Increase your email open rates. Get inspired by these 165 great email subject lines from the SXSW catalog.
The amazing SXSW conference has kicked into full swing here in Austin. I haven’t been to a single session yet, and I’ve already learned something of great value I can share with you.
It came in the SXSW session catalog.
The session selection process is very competitive. Every summer, SXSW puts out a call for session and panel ideas. People vote on their sessions and then the crew at SXSW passes final judgment.
If your session gets accepted you will find yourself competing for attendees with some of the most interesting, influential and innovative professionals. Your session title has to really grab attention in a sea of hundreds of choices.
It’s kind of like the competition for your inbox. All of this competition has created perhaps the most creatively named agenda in conferencedome. The SXSW conference has always been known for the quirky session titles it inspires. The competition for panel slots is intense, with 2500 ideas were submitted in 2011 and 3,000 panel submissions presented for 2012 alone. Part of the selection process involves voting by the public. So, an effective title gets attention when garnering votes for a panel.
We have the same problem with email.
We need attention grabbing email subject lines that pull inbox scanners from their numbed slumber in which most emails are unceremoniously deleted. If our email is to be read, our subject lines must save our recipients from mindless autonomy.
Your email campaign would enjoy significantly greater open rates if you used SXSW email subject lines. No one’s going to click through from your email if they don’t open it and read it.
165 best email subject lines from the SXSW catalog.
Email Subject Lines Must Wake Up the Mind at Any Cost
To use these techniques, you must believe that you can use almost any premise in your subject line to engage the reader and entice them to click.
To prove this point, I am going to take the most abstract title from the following list, use it as a subject line, and create an email that will get readers to click through to my site.
First, the list. Yes, these are actual SXSWinteractive session titles. I’ve grouped them by the strategies the presenters used in naming their sessions, strategies that you can incorporate into your email subject lines.
Best Email Subject Lines on Sex and Relationships
Even the “oldest profession in the world” required some persuasive messaging. Your reader may see sex as the most base or most exalted activity humans can engage in. This is the risk and the reward for bawdy banter in your email subject lines.
Brands That Believe in Sex After Marriage
Sex, Lies and Cookies: Web Privacy EXPOSED!
Sex in the Digital Age
Big Brands and You: Make the Love Connection
Social Media Comes of Age Without the Help of Porn
Nudity and Online Journalism
Sex Nets: Pickup Artists vs. Feminists
Sex on the Web – The Sabotage of Relationships?
The Sexual Survival Guide for Geeks: Healthy sex and relationships
Sausagefest: Getting More Women into New Media & Tech
Fun with the Lights Off: Interactivity Without Graphics
How Social Media Fu@k’d Up My Marriage (Learn how not to have your relationship ruined by the online world)
Subtle Sexuality: NBC.com Adds Spice to Shows
Things that Don’t Fit Together (non sequiturs)
Our brains are wired to discard the familiar faster than a bear can spell Constantinople. It is the unexpected that gets the attention of our conscious and prepares us for action. These titles demonstrate the use of twists to pull readers out of their inbox apathy.
Block Party Capitalism: Where Analog and Digital Intersect
What Comic Books Can Teach Mobile Application Designers
Your Mom Has an iPad: Designing for Boomers
Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better
Why New Authors Should Think Like Indie Bands
Why my phone should turn off the Stove – Mobile monitoring of energy consumption
Building Fences in the Sky: Geo-fencing Has Arrived
I’m so productive, I never get anything done
Your Computer is the Next Wonder Drug (Improving interactions with the medical community)
What Digital Tribes Can Learn from Native Americans
A Penny Press for the Digital Age
Philanthropy Is Not the Future of Journalism
Cloudy with a Chance of Gaming
Multiple Personalities–Not a Disorder but the Norm
Does Your Product Have a Plot?
Meat is Might: Epic Meal Time Rules the Web
Social + Location + Mobile = The Perfect Beer
When Goliath Tries to Steal Your Lunch Money
Can Growing a Mustache Change the World?
Bootcamp for a UX Team of None
Explorations in Corporate Zoology
How to Be Strategically Unlikeable Online
Sunspots: The Promise and Pitfalls of Gov 2.0
Dreams of Your Life: A Darkly Playful Experience
Help, My Avatar Is Sick
Being Considered Obsolete Is Awesome
The Science of Good Design: A Dangerous Idea
Why Karl Keeps His Shades On: Style & Social Media
Great Email Subject Lines out of Left Field
Help! A Giant Meteor is Headed Our Way! Cause Shift, Things that need to change
OMG – My Pancreas Just Texted
Metaphors and Similes
Similes are like can openers for the mind. Metaphors are the batteries in the flashlight of your email. The technical term for this style of messaging is “transubstantiation,” using the characteristics of one thing to add meaning to another in the eyes of the reader.
Rev Up Your