Name: Stop making these 15 email missteps now
Uploaded: 2022-03-30T14:00:56.139Z
Duration: 853.7
Description: In email marketing, sometimes even a small change can cause a great impact in conversion rates. Nancy Harhut from HBT Marketing goes through the 15 most commonly used mistakes marketers need to stop making in order to get the best out of their strategy.

Preview_Stop making these 15 mis.mp4

15 email mistakes.vtt

English

{{00:00:18}}
So, we're going to cover 15
email mistakes that you probably

{{00:00:22}}
don't even know you're making.

{{00:00:23}}
But I want to level set everyone in
the room because some of these mistakes

{{00:00:27}}
are going to be horrible mistakes.

{{00:00:29}}
Those agregious errors that you
never, ever want to make again.

{{00:00:33}}
But others, others could be more
appropriately classified as missteps.

{{00:00:39}}
There won't be anything technically
wrong with the email, other

{{00:00:43}}
than it could be more right.

{{00:00:46}}
It's those incremental gains in
your opening rate, in your click

{{00:00:50}}
through rate, that leads to the
increase in return on investment.

{{00:00:54}}
You are going to start to
see the difference between a

{{00:00:57}}
good email and a great email.

{{00:01:00}}
Or put differently, the difference
between the money you're

{{00:01:03}}
currently making and the money
you're leaving on the table.

{{00:01:11}}
Now, when we write an email subject
line, we're usually very stingy

{{00:01:14}}
with our character count, right?

{{00:01:15}}
We like to keep it around 35 characters
because so many people read on mobile

{{00:01:19}}
and we don't want the, you know,
the subject lines to get truncated.

{{00:01:22}}
So we're very stingy, but
here's the thing, we should

{{00:01:26}}
consider adding brackets or
parentheses, and here's why.

{{00:01:30}}
There's a company called World Data.

{{00:01:32}}
They analyze between 40 and
60 billion emails every year.

{{00:01:36}}
And they recently found that in
closing the first word or two of your

{{00:01:39}}
subject line in brackets or parentheses
can get you a 28% lift in opening.

{{00:01:45}}
Here's the reason why this works.

{{00:01:46}}
People are scanning their inbox.

{{00:01:48}}
They see lots of
words, lots of letters.

{{00:01:50}}
And then they see these
brackets or these parentheses.

{{00:01:52}}
They're different.

{{00:01:53}}
They stand out and people notice and
remember things that are different.

{{00:01:57}}
So your eye goes right to them.

{{00:01:59}}
And as a result, you
engage with the email.

{{00:02:04}}
We know that before and after shots
can be very, very helpful for us.

{{00:02:07}}
In fact, a colleague of mine
ran a test, not too long ago.

{{00:02:10}}
She saw like between a 15 and
a 22% increase in conversion by

{{00:02:14}}
using before and after shots.

{{00:02:16}}
So we know the before and after
shots work, however, we need

{{00:02:19}}
to use them the right way.

{{00:02:21}}
Some research recently came out
of the university of British

{{00:02:23}}
Columbia and here's what they found.

{{00:02:26}}
The closer together those two shots
are, the stronger the relationship

{{00:02:31}}
people think there is between them.

{{00:02:33}}
And as a result, the more effective
they think your product or service is.

{{00:02:41}}
So why is that a mistake?

{{00:02:42}}
I mean, we know that numbers
are good and we use them

{{00:02:45}}
in marketing all the time.

{{00:02:46}}
Numbers are good, and there's a reason
why numbers are good and also a reason

{{00:02:49}}
why spelling them out is not so good.

{{00:02:51}}
Both have to do with the human brain.

{{00:02:53}}
So when the human brain encounters
numbers, it can be a very

{{00:02:55}}
good thing because the human
brain craves ease and order.

{{00:02:59}}
And what do you suppose
numbers promise?

{{00:03:01}}
They promise ease and order, right?

