Scientific Email Marketing

There was a recent program in the Horizon series on the subconscious. Its conclusion was that you do not come by your decisions using logic and reason alone. To support this we had volunteers being put into MRI scanners with multiple sensors fitted around their heads. There were lots of wires. The thing that struck me was that we do very much the same thing with email marketing software except we use less wire.

It might seem that these fascinating but esoteric experiments have little to do with email design. Further, our results can be tested, proved and most importantly improved by making informed decisions, ironically using the conscious mind, by assessing the returns from email marketing software.

It seems we must accept that decision making has little to do with conscious assessment. It is the mantra of estate agents that potential buyers can be put off a house that is perfect for them by its décor, this despite the fact it is easy enough to change. You can, I am told, ‘see it in their shoulders in the first five seconds.’

There is little doubt that the offer price is highly influential and if a customer needs a 420E cassette filter then cheapness will be the main selling factor. When, for instance, it comes to an expensive holiday there is no such imperative. It is a free choice. A customer will have a maximum price in mind but that will be far from the maximum they will pay.

Text and pictures in a marketing email are there to perform the same function: sell a product. The question is, how can you make an informed decision as to which pictures to include and what to say with the copy and headlines when your customers are making decisions on autopilot.

There are two parts to the answer. The first is not to trust your own preferences, which will be made using your conscious mind. The second is to test by varying content and to trust the statistics from your email marketing software.

Much will depend on your product. Let us stick with holidays as an example.

It is well known that recipients do not study pictures in emails. This has given rise to generic images of beaches being used rather than those from the destination featured. The justification for this is that they are just glanced at.

For a holiday in, for instance, Tuscany images of the location itself are, you might think, an essential. The area is stunning. It will be obvious to you that a picture of a sunrise across fields as the mist is beginning to lift is so perfect that it could be framed and put on a wall. However, your subscribers might be influenced by something special about the hotel itself. The view from the bar window perhaps.

Your clients might want reassurance that they will get value for money. Tuscany will stay the same regardless of where they stay.

Try something different using a test group. Make a conscious effort to trust the returns from your email marketing software.