7 ways to grab customer attention in subject lines

                                                  Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash
 

If you don't capture your audience's attention in the subject line, they'll just hit delete without even opening the email. So choose a subject line that offers them a compelling reason to click. Here are seven types of appeals that can be very effective.

1. Desire for value

Coupons are especially effective, seeing higher open, click and purchase rates than emails without. That’s why major retailers regularly refer to coupon codes offering specific percentages off. Standard retailers frequently offer savings that range from 5% to 20% off, though clothing retailers will typically offer an even wider range of 10% to 60%, depending on what point in the season they’re at. Subject lines that let people know how much they can save are effective in attracting attention and getting your customers to click through to purchase.

Understandably, though, that’s not suitable for all businesses and overusing them can make your communication seem overly salesy, even spammy. So don't rely too much on this approach unless you're the type of retailer that automatically factors 30-50% discounts into pricing like department stores and Gap brands do.

Even if you are not inclined to cut prices, you can appeal to value by describing to your products’ quality. So you don’t have to say “Our jeans cost less than theirs” but can say “You’ll wear our jeans twice as long as other ones; they’re that durable.” In more general terms, you can say that they don’t need to break their budget to look good, eat well, or have a good time.


2. FOMO

Fear of missing out. To achieve that, you have to work in a sense of urgency. Possible applications include emails from mutual funds warning you that the deadline for this year's IRA contribution is approaching or an eyeglass seller saying “This year’s flex spending account: use it or lose it.” It can also work in conjunction with the desire for value when promoting a particular bonus or sale offered for just that day, say “Order before midnight when your 25% off turns into pumpkin.”


3. Curiosity

 The thrill of discovery that we sometimes experience stems from the wish we have to find the answer to the questions we have. Channeling that can be a powerful motivator for someone to open your email. This can be combined with FOMO or the incentive to save money with a “mystery offer” or that only reveals how much the customer will save after clicking through to the site. It can also work with a “mystery gift.” Even without a monetary incentive, you can work off curiosity with something like “See our 5 best-selling pieces” or “How to wear the color of the season.”

4.  Appeal to laziness

 People may not be proud of being lazy, but they do appreciate not having to exert themselves. Subject lines can target that when you refer to easy, one-click checkout, effortless outfit ideas, recipes that require just 4 ingredients, cleaning hacks, etc. that can even be used to market training for a particular skill like “Learn coding on your lunch breaks.” 

5. Appeal to vanity

We’re all vain about something, and that’s not necessarily limited to our looks. If you know what your customers are proud of, you can appeal to that in your subject. For example, women who pride themselves on looking young may respond to “Warning: once you use this, you may get carded at the liquor store.” Fashionistas may respond to something like “exclusive styles for those who know fashion.” For pet owners, you can have a message like “You can always spot the best loved pets by seeing our logo on their collars.” In more general terms, you can always refer to an offer to your “VIP customers” to give their vanity a boost.

6. Humor

 Even if you’re in a bad mood, seeing something funny can lighten it, even if it just coaxes a smile out of you, even more so if you laugh out loud. That’s the attraction of humor, and you can use it for email subject lines, drawing on the humor of breaking expectations. For example, an email seeking to market for Father’s Day shoppers can say, “Don’t get him another boring tie.” One aimed at graduates could say, “Remember how you complained about school? Prepare for something worse.”

7. Addressing pain points

 Drawing on what you know about your customer or contextual knowledge of what they would be experiencing or anticipating, you can use those in your subject lines. When marketers were sending out messages under lockdown, they had to consider what people would want under those circumstances to be comfortable and avoid boredom at home.


There are many seasonal opportunities to address pain points. For example, when a heatwave is in the forecast, your subject line can be “Keep your cool in these shorts.” or “All you need is air-conditioning and this ___” for drinks, warm weather clothes and accessories, or a summer line of beauty products. When cold weather hits, you can say, “Don’t go out in the cold; we deliver!”


Even when there is no particular occasion on the calendar, you can utilize empathy with a light touch by, say, emailing on a Monday with “Need a lift to carry you through the next 5 days? We have it here.” Or in situations in which weekend plans have to be shifted, “Weekend fun starts here.”

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How chatbots have evolved

 

The origins of the chatbot

The proliferation of chatbots over the last decade may give the impression that they are only a product of the internet. In truth, though, the roots go all the way back to 1966 when Joseph Weizenbaum a German computer scientist and Professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology developed a program he called ELIZA.