{{00:03:03}}
So the human brain craves ease and
order, numbers promise ease and order.

{{00:03:06}}
So numbers are a good thing for
us to use in our marketing and in

{{00:03:08}}
our email marketing in particular,
however, don't spell them out.

{{00:03:11}}
Use the numerals, because you want
those numerals to stand out again.

{{00:03:15}}
People are skimming and scanning,
lots and lots of letters and

{{00:03:18}}
words, just like the brackets
standout, the numbers stand out.

{{00:03:23}}
You'll want to say to me,
well, Nancy, why would it be

{{00:03:28}}
a mistake to have an offer?

{{00:03:29}}
Aren't offers good?

{{00:03:30}}
Don't offer is prompt response?

{{00:03:32}}
Yes, they absolutely do.

{{00:03:34}}
The mistake is only having one.

{{00:03:36}}
And here's why it's a mistake.

{{00:03:38}}
Researchers from Tulane university
found that giving people more than one

{{00:03:42}}
option can almost quadruple, almost
quadruple the likelihood that they will

{{00:03:48}}
make a buying decision in the moment.

{{00:03:50}}
Okay.

{{00:03:50}}
Because what happened?

{{00:03:51}}
You put one thing in front
of somebody and they think,

{{00:03:54}}
do I or do I not want this?

{{00:03:57}}
Well, you know, I don't really
have anything to compare it to.

{{00:03:59}}
There's really no context.

{{00:04:00}}
I think I'm going to think
about it for a while.

{{00:04:02}}
Maybe I'll talk to a colleague,
maybe I'll talk to my spouse, you

{{00:04:04}}
know, I'm going to give it some
thought and then what happens?

{{00:04:07}}
They never get back to it.

{{00:04:08}}
So you want to have
more than one option.

{{00:04:11}}
Hey, you want 20% off?

{{00:04:12}}
And people see that and
they're like, oh, I don't know.

{{00:04:14}}
Do I want to get something?

{{00:04:15}}
Or do I not?

{{00:04:16}}
You know, do I want to
buy, do I not want to buy?

{{00:04:18}}
But when they say, well, would
you prefer $20 off or $100 off?

{{00:04:23}}
The person who's deciding
between those two offers.

{{00:04:30}}
So this is a mistake that I see a lot
with art directors and designers and

{{00:04:34}}
their heart is in the right place.

{{00:04:35}}
You know, they're thinking, ah,
coupons with those dash lines,

{{00:04:38}}
you know, those dotted line
borders, they're kind of ugly.

{{00:04:41}}
I'm going to take care
of your coupon for you.

{{00:04:43}}
Mr.

{{00:04:43}}
Email marketer, Mrs.

{{00:04:44}}
Email marketer.

{{00:04:45}}
I'm going to make it
look really pretty.

{{00:04:46}}
It's going to look really nice
and it's going to blend in

{{00:04:48}}
with the rest of the email.

{{00:04:50}}
Well, yes, it looks really pretty
and it blends in, but it's a mistake.

{{00:04:54}}
And the reason it's a mistake is you're
sacrificing automatic readership.

{{00:04:58}}
Starch is the company that
measures magazine ad readership.

{{00:05:01}}
They found that you can have
two ads, the exact same two ads,

{{00:05:05}}
the only difference is one has
a coupon, the other one doesn't.

{{00:05:08}}
What they found is the one with
the coupon gets a 23% increase

{{00:05:12}}
in readership regardless.

{{00:05:15}}
Regardless of what if any
value is inside that dash line.

{{00:05:19}}
We're so used to finding
something of value, something

{{00:05:22}}
important inside that dash line,
we don't even think about it.

{{00:05:24}}
We just go to it.

{{00:05:26}}
So I tell my clients, if you have
something that you absolutely want

{{00:05:29}}
to make sure that your customers
don't miss put it in a dashboard.

{{00:05:33}}
It's human nature.

