupon From: Subject:
14. Marketing Email Subject Lines inside: surprising email split-test results [Copy Hackers] Joanna at Copyhackers From: Subject:
15. Where to get ideas? 1. Turn water into soda in seconds! 2. Leave your gloves on and still be able to text 3. Harness the sun to charge electronics 4. Discreetly monitor home or office with this hidden video camera 5. Keep your shoes odor and bacteria free without the spray can 6. Seal your attic entry and reduce your heating and cooling bill by up to 20%. 7. Potty train your cat faster than most people can potty train their kids
16. Subject Lines Transactional Clarity Password reset Weekly Newsletter Receipt Drip campaign Marketing Intrigue or Clarity!
17. Email Content
18. Someone opened your email... Now what?
20. “The idea of the lizard brain is this: it is hungry, it is scared, it is selfish, and it is horny. That’s it’s job, and that’s all it does.” - Seth Godin
21. Plain text vs. Fancy? w/ Data! http://www.proimpact7.com/ecommerce-blog/plain-vs-html-email-test-which-increased-revenue-by-303/ Plain text: $17,500 Fancy: $4,300
22. Plain text vs. Fancy?
23. A framework for email Attention Interest Desire Action
24. Attention Interest Desire Action
25. Start your email in the template
26. People don’t care about YOU They only care about themselves
27. I, Me, My, We, Us, Our You, Your
28. 55% click through rate
29. One Choice vs. Many? 40% click 21% click
30. The Paradox of Choice
31. http://cust.io/win-at-email Sign up for weekly advice to improve your email writing: Thanks!