The all caps make it look like an acronym, but ELIZA doesn’t stand for anything. Instead, as explained in the original Stanford article about it: “Its name was chosen to emphasize that it may be incrementally improved by its users, since its language abilities may be continually improved by a ‘teacher.’”

The reference there was to the character of Eliza in George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion (more likely recognized by people today as the character in the musical version My Fair Lady). Eliza was hoping to convince others that she was something she was not -- a well-bred lady. Likewise, the program was designed to come across as a human therapist and convince users “that they were having a conversation with a real human being.”

While ELIZA definitely counts as the first chatterbot, the term was only born decades later. In 1994

Michael Maudlin invented a program he named Julia and called the function of a chattering robot “ChatterBot,” and the term soon got shortened to chatbot. 

Chatbots now
While users enjoyed their conversations with those early chatbots, most of us would not mistake them for actual people. But today’s chatbots are a different story. 

They’re able to carry on much more natural-sounding conversations thanks to the application of machine learning, artificial intelligence , and natural language processing. Adding in ML and AI enables them to learn by identifying data patterns and then to apply their knowledge to answer questions and carry out tasks without any human intervention. 

Their greater functionality translates into far more use by businesses and their customers. Today businesses use bots for a range of communication needs, ranging from customer service to product suggestion, scheduling, and various forms of marketing designed to engage the audience.

But the biggest area of growth for chatbots may be in sales. In Chatbots: Vendor Opportunities & Market Forecasts 2020-2024, Juniper Research anticipates consumer retail spend over chatbots will hit $142 billion by 2024, quite a jump from the $2.8 billion we had in 2019.

Juniper also predicts that by 2024 more than half of retail chatbot interactions will go through automatically and that “80% of global consumer spend over chatbots will be attributable to discrete chatbots” that are used through a mobile app rather than a browser. 

On that basis, the report “urges retailers to implement chatbots as part of a wider omnichannel retail strategy in order to maximise their presence on a number of key retail channels.”

Read more in  Choose Your Chatbot Wisely

Snapchat offers a dozen examples of AR creativity

 

Snapchat has rolled out AR tools for its platform that it showcases in its selection of 12 campaigns. Find out how they used AR by  reading Snapchat Presents the Most Inspiring AR Campaigns of 2020

How this year's Black Friday is different

We made it November, and now holiday marketing is in full swing already. In fact, many marketers didn’t even wait until after Halloween to get the season started. 

The attempt to push holiday marketing early happens every year, and so Black Friday has evolved and stretched to pretty much all of November over the past several years. Yet there were always some holdouts who would for the super deals on doorbuster specials available in stores only on the day itself. 

Recollecting Past Black Fridays

That phenomenon is what prompted my father-in-law to get up before dawn to  bring home two play kitchens for his grandchildren. I don’t recall what price he paid, only that he believed the savings to be worth the trouble. 

It goes beyond saving $20. He enjoyed the thrill of the frenzied excitement surrounding Black Friday sale events.

As the National Retail Foundation (NRF) reported last year, “Thanksgiving weekend draws nearly 190 million shoppers, spending up 16 percent.”  That year online shopping outstripped in store shopping: 142.2 million vs. 124 million. 

There were always some traditionalists who like to see what they buy in real life and who expect better deals in stores. That’s particularly true of those of older generations who are loath to order online ever. 

New for 2020

This year, though, likely the figures will shift to more online shopping and more shoppers making completing their purchases before the big weekend still referred to as Black Friday.  The challenge for retailers will be not to lose out on the sales that shoppers would come into stores for at a time when people are still skittish about crowds.

However, adapting to the reality of life under a pandemic when many stores were closed for months forced even a lot of the old-school shoppers to embrace the ease, convenience, and safety of online shopping.

That shift is going to reshape Black Friday 2020. Even if stores wanted to revert to the old model, the concerns about rising cases this season and the general advice not to pack a lot of people together means there is no concentrated shopping frenzy at most retailers.

Read more in This is Not Your Father’s Black Friday

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Now you can revisit your childhood on Instagram

 

That's where mattel is hosting its virtual museum.

To celebrate 90 years  of toys, Mattel just announced the grand opening of the Fisher-Price Toy Museum to be hosted on Instagram. While toy museums are not new, this represents a “first-of-its-kind digital experience.”