{{00:05:34}}
We can't resist.

{{00:05:34}}
We just go.

{{00:05:35}}
We take a look.

{{00:05:39}}
First of all, Nancy, what is an
automatic compliance trigger?

{{00:05:42}}
It's a mouthful of a phrase,
but what exactly is it?

{{00:05:44}}
Well, an automatic compliance trigger
is something that makes people

{{00:05:48}}
automatically, instinctively comply.

{{00:05:52}}
They say yes, they agree.

{{00:05:54}}
And an automatic compliance
trigger is the word because.

{{00:05:57}}
It's a matter of fact, there's
a Harvard university researcher,

{{00:05:59}}
her name is Ellen Langer.

{{00:06:01}}
She found that when people see or
hear the word, because, we just

{{00:06:04}}
right away, we start to nod up and
down like little bobbleheads without

{{00:06:08}}
fully processing what comes next.

{{00:06:09}}
We just assume whatever it comes
out to that word is a good,

{{00:06:12}}
logical, legitimate reason.

{{00:06:14}}
And we go with it.

{{00:06:18}}
This is a tough one for marketers of
all stripes, you know, email marketers,

{{00:06:21}}
content marketers, brand marketers
even, the thing is we love our products

{{00:06:27}}
and services and we believe in them.

{{00:06:28}}
And as a result, we want to
tell everyone about them, right?

{{00:06:31}}
We're so enthusiastic about them.

{{00:06:33}}
We want to tell every customer, every
prospect, everything we can, we want

{{00:06:36}}
them to know everything that we know.

{{00:06:38}}
It comes from a good place.

{{00:06:39}}
The problem is people
aren't interested, right?

{{00:06:42}}
They're interested in
WIIFM, what's in it for me?

{{00:06:44}}
They don't want to know
everything you want to tell them.

{{00:06:46}}
They want to know the one
thing they're looking for.

{{00:06:49}}
And so what that means is we
need to be very you-focused

{{00:06:52}}
in our email marketing copy.

{{00:06:54}}
We need to put it through a lens
of our customers and our prospects.

{{00:06:58}}
Downplay your use of we, our company,
our product, our service, and really

{{00:07:04}}
increase your use of the word, you.

{{00:07:06}}
World Data finds you-focused email
copy can get you a 16% increase

{{00:07:11}}
in your click through rate.

{{00:07:12}}
So easy on the we, I, our company,
our product boost the yous.

{{00:07:21}}
Let me quickly tell you that
the F word is the word free.

{{00:07:25}}
And I know that some marketers
don't like to use it, they feel, you

{{00:07:28}}
know, do I have to resort to giving
something away, you know, for free?

{{00:07:30}}
Is it going to cheapen my brand?

{{00:07:33}}
You know, just, you know,
and it sounds, it doesn't

{{00:07:35}}
sound all that classy.

{{00:07:36}}
I really don't want to use it.

{{00:07:38}}
And those are legitimate
concerns for a marketer.

{{00:07:40}}
They absolutely are.

{{00:07:42}}
Dan Ariely, who's a world renowned
behavioral economist, has done some

{{00:07:46}}
investigation into the word free.

{{00:07:48}}
In fact, he's written the
New York times bestselling

{{00:07:50}}
book, Predictably Irrational.

{{00:07:51}}
And in that book, he devotes
an entire chapter to the

{{00:07:54}}
pulling power of the word free.

{{00:07:55}}
What he found was free produces
such an emotional charge in us

{{00:07:59}}
that we find it almost impossible
to resist something for free.

{{00:08:04}}
If it cost even a couple of pennies,
we might not be interested, but

{{00:08:07}}
if it's free, we have to have it.

{{00:08:10}}
And that means it is email marketers
we should consider using the word free.

{{00:08:13}}
You can use the word free or
complimentary in your subject line.

{{00:08:17}}
But when you use the word free,
you get twice as many opens.

{{00:08:22}}
As some of you might be saying.

