Should You Use "Free" in Your Subject Lines?

Although the adjective can stampede customers, most experts urge you never use "free" in the subject line of marketing emails.

That's because "free" is a so-called "trigger word" which, thanks to spam filters, might well earn you a goose egg in the delivery column.

Similar trigger words include "urgent," "guaranteed," amazing" and "unlimited."

But there's good news for marketers.

As spam filters get smarter, they're learning to distinguish emails sent by bona fide marketers from those blasted by flimflammers.

Smarter spam filtration means marketers can take "free" off the list of trigger words.

I asked digital guru Jason Falls, who recommends rule-breaking to email marketers, whether you should worry about using "free" in subject lines.

"There are actually two reasons it's only a minimal concern," Jason said. 

"First, only spam filters set to a very high level of filtration would weed it out. I'd guess you've seen some 'free' headlines in your inbox in the last few months.

"Also, once you have someone subscribing to your email list, most email systems and filtration methods learn to trust emails that you see, but don't mark as spam. It's sort of a machine-learning way of white listing email addresses. 

"So using a headline like that with a segmented list of people you have sent to before, have opened before, or are long-time list members means the email is more likely to get through than not."

Clickbait Headlines Do More Harm than Good

Meager response rates are tempting an ever-increasing number of marketers—even B2B ones—to resort to using "clickbait" headlines, those sensational promises that dupe you into reading thinly related content.

You know the kind:

What this customer said was so insane it will make your jaw drop...   

But the more sensational the headline, the greater the risk of disappointing prospects once you lure them to read nothing more than your usual sales pitch.

Disappointment never does your brand credit. 

Repeated disappointments will ultimately damage it.

Social Spam Surging

Spammers are frantically spreading their muck across the social media networks, according to a study by Nextgate.

Spam increased by more than 350% on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn during the first six months of 2013.

Facebook and YouTube host considerably more spam than the other social networks, according to the study.

We're immune to the spam that floods our email in-boxes, but social spam is insidious, because it's much more difficult to detect.

And there's another reason spammers love it.

Where spam delivered as an email reaches one victim at the time, spam delivered as a post on a social media network can reach thousands.

A Content Marketing First

According to ADWEEK, Bank of America ran a banner ad this week on NYTimes.com that, when clicked, activated a live Webcast of The New York Times' "Schools for Tomorrow" conference.

Visitors who clicked the ad tuned into a live stream of the one-day event, Webcast inside the banner.

Bank of America was a sponsor of the conference.

An advertiser has never before hosted a live Webcast of a Times conference within an ad, says ADWEEK.

The ad "represents the demand by marketers today to align with, create and use content to get the attention of ad-weary consumers in fresh ways," ADWEEK says.

Expect to see a lot of copycats in the next 12 months.

What Content is the Most Effective?

What content works best for attracting new B2B leads?

Research reports, according to a new survey by content creator Ascend2.

The firm asked more than 400 marketers to rate a variety of devices for their ability to generate leads.

Thirty percent of marketers chose research reports as the most effective device.

Twenty-eight percent chose Webinars and twenty-six percent chose white papers.

A research report can act like a prospect-magnet, provided it asks the right questions and answers them in an honest way, according to the firm's blog.

Reports that don't focus on customers' "common pain points" or that merely recycle your opinions won't woo prospects, the firm says.

Clarity Trumps Persuasiveness

Does your value proposition get lost in a ton of puffery?

If so, you're turning off prospects.

Your value proposition, not the way it's stated, is the key to winning customers.

If you're "talking up" your product at the expense of clearly expressing its value, go back to the drawing board and simplify your copy.

In 2011, Dr. Flint McGlaughlin, Managing Director of Jacksonville Beach, FL-based MECLABS, tested two versions of a Web site.

Version A provided an exhaustive list of product benefits, describing each in glowing terms. It wrapped up with a call to action that asked prospects to link to another page with purchase directions.

Version B—half the length of Version A—listed only the product's most appealing benefits and leaped right into the purchase directions.

Version B, "by reducing the amount of information contained in the copy and clearly focusing on just the core aspects of value," according to McGlaughlin, enjoyed a response rate 200% greater than that of Version A.

"When it comes to crafting effective copy, clarity trumps persuasion," McGlaughlin says. "Get clear about your value proposition."

In Media Res

Attention-grabbing copy leads with a bang; namely, the thing that matters most to your prospects.

Let prospects know from the first few words they read that you can help them reach their most important goal.