“The Fisher-Price Toy Museum was inspired by the idea that, whether you were born in the 1950s, 1980s or 2000s, everyone has a memory of their favorite childhood toy, and many of those are from Fisher-Price,” said Chuck Scothon, SVP and Global Head of Infant and Preschool, Mattel. “The intent of this museum is to take visitors back to their unique childhood experiences, and give them the opportunity to relive their youth, even if just for a few moments.”

It makes sense to curate the toys virtually rather than in a physical location now. It increases accessibility at a time when even reopened museums have to limit crowds and offers a  welcome respite from the stress of the present by reminding us of the carefree time of our childhood.

It also makes sense to set the opening for October 15 when consumers are starting to think about holiday shopping. Amazon Prime Day just ended, and shoppers have already been oriented toward thinking about their gifts.Like all museums, this one also includes  a gift shop.

Read more here 

Pick a Pumpkin for Perfectly Personalized October Marketing

  Pick a Pumpkin for Perfectly Personalized October Marketing

by Ariella Brown

We in the 2020s, and it's time for marketers to take a more inclusive approach for their messaging this season. Not everyone celebrates Halloween, and even those who do are likely to be scaling it back  this year.

Halloween is a major occasion for sales in a normal year as close to 70% of Americans, according to Statista,  celebrate. Ever think about the 30% that don’t? 

This is a good year to take them into consideration.

A combination of outright restrictions and individual choices are  taking parades, traditional trick-or-treating and big bashes  off the table for October 31. Consequently, even people who normally do shell out the NRF’s estimated average of  $86 and change  for the day are expected to spend less this year, reports Market Watch.

But that doesn’t mean that October is a bust for marketing. On the contrary, there are opportunities to effectively target customers by understanding what this point in the calendar means to them. 

That means identifying what kind of pumpkin resonates with your customer: Is it  a jack-o’-lantern, an ordinary gourd, or pumpkin spice flavor? 

Jack-o’-lantern marketing

https://p0.pikrepo.com/preview/471/304/jack-o-lantern-on-brown-surface-thumbnail.jpg

These customers are the prime target for straight-up, over-the-top Halloween marketing. Even among them, though, there are still distinct segments, and marketing should be targeted accordingly. 

You have your customers who think of it as a celebration centered around children and who want the products and imagery to reflect that. Think cartoon-style ghosts and witches to go with your classic or plastic jack-o’-lantern.

For those at a different stage of life, Halloween may be about adult parties where alcohol is served and where the spookiness rating goes from G to R. Imagery for that is more realistic and possibly more risque. 

How to know which witch to go with for your messaging? Segment your communication.

Plain pumpkin marketing

The picture above is from the Bed Bath & Beyond site. The classic harvest setup is the one that was chosen for the cover of the catalogue it sent me with the “let’s get this fall rolling” emblazoned on it.

The decor is about celebrating Fall rather than Halloween, though even that can come with different vibes, according to one’s particular taste. It makes sense for Bed Bath & Beyond to target the plain pumpkin type of customers because they make up the general Fall market.

That market is far-reaching, extending from food to fashion, cosmetics to decor, even blankets needed for cooler nights. Bed Bath & Beyond carries items from all of those categories.

For those who want a particular date to which to tie their purchases, this year there is 10/10. As Bloomberg reported, the designated shopping day is inspired by China’s Singles’ Day, which sparks record levels of shopping every year on 11/11.

This new October shopping event is the brainchild of Deborah Weinswig, a retail consultant. She told Bloomberg that she has been pressing for it for years, though this year retailers finally embraced it in the hopes of starting December shopping earlier to make sure inventory and delivery can keep up with demand.

Pumpkin spice marketing mystique

For some, ordinary pumpkins just don’t cut it. But pumpkin spice is another matter, particularly the latte associated with the flavor that owns the acronym, PSL.

The pumpkin spice mystique is not just about the flavor; it’s about building a connection with customers based on anticipation and engagement. Starbucks does it brilliantly.

Beginning in August, Starbucks kicks up the buzz as speculation about when the first one of the new season will be poured builds. Starbucks deliberately switches the date of release each year to maintain the mystery and increase anticipation.

Even brands that don’t sell anything associated with pumpkin spice directly can apply this marketing approach. When you want to build up to the launch of a new product, a special event, or even a return of a seasonal item, you can let your customers know to look out for it and build their excitement.

A similar approach can work for just about any retailer who can deliver the right message to connect with customers. It’s all about finding what they will find relevant to them and segmenting accordingly.