{{00:08:23}}
Yeah, but it doesn't that
trigger the spam filters?

{{00:08:26}}
It did at one time, it absolutely did.

{{00:08:29}}
But times have changed.

{{00:08:30}}
And for the last five or so
years, World Data has found

{{00:08:33}}
that free is the top performing,
the top performing subject line

{{00:08:37}}
word in the English language.

{{00:08:42}}
We all-cap an email, yeah, people are
gonna think we're yelling, but what you

{{00:08:46}}
can do is you can all-cap one or two
words in your subject line, no fewer or

{{00:08:52}}
no more I should say, no more than 50%.

{{00:08:54}}
You want to have fewer than half of the
words in your subject line, all-caps.

{{00:08:57}}
If you all-cap one or two, you
can get anywhere between an 18 and

{{00:09:00}}
a 21% lift in your opening rate.

{{00:09:03}}
Here's the reason why.

{{00:09:04}}
It's the same reason that
the bracket stand out.

{{00:09:06}}
It's the same reason that
the numerals standout.

{{00:09:08}}
That all-capped word jumps out.

{{00:09:11}}
People are scanning their inbox
in that all-cap word jumps out.

{{00:09:14}}
They pay attention and we notice
and remember things that stand out.

{{00:09:22}}
Behavioral scientists have found
that people are twice as motivated

{{00:09:27}}
to avoid the pain of loss as they
are to achieve the pleasure of gain.

{{00:09:31}}
So here we are in our emails
and most of our marketing and

{{00:09:34}}
we're focused on the gains.

{{00:09:35}}
All these wonderful things will happen.

{{00:09:37}}
But it turns out that people are
twice as motivated to avoid losses.

{{00:09:40}}
If we were in Vegas, if we're playing
the slot machines, in fact, if we're

{{00:09:43}}
right down the street, playing the
slot machines, and we won a hundred

{{00:09:46}}
dollars, but maybe on a scale of
one to 10, that would be a five.

{{00:09:49}}
If we lost a hundred dollars,
it wouldn't be a negative five.

{{00:09:53}}
It would feel, it'll
registered like a negative 10.

{{00:09:56}}
We feel those losses
twice as powerfully.

{{00:09:57}}
And as a result, we're that much
more motivated to avoid them.

{{00:10:01}}
Please don't walk out of your
saying, well, Nancy said we

{{00:10:02}}
don't need benefits anymore.

{{00:10:04}}
We do need benefits, but we
also need to factor something

{{00:10:07}}
else into our thinking.

{{00:10:09}}
And that is the idea of
loss of loss aversion.

{{00:10:13}}
Why?

{{00:10:14}}
So the mistake of emphasised savings.

{{00:10:16}}
People like to save money
and you're not wrong.

{{00:10:18}}
People do like to save money.

{{00:10:21}}
However, what they like even
more than saving money is not

{{00:10:27}}
pouring money down the drain.

{{00:10:28}}
Okay.

{{00:10:28}}
As much as we like to save
money, what we really like

{{00:10:31}}
to do is avoid overpaying.

{{00:10:32}}
Nothing bugs us more than
finding out that the person next

{{00:10:35}}
to us paid less for the exact
same thing that we paid for.

{{00:10:39}}
The difference between saving
and not paying extra is a small

{{00:10:43}}
one, but a very important one.

{{00:10:45}}
And it's a more motivating one.

{{00:10:52}}
There'san economist.

{{00:10:52}}
His name is Richard Thaler,
and he recently won the Nobel

{{00:10:55}}
prize as a matter of fact.

{{00:10:56}}
He identified something
known as the endowment effect

{{00:10:59}}
and here's what he found.

{{00:11:00}}
He found that we place greater
value on something that's already

{{00:11:03}}
ours, something that we already own.

