Sublime email subject lines and marketing personas
Posted by Simon Gregory on Wed, Oct 19, 2011
In a world increasingly driven by content that's hiding in an email or behind a Tweet, subject lines are more important than ever. So how do you craft subject lines that compel people to open your messages?
An incisive post by Stefan Tornquist, Seven steps to sublime (or at least successful) subject lines, goes a long way towards answering that question.
People open emails for three reasons, he notes: specific self-interest, general self-interest (also known as brand) and curiosity.
"The reason we’re talking about self-interest instead of “relevance” is because the term “self-interest” keeps us on point – thinking about what they want. “Relevance” should mean the same thing, but often translates into “how do I make my agenda relevant to subscribers?”
It's a good point, well made. Any inbound marketing activity has to put the readers' genuine interests first. Merely trying to shoehorn your own agenda into a message misses the point.
He continues:
"Knowing what they want comes from a collection of data points, from clicks and comments, searches and social media. The beauty of digital interaction is that our customers have an array of ways in which to tell us what they want by their explicit requests and implicit behaviors – it’s up to us to listen.
"It also comes from aligning your subscribers into segments that relate to who they and not simply how they relate to your KPIs. A segment called “shoe lovers” aligns with their personality and tendencies in a way that “recent purchasers” doesn’t.
"Once your database is effectively segmented, automation is your friend. Building programs that do one thing well can be very powerful, and it’s easy to write effective subject lines that can be used repeatedly. For example, once you’ve got your “shoe lovers” segment created, it’s straightforward to create a monthly email that pulls in new shoes and related offers, with a subject line that suits…”New Shoe Digest”…”July’s best new shoes”…etc.
Using marketing personas
It's interesting that he's referring to 'segments'. I commented:
"We use Angus Jenkinson's 'marketing persona' concept to further personalise subscriber segments. Using your example, instead of having a segment called "shoe lovers", we'd break it down into 'Jane', who loves high heels and high fashion; 'Ann', who's interested in sporty shoes; and so on. We can then ask, "What would Jane think about this offer?"
We find personas make it easier to align offers to distinct personalities and tendencies. The marketing persona is hardly a new concept - it was developed in the mid-90s and rolled out by OgilvyOne, under the name CustomerPrints. But even today it's a useful model because it makes us think about real people's needs and buying behaviours, rather than abstract marketing terms.
There are downsides to the persona. It's been said that personas aren't empirical (which is true) and, worse, give a "cloak of smug customer-centricity" while actually distancing a team from engagement with real users and their needs. We disagree - but we'd be very interested in your comments and experiences. Get writing in the comment box below!