Financial Publisher Kiplinger Shares Hard-Won E-mail Wisdom
Minimal images, longish copy, and “ugly” layouts: Those are the elements of Kiplinger Washington Editors’ most successful e-mail promotions, according to vice president of sales and marketing Denise Elliott. Elliot discussed the financial-publishing company’s e-mail marketing efforts during a session at the MeritDirect 11th Annual Co-op in White Plains, NY, last week.
“We found that if we follow what works in our direct marketing, it works in our e-mail,” Elliott said. Hence the use of what she called “HTML lite” and several calls to action interspersed throughout each marketing e-mail. Among Kiplinger’s other findings:
• “‘Click here for FREE sample issue’ works well for us as publishers,” Elliott said, adding that inclusion of the word “free” in the subject line or the message did not reduce deliverability in the least.
• One-column messages tested better than multi-column messages.
• Highlighting the guarantee and Web security assurances in the messages lifted response.
• Including alt tags for images is a must. Failing to write some sort of benefit copy to appear in lieu of blocked images is simply a lost opportunity, Elliott said.
• “Cutesy” subject lines don’t work for Kiplinger. People scan their inboxes in a matter of seconds; “if a subject line is too cute, their brain can’t make the connection fast enough,” Elliott said, and recipients are wont to delete the message. “Action-oriented, benefit-oriented, ‘you’-oriented” subject lines have proven to be far more effective.
• Little things can mean a lot when it comes to response. When healthcare reform was dominating headlines, Kiplinger was preparing a marketing e-mail promoting a healthcare-related report. There was some internal debate as to whether to refer to “Obama’s healthcare plan” in the copy. Some argued that as the report had nothing to do with politics and that the plan wasn’t solely the property of the president, including his name would be distracting; others argued that most people did think of the plan as “Obama’s.” So Kiplinger sent two versions of the e-mail, identical except that one referenced Obama. The one with the president’s name generated a 250% lift in response.
• “Don’t be happy with your results,” Elliott emphasized. “The point is to test and retest and keep tweaking.”
You don’t need a sizable budget or staff to test these elements, by the way. Kiplinger has just one full-time, albeit “high level,” according to Elliot, employee handling all of its e-marketing. What’s more, the company’s budget for electronic marketing, which includes e-mail and online advertisements, is just 5% of its direct mail budget.