{{00:11:06}}
If there's something that I want
to get, well, obviously I value

{{00:11:08}}
it, that's, why I want to get it,
but once it's mine, I value it

{{00:11:12}}
even more because it's mine, the
possession makes us value it more.

{{00:11:15}}
And so, as a result as email
marketers or as any kind of

{{00:11:18}}
marketers really, we have an
opportunity to emphasise possession.

{{00:11:21}}
So the difference between I, as
the marketer, I'm going to take 25

{{00:11:27}}
bucks off when you make a purchase,
and you as a customer already

{{00:11:31}}
have this money sitting in your
account that you're going to lose

{{00:11:34}}
if you don't use it is huge, right?

{{00:11:36}}
If it's mine, I don't want to lose it.

{{00:11:38}}
I'm going to use it.

{{00:11:39}}
If it's the marketer saying,
hey, make a purchase and then

{{00:11:41}}
I'll give you 25 off or I'll take
that off, it's not as motivating.

{{00:11:45}}
So use the endowment effect.

{{00:11:50}}
It's not always a mistake.

{{00:11:51}}
It's only a mistake when you
choose a good testimonial

{{00:11:55}}
instead of a great testimonial.

{{00:11:57}}
All right.

{{00:11:57}}
So our next question is, well,
then what's a great testimonial?

{{00:12:00}}
Well, a great testimonial is one
that expresses some skepticism

{{00:12:03}}
because when people are going to
be looking at your testimonials,

{{00:12:05}}
it's because they're on the cusp.

{{00:12:07}}
They're thinking, do I, or do I
not want to make this purchase?

{{00:12:10}}
You know, can I use this?

{{00:12:11}}
Is this the right company?

{{00:12:13}}
Is it any better than
a competing product?

{{00:12:15}}
Is it any better than
what I currently have?

{{00:12:16}}
Is the price right?

{{00:12:17}}
They're wondering all
these kinds of things.

{{00:12:19}}
And they're also wondering, is it
as good as the marketer says it is?

{{00:12:22}}
Because it's a marketer,
who's saying it right.

{{00:12:24}}
They wonder all of this.

{{00:12:25}}
And if you can have a testimonial that
starts there and brings them to the

{{00:12:29}}
conclusion that they should make a
purchase, that is a great testimonial.

{{00:12:37}}
There's a researcher named Matt
McGlone and he did a deep dive into

{{00:12:40}}
something called rhyme is reason bias.

{{00:12:42}}
And here's what he found.

{{00:12:43}}
He found, they have two sentences.

{{00:12:45}}
They both say or mean the same
thing, but one of them rhymes

{{00:12:48}}
and the other one doesn't.

{{00:12:49}}
People will judge the rhyming
sentence to be the more truthful

{{00:12:54}}
expression, the more accurate
expression, because something

{{00:12:57}}
interesting happens when the human
brain encounter something that rhymes.

{{00:13:00}}
When the human brain encounter
something that rhymes, the brain

{{00:13:03}}
finds it easier to process.

{{00:13:05}}
And when something is easier
to process, it feels right.

{{00:13:08}}
And if something feels right, it's not
a huge leap to assume that it is right.

{{00:13:13}}
And that means a little well-placed
rhyme can go a long way.

{{00:13:16}}
So I'm not saying you should
write your emails in rhyme.

{{00:13:19}}
In fact, I'm suggesting you don't
write the entire email in rhyme,

{{00:13:22}}
but some well-placed rhyme may,
maybe it's your subject line,

{{00:13:25}}
maybe it's your called action.

{{00:13:27}}
Don't delay, sign up today.

{{00:13:32}}
Is it really such a tragedy
if there's a tiny misspelling?

{{00:13:35}}
Are people not going to
understand what I'm saying?

{{00:13:38}}
I mean, come on.

{{00:13:39}}
They'll still get it right?

{{00:13:41}}
Yes, they will.

{{00:13:42}}
They'll still get what
you're trying to say.

