aestheticsjournal.com @aestheticsgroup Aesthetics Journal Aesthetics To you, the call to action might be obvious, but your readers will only know what steps to take next if you tell them The most common subject line mistakes include: • Clickbait: Clickbait-style headlines have just one purpose, to get the reader to open or follow a link to a specific web page. The problem is that a title like ‘These 7 weird tricks will change your life forever’ usually opens to content that’s far from life changing. In my experience, clickbait titles may result in higher open rates for initial campaign emails but, if the content consistently fails to live up to the promise of the subject line or if it’s considered misleading, recipients can begin to lose trust in a brand and opt out from future emails, meaning you no longer have permission to contact them. • Being boring: Using a dull subject line will offer no incentive to open an email. Remember, recipients probably have an inbox full of weekly newsletters – why should they open yours? A recent study into the best subject lines, by marketing automation company MailChimp, found that people prefer short and descriptive subject lines, 50 characters or fewer.6 • Typos: A typo in your subject line can convey negative messages about your attention to detail and professionalism; proofread your subject line (and the email itself) before you hit send. • Capitalisation: It can be tempting to capitalise your entire subject line so that it stands out from other emails in your recipients’ inboxes. However, online, capital letters are synonymous with shouting and no-one wants to be shouted at. Capitalising one word in an email subject can be impactful, e.g. ‘We want to hear from YOU’, but there’s evidence to suggest that capitalised words can increase the chance of an email triggering spam filters.7 type of titles most appeal to your recipients. You can then use the winning subject line to contact larger segments of your list. Takeaway Carefully monitor your campaign open rates and experiment with subject titles. You should use A/B split testing,8 which involves sending out the same campaign with slight variations of the subject line wording to segments of your mailing list, to find out what Takeaway Always give your email campaigns a clear call to action by including a button or link, for example, saying ‘Read the full story here’, ‘Make me a VIP’ or ‘Book your next appointment’ that takes them through to your website.10 8. Ignoring the pre-header The pre-header is the short line of text that sits at the very top of a marketing email. It often says something generic like: ‘Having trouble viewing this email? Click here’. What many businesses forget is that, if people have the ‘message preview’ feature in their inbox switched on or they’re viewing their emails on a smartphone, the pre-header is displayed below the subject line before they even open the email. This is a perfect piece of on-screen real estate to put a marketing message or call to action to entice people to open the email so it’s important to take advantage of. Takeaway Changing the pre-header message to a marketing message will increase the chances of achieving higher open rates – research website Marketing Experiments found that doing this resulted in a 104% increase in open rate.9 Pre-headers work best when they tie in with the subject line, for example, teaming ‘How to get glowing skin’ with a pre-header such as ‘Don’t miss this time limited offer – 20% off your next facial if you book by Friday’. 9. Call to action A call to action tells recipients what action you would like them to take after reading your email. Do you want them to click through to your website? Sign up to a new service? Send in their comments and reviews or perhaps book an appointment? To you, the call to action might be obvious, but your readers will only know what steps to take next if you tell them. Having no call to action, or one that is not clear, is a common mistake that marketers make. 10. Final checks Before you send out an email to your list, send yourself a test copy. Do all the links in the email work and lead to the right places? Are there any spelling or grammatical mistakes? Does the email have a clear message throughout and have you included a subject title? Make sure you double-check everything before you hit ‘Send’. Takeaway Small details make a big impression. For example, it’s important to include links to your website or a landing page to generate web traffic and enquiries. Conclusion Email marketing mistakes are bound to happen. The important thing to do is to monitor your open and click-through rates and play around with different options, to determine what works best for your business and database. The key is to show your patients that they matter and you care about the content you send out. Adam Hampson is founder and director of Cosmetic Digital, a web design and digital marketing agency specialising in aesthetics and medical cosmetics. Hampson delivers a number of keynotes, lectures and seminars on digital marketing and web design. REFERENCES 1. Aweber, “Do not reply” address? No, thank you!, , viewed September 2017 2. Campaign Monitor, 70 Email Marketing Stats Every Marketer Should Know, , 6th January 2016 3. Experian, New insight from Experian Marketing Services helps brands prepare for the holiday season, , August 2016 4. Mailchimp, FNAME merge tag trick, , December 2008 5. Hubspot, 19 eye-opening subject line stats that will supercharge your email open rates, , updated 26th September 2017 6. Mailchimp, Best Practices for Email Subject Lines, , 23rd August 2017 7. Spam support by Calco UK, Why do my emails go missing?, , viewed October 2017 8. Optimizely, What is Split Testing?, , September 2017 9. Marketing Experiments, Email Pre-headers Tested: The Surprising Sensitivity of a Single Line of Text, < https:// marketingexperiments.com/email-marketing/preheaderstested>, 8th January 2015 10. Campaign Monitor, 75 Calls to Action to Use in Your Email Marketing Campaigns, , August 2016 Reproduced from Aesthetics | Volume 4/Issue 12 - November 2017

Aesthetics November 2017