Ristvin Marketing Blog

I’m truly blessed. For the past two days, I haven’t gotten one email with the subject line of: “Bad News”. Ever since Frank Kern came out with his “rubber-neck” technique video on his blog, it seems as though every marketer out there kept sending email after email with that exact subject line.

I have to admit that a couple of marketers were bright enough to mix it in with other thoughts, some even did variations on the theme without using those two little words, but most just copied the “bad news” as a stand alone. I think that most people realized early on that meant a sales pitch email. I know I sure did. I even knew where it came from, duh…

The point of this subject line is to make people open the email. Frank is right when he says that if the subject line suggests some negative event, people are more likely to open an email. Email is personal and people want to empathize with the sender and find out what has happened. But everyone copying Frank’s example line was a bit too much and turned many off.

Having people simply open the email isn’t the whole story and frankly, (pun), isn’t enough. Conversions are what you are really looking for. People have to read the email and click on your sales link. This means that riveting content is what you need. Content that leads the reader to do what you want them to do.

It doesn’t matter how many more people open. What does matter is that the email converts into sales, leads, or whatever your objective is. Often, the rash of emails I received barely connected the subject line with the actual content. It was a ploy to have me open them and I knew it. I watched Frank’s video too.

Many senders used that title line to get me to open an email that was pimping the same product that everyone else that day was selling using the “Bad News” line. A few using that line did good writing, connected the subject line to the content, and made me read through where I clicked on their link.

I think that marketers should quit looking for the “holy grail” technique that’s going to get them the quick sale and boost their profits and stick to good marketing and build a solid business based on their own tested methods.

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