{{00:13:44}}
They're also going to get something
that you don't want them to

{{00:13:46}}
get, that you don't want to say.

{{00:13:48}}
So don't, they'll understand what
you're saying, because according to

{{00:13:50}}
researchers at Cambridge university,
it doesn't matter in what order

{{00:13:52}}
the letters in a word are, the only
important thing is that the first and

{{00:13:55}}
last letter be at the right place.

{{00:13:56}}
How about that?

{{00:13:57}}
That's pretty cool.

{{00:13:58}}
Isn't it?

{{00:13:59}}
So they'll get it.

{{00:13:59}}
They'll get it.

{{00:14:00}}
If something is misspelled, but they'll
also come away with another bit of

{{00:14:05}}
information that you didn't intend.

So, we're going to cover 15
email mistakes that you probably

But I want to level set everyone in
the room because some of these mistakes

Those agregious errors that you
never, ever want to make again.

But others, others could be more
appropriately classified as missteps.

There won't be anything technically
wrong with the email, other

It's those incremental gains in
your opening rate, in your click

through rate, that leads to the
increase in return on investment.

You are going to start to
see the difference between a

Or put differently, the difference
between the money you're

currently making and the money
you're leaving on the table.

Now, when we write an email subject
line, we're usually very stingy

We like to keep it around 35 characters
because so many people read on mobile

and we don't want the, you know,
the subject lines to get truncated.

So we're very stingy, but
here's the thing, we should

consider adding brackets or
parentheses, and here's why.

They analyze between 40 and
60 billion emails every year.

And they recently found that in
closing the first word or two of your

subject line in brackets or parentheses
can get you a 28% lift in opening.

And then they see these
brackets or these parentheses.

They stand out and people notice and
remember things that are different.

And as a result, you
engage with the email.

We know that before and after shots
can be very, very helpful for us.

In fact, a colleague of mine
ran a test, not too long ago.

She saw like between a 15 and
a 22% increase in conversion by

So we know the before and after
shots work, however, we need

Some research recently came out
of the university of British

The closer together those two shots
are, the stronger the relationship

And as a result, the more effective
they think your product or service is.

I mean, we know that numbers
are good and we use them

Numbers are good, and there's a reason
why numbers are good and also a reason

So when the human brain encounters
numbers, it can be a very

good thing because the human
brain craves ease and order.

So the human brain craves ease and
order, numbers promise ease and order.

So numbers are a good thing for
us to use in our marketing and in

our email marketing in particular,
however, don't spell them out.

Use the numerals, because you want
those numerals to stand out again.

People are skimming and scanning,
lots and lots of letters and

words, just like the brackets
standout, the numbers stand out.

You'll want to say to me,
well, Nancy, why would it be

Researchers from Tulane university
found that giving people more than one

option can almost quadruple, almost
quadruple the likelihood that they will

You put one thing in front
of somebody and they think,

Well, you know, I don't really
have anything to compare it to.

I think I'm going to think
about it for a while.

Maybe I'll talk to a colleague,
maybe I'll talk to my spouse, you

know, I'm going to give it some
thought and then what happens?

So you want to have
more than one option.

And people see that and
they're like, oh, I don't know.

You know, do I want to
buy, do I not want to buy?

But when they say, well, would
you prefer $20 off or $100 off?

The person who's deciding
between those two offers.

So this is a mistake that I see a lot
with art directors and designers and

You know, they're thinking, ah,
coupons with those dash lines,

you know, those dotted line
borders, they're kind of ugly.

I'm going to take care
of your coupon for you.

It's going to look really nice
and it's going to blend in

Well, yes, it looks really pretty
and it blends in, but it's a mistake.

And the reason it's a mistake is you're
sacrificing automatic readership.

Best Practice

In email marketing, sometimes even a small change can cause a great impact in conversion rates. Nancy Harhut from HBT Marketing goes through the 15 most commonly used mistakes marketers need to stop making in order to get the best out of their strategy.  