Don't start with throw-away statements, in the mistaken belief you need to warm them to you.

You may remember from school there's an ancient technique for literary narrative called in media res, dating way back to Homer's Iliad.

Latin for "in the middle of things," in media res plunges the audience into a crucial situation right at the start of a story.

The chain of events leading to the situation is never related; or is revealed only later in the narrative.

The technique works, because it involves the audience immediately.

Remember in media res when you begin your next email, Web page, ad, brochure, script or sales letter.

Feelings First

Note to B2B marketers: Money isn't everything.

Yes, money informs all business decisions. But emotion propels buying decisions—including the decision to buy your product.

Your product not only has to be the right choice; it has to feel like it. Without that feeling, all options seem pretty much the same.

Leading with the detailed financial arguments needed to seal buying decisions can take the wind out of your sails (pun intended).

So before piling on proof points, rouse your customer. 

Tell attention-grabbing stories of "before and after" transformations experienced by other customers.

Omit those stories and you'll find yourself merely reciting a lot of facts and figures, which feed the brain, but starve the gut.

Sales gurus Erik Peterson and Tim Riesterer, in Conversations That Win the Complex Sale, caution:

"One of the most common mistakes sales professionals make when selling is that they lead too early with proof. They believe that all they need to do is use the brute force of facts and logic in their pitch, and the prospect will buy from them. What you need to understand is that proof has its place. But it should come only after you've created the emotional momentum in your prospect that makes him want to move from where he is to where your solution can take him."

Where's Your Proof?

At a turning point in the novel Great Expectations, the central character is told by his attorney, “Take nothing on its looks; take everything on evidence. There’s no better rule.”

Are you counting on looks to persuade prospects? Or does your copy provide the proof points they require?

To move prospects from interest to desire, proof points are mandatory. They give prospects the evidence they need to believe what you claim might be true. But in the rush to distinguish their products from competitors', marketers often neglect to provide even the most common ones: 

• Qualifications of the people behind the product
• Specifications
• Performance statistics
• Test results
• Achievements of customers who've used the product
• Testimonials
• Endorsements by experts
• Awards won
• Demonstrations
• Unconditional guarantees

Without question, today's ADD-positive prospects want to learn one thing about your product: how it's different.

That doesn't mean they'll settle for your word on it.

PS: My thanks to Richard Hendrickson for inspiring this post.

To Sell More, Connect the Dots

How often do you receive, as I did this week, an unsolicited email like this?

Hi,

Hope you are doing well.

I am following up with the email I sent you regarding IT Decision Makers.

I’m curious if you had a chance to read my previous email and take this initiative further.

Please send over your data requirement and the criteria of your target market to process quality, counts, samples and pricing.

Please note that the database can be customized in exact line with your need.

Thanks and I look forward to your reply.

Warm regards,

Carlton

What's wrong with this email?

1. The sender didn't distinguish his product from the hundreds of competing ones.
    
2. The sender wants the reader to write down and send him specifications, but the instructions are vague and the task sounds daunting.

Want to sell more? Connect the dots for your prospect. 

1. Your prospect needs to know how your product's different. Spell out the difference and help her visualize success by using it.
   
   
2. Your prospect's busy. Make it easy for her to choose your product by leading her through the first step toward buying it.

Clicks Don't Tell the Whole Story

Facebook's advertising director says digital ads can't be proven to drive sales, according to Business Insider.

Although counting digital ad "clicks" today remains most advertisers' yardstick, Facebook's Gokul Rajaram told an audience at TechCrunch Disrupt, "there's really no correlation between clicks and whether people actually convert."

Rajaram suggested that digital ads should not be judged by today's measurement model, but by how they build brand awareness slowly over time.

"We need to move towards a more sophisticated, multi-touch model and figure out how to accrue value at each touch point," he said.

Plus ça change.

Too Much Joy in Your Copy?

Last week, a marketer told me about her meddlesome boss.

The more anxious he gets about sales, the more exclamation points he inserts in her copy.

Exclamation points are like canned laughter in a sitcom.

They don’t make the jokes any funnier.

There's little added when the writer tacks an exclamation point onto a descriptive sentence like, "The finest system available today!"

The exclamation point is a Medieval emoticon.

It originated when a monk transformed the Latin word io, meaning “exclamation of joy,” into a symbol by stacking the first letter above the second.

The exclamations of joy in your copy, most writers agree, should be few.