This season, the marketers that show they really know their customers are the ones who will deliver the inclusive and on target communication. They know that one pumpkin does not fit all.

 

For a literary connection for pumpkin spice marketing, see 

From Shakespeare to Starbucks: Pumpkin spice marketing mystique  

What Edison can teach us about SEO

en.wikipedia.org

 

No, Edison didn’t invent search engine optimization. But he did make a habit of tinkering around until he found what worked. You have to do the same to optimize your SEO.

Are we really going to talk about Edison? Yes. The first lesson of SEO is that the title

must match the content because it is the promise you make that the content has to deliver. 

You want to build an audience by giving them content that they find so good, they share it.
Clickbait always disappoints and so would only be shared by those who don’t really read

the content. 

Why SEO is important

People put a lot of trust in what comes up as a result in organic search precisely because it
comes across as information they seek rather than ads people paid to have shown to them.
While it’s easier to get fast results when you pay for ads, a solid content strategy that

incorporates SEO will offer a greater ROI over time.

What people get wrong about SEO

The biggest mistake people make when deciding to implement SEO is thinking of it as a

formula that can easily be applied to any site to boost rankings instantly. SEO doesn’t

work like that.

You don’t just read up on some SEO tips, apply them, and expect surges of traffic overnight.
As is always the case of seeing results from content marketing, you  have to allow six months to see measurable results from working through necessary tweaks

to titles, keywords, tags, etc. 

Improving it involves understanding what brings people to your content, what they’re

looking for, and how they’re phrasing their searches. That can inform your strategy

for creating content that is is is both relevant to your brand and to your audience’s

concerns, so the context within your work is important. 

Understanding SEO in context of your content

As someone who has blogged for fun since 2005, I’ve written about a variety of topics that

interest me without any though of popularity or monetization. Google Search Console

reports give me valuable insights into SEO by showing me not just which posts gets clicks

but which queries bring them to people's attention.

My post on Edison is far and above the most popular post on that blog, as you can

see from the top five shown below. The other four have something in common with

the Edison blog; they reference famous people. Those names are key component

of some of the queries that bring people to my blog. That was one insight derived

from studying Search Console.

Lightbulb* interest persists

Google doesn’t just provide me with the statistics here; it shows me what brings people to a post with emails that offer updates on performance, as well as the queries people type in that drives them to my site.

The latest one offered this insight:

How do people find you?

Top growing queries

Compared to previous month

how many times did edison fail before inventing the lightbulb

+18 clicks (web)

how many tries did it take to invent the lightbulb

+9 clicks (web)

how many tries to invent the lightbulb

+9 clicks (web)

Top performing queries

Query

Clicks (web)

how many times did edison fail before inventing the lightbulb

35

how many times did it take to invent the lightbulb

13

how many tries to invent the lightbulb

11

I wrote the blog on Edison back in 2015 when my curiosity was piqued about the myth of a thousand attempts to get it right after visiting his lab and home in New Jersey. Clearly many
others share that curiosity, and it is their query that drives traffic to the blog, delivering SEO
results that far exceed what I could get on social media.

Keep your content updated

Another thing to remember is this: the lightbulb’s development certainly didn’t
end when Edison filed for a patent on the bamboo filament version. It continued
to evolve over time, and your content has to as well, to stay relevant and rank well.

Accordingly, in 2020 I added several updates to the blog. They ranged from warnings about the Edison sites having closed to visitors and offering only virtual tours to more details about the evolution of the lightbulb until Edison’s patent, including the work of Lewis Howard Latimer, who was obliquely referenced by Joe Biden in the summer.

In 2022, I added a reference to the HBO series, The Gilded Age because the seventh episode
makes a point of bringing up Latimer in connection with Edison. The problem with that is
that show is set in 1882 when Latimer was still working for Edison's competitor. Though
he did come to work for Edison, that was in 1884. He also was working in the New York
office, primarily on patent issues -- not in the Menlo Park lab where the tinkering took
place.

Google is constantly adjusting its algorithms, so you have to constantly adjust your own
content to keep it optimized. SEO is not an ultimate destination but constantly evolving
journey of discovery.


*Note on "lightbulb" as one word. I opted for that here because it is AP style; however, writing it as two words is also correct.

Related:

Make Your Content as Accessible as Possible
7 Ways to Grab Customer Attention in Subject Lines
CRO is Like Basketball
Think Marathon Rather Than Sprint When Planning Content Marketing
Most Memorable Brand Slogans

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