Telling, not selling

by Douglas McKenzie published 3rd Jul 2009

I was reading up on email newsletters today to see what works and what doesn't and something popped up that I found really interesting - partly because it's something I've always believed in but also because it's something I've reacted to in the same way.

The specific information that I was looking at was how people responded to different subject lines in an email campaign and there was a noticeable difference in how many people opened the email compared to deleting it.

So what was this amazing subject line that increased open rates?

It was pretty simple - '20% off productX'. However, 'Amazing discount of 20% off fantastic productX' suffered far more poorly in terms of open rates.

Now that got me thinking - I react the same way when someone or something is obviously trying to sell me something and I'm far more inclined to leave the shop / delete the email / whatever. However, I react much more favourably to being informed of something.

And I don't think I'm alone in this. We are constantly spammed by advertising trying to sell us something that 90% of the time we have no interest in so we naturally tune it out.

Also, surely you don't need to big up your own product / service / offer? It should be good enough to stand up on its own without any power adjectives so all that is really needed is to inform people of it and let them decide what they want to do.

Give it a go - try telling not selling. Not only will it increase sales, but it also builds trust too.

Author : Douglas McKenzie

Douglas McKenzie is the Web Director at Ignite Hospitality and looks after all the internet projects. He's passionate about findability and web standards.
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Tags : Marketing | Online