At my radio network we've been trying to figure out effective Newsletter designs. These are Emails sent to registered users (around 300,000 of them) apprising them of what's new and interesting on our site. The question is - What works and what doesn't work? What gets deleted straight off and what doesn't. And it's turning out to be more complicated than we had originally envisaged.
Let's be clear - Newsletters (after the initial enthusiasm of the user fades) become spammy in nature. And for the longest time now we've been using very verbose emails. I wonder how many people, who don't have time to read friends' mails, really would want a four para mail from a company? So, verbosity is surely out.
Does the reverse work then? Lots of images...clickable images that takes the person to the desired page on your website? Just read an article on marketingvox.com that spoke of use of images in Email marketing efforts. There are two clear issues coming out here -
1. By default images in mail boxes are blocked. There are in fact times when the user has no reason to Download the images cause the root message itself isn't clear without the image.
2. Gender difference. Men and women will react differently to images in the Mail and changes the efficacy of even using an image. An important study by The Journal of Marketing Research was cited (read here) that showed that a well targeted Breast Cancer awareness ad didn't do well with women. The use of images of women triggered defense mechanisms that interfered with the goals of cancer awareness campaigns. Suggestions were of using neutral colors, no female images and starting the communication with 'Hey You'...
However, I'm still struggling with what would really make a user go through and be led by an email sent by a company? Any ideas???
Let's be clear - Newsletters (after the initial enthusiasm of the user fades) become spammy in nature. And for the longest time now we've been using very verbose emails. I wonder how many people, who don't have time to read friends' mails, really would want a four para mail from a company? So, verbosity is surely out.
Does the reverse work then? Lots of images...clickable images that takes the person to the desired page on your website? Just read an article on marketingvox.com that spoke of use of images in Email marketing efforts. There are two clear issues coming out here -
1. By default images in mail boxes are blocked. There are in fact times when the user has no reason to Download the images cause the root message itself isn't clear without the image.
2. Gender difference. Men and women will react differently to images in the Mail and changes the efficacy of even using an image. An important study by The Journal of Marketing Research was cited (read here) that showed that a well targeted Breast Cancer awareness ad didn't do well with women. The use of images of women triggered defense mechanisms that interfered with the goals of cancer awareness campaigns. Suggestions were of using neutral colors, no female images and starting the communication with 'Hey You'...
However, I'm still struggling with what would really make a user go through and be led by an email sent by a company? Any ideas???