When you use the exclamation point to modify a descriptive sentence ("We're going to dispatch an exploration party!"), you're misusing it.

The same goes when you use the exclamation point to indicate a routine command ("Make necessary preparations!").

Tennessee Williams used the exclamation point effectively in these lines from Camino Real: "Make voyages! Attempt them! There's nothing else."

B2B Marketers Spending More on Content

B2B marketers plan to spend a full third of their budgets on content marketing in 2013, according to research firm eMarketer.

The firm defines content marketing as attracting customers with “content that is not, at its core, promotional material, but which is interesting or valuable for its own sake” and that's “geared to help businesspeople do their jobs better.”

With the larger investment comes greater eagerness for “sticky” content, says eMarketer.

Personalization is a sure way to assure content is sticky. “The more personalized the content is, the more helpful and necessary the content—and therefore the brand—becomes to the customer,” eMarketer says.

Consistency is another. “Content marketers must also keep the content flowing,” the firm says. “A customer community is like a pump that one must prime.”

Should Your Content Respect Age Differences?

In MarketingProfs, copywriter Sid Smith asks, “Do all demographics respond well to lead nurturing?” They do, if you use the right content, Smith says.

• Younger buyers have shorter attention spans than older buyers, who tend to delve more deeply into subjects. Videos and snippets work best for younger buyers.
• Younger buyers are persuaded by statistics; older buyers by experience. Use lots of data to persuade younger buyers.
• Corporate buyers respond to value propositions that address their need to be right. Be sure to "start with truth" and don't vary from it.  
• Consumers respond to value propositions that address their need to be safe. They also place a lot of credence in social proof. Be sure to use numerous testimonials.
• Buyers of every age aren't rational. Feelings always trump facts.
• Buyers of every age will buy if they trust you; and all need to feel appreciated.

Rule #1: Think before You Link

With 200 million subscribers and climbing, in mercenary hands LinkedIn can be a weapon of self-destruction.

We’ve all connected with people whose self-serving discharge leaves us hoping LinkedIn will introduce a “hate” button.

But one comment arrived in my inbox last week that should earn for its author the LinkedIn Lummox of the Year Award.

She attached her tone-deaf comment to a 100-day old post by the manager of an interest group I follow.

The manager’s post asked readers to remember a beloved colleague and group member who’d died, suddenly and prematurely, two weeks earlier.

The self-promoter's comment read:

Sorry for your loss. I help companies with their tradeshows and events. Give me your marketing list and I will turn it into $$. Call 800-523-4635.

Clearly she hasn’t learned LinkedIn Rule #1.

5 Scary Social Media Trends

Pity the corporation. In an obdurately unfriendly world, it has to maximize shareholder value.

A little thing like a broken guitar can bust millions in market cap. And batter a reputation as well.

Blame it on social media.

"Social media and the technology behind it—Web 2.0—has forever changed how corporations 'manage' reputation," writes Ogilvy PR's John H. Bell in Corporate Reputation in the "Social Age."

The danger, Bell says, lies in "the explosion of consumer-generated media found in more than 150 million blogs, social networks, consumer opinion sites, video and picture sharing networks, and worldwide message boards."

Five big trends affect how corporations manage their reputations today, Bell believes.

Hypertransparency. With 150 million active social media users, there are "thousands of forensic accountants, social watchdogs and activists watching your company," Bell writes.

Viral crises. When a crisis hits, the word spreads quickly, "often with the accompaniment of YouTube videos."

Demand for dialogue. One-way messaging—news releases, robotic spokesmen, TV ads and customer-service scripts—are out. Conversation is in.

Louder brand detractors and employees. Social media well arms the corporate critic. "It doesn’t take a Goliath to become a formidable adversary for a corporate brand," Bell says.

Uncontrollable brand fans. Even happy customers can blacken your name with their online antics. With friends like this, who needs enemies?

Marketers must be authentic and transparent, Bell says, because "conversation is competing and often winning as a communication channel online."

Trust Busters

Without your Website visitors' trust, you're toast.

Writing for Copyblogger, Barry Feldman lists these nine ways to void visitors' trust:

You're doing all the talking. You offer visitors no opportunity to comment. "When your brand does all the talking on your Website, you’ve got a recipe for distrust," Feldman says.

You’re anti-social. You ignore social media.

You're writing for robots. "Keyword stuffing is a certain mistrust trigger," Feldman says. Write to motivate people, not to drive SEO.

You’re not helpful. Givers earn trust; the needy don't. "In the online world, the most fervent servants have the most loyal friends."

You're never home. Your Website omits contact information.
You’re never wrong. This is the cardinal sin of large companies and TV pundits. Don't commit it, too.

You're a mess. If your Website design stinks, "you’ll never even get the chance to develop trust," Feldman says.

You’re using bad words. Feldman doesn't mean profanities, but "spelling mistakes, poor grammar, blatant bastardizations of the language, clumsy sales pitches, clichés, and jargon-laden nonsense."

You're slimy. You're guilty of using the ultimate trust-busters: bait and switch tactics, fine print, aggressive cookies, fabricated testimonials, privacy policy violations, spam and missing unsubscribe protocols.

"You can’t beg, buy or borrow trust. If you want it, you have to build it one article, podcast, tweet, and headline at a time," Feldman says.

Learn more about building trust from my free white paper, Path of Persuasion.

Social Can't Sell

In The New York Times, tech journalist Stephen Baker recently asked, “Can Social Media Sell Soap?”

His short answer: nope.

Precision targeting, which generates ads "so timely and relevant that you welcome them," has "fueled a market frenzy around social networks," Baker writes.

But social networks are heading for a fall, because social can't sell.

As proof, Baker cites a chilly sales statistic (courtesy of IBM) from last year's Christmas season. 

"On the pivotal opening day of the season, Black Friday, a scant 0.68 percent of online purchases came directly from Facebook," Baker writes. "The number from Twitter was undetectable. Could it be that folks aren’t in a buying mood when hanging out digitally with their friends?"

I think Baker is on to something.

Social can't sell.

That's why the oxymoron "social media marketing" would make George Carlin's list.

Social is unlike traditional media.

When you consume traditional media (newspapers, magazines, radio and TV), you willingly trade your attention for content. 

That means ads are—more or less—welcome.

But in social, ads aren't welcome. 

They're like a telemarketer's cold call in the middle of the family dinner.

NFC "Will Change Marketing Forever"

Firebrand has declared near-field communication (NFC) the "new transformative technology that will change marketing forever."

According to the firm, three applications will drive the transformation:

Tags. "This is where marketing can shine," Firebrand says. "You see a poster of the latest blockbuster Hollywood movie at a bus shelter. You then tap the NFC tag to view the movie trailer, download an app or game associated with the film, and buy the movie ticket instantly. Wow!"

Sharing. Consumers bumping their peers' smartphones "will be the way customers share branded information."

Payments. Bye, bye credit cards! You'll use your phone to pay for almost everything, "from purchasing a bus or train ticket, taxi fare, buying a Coke at a 7-11 or paying for your groceries at the checkout."

"NFC is going to make your advertising and marketing so much more effective, as it brings the digital world into the real world," the firm says.

Customers will walk into a retail store, tap an NFC tag on a product to open a price comparison Website, see real-time ratings and reviews of the product on social media, and buy it. 

"All marketing collateral will feature an NFC tag (replacing the cumbersome website URL or phone number) that prompts you to download more information," the firm predicts.

Dan Pink on the Secret to Must-Read Emails

Best-selling author Dan Pink contributed today's post. His new book, To Sell is Human, occupies the No. 1 spot on the best-seller lists of The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post; and the No. 2 spot on The New York Times.

What's the secret to a must-read email?

Researchers from Carnegie-Mellon University studied this issue by sitting with email recipients and asking them to narrate which emails they opened and why. The researchers' conclusions were stark: the most effective email Subject lines appealed to either utility or curiosity.

That is, the emails most likely to be opened had Subject lines that either:

• Indicated the email was directly related and relevant to the recipient's work; or
  
  
• Provoked a level of uncertainty that made the recipient curious about what the message contained

The principles of utility and curiosity operate somewhat differently based on the situation of the recipient. The researchers found that utility works best when people have a heavy email load—and that curiosity can be extremely effective when the email load is lighter.

Since people have so much email these days, my approach is generally to use Subject lines that emphasize the usefulness of the email's contents—and emails themselves that are as concise as I can possibly create.

Perhaps the best advice is not to get caught in the mushy middle.

Craft the Subject line so that it's immediately clear that the contents of the email are useful (for example, “Three solutions to our paper supplier problem”). Or craft the Subject line so that it gets people curious (for example, “You're not going to believe what I learned about paper suppliers!”). But avoid falling in between those poles with Subject lines like "Followup," "Question" and so on.

The mushy middle is where emails go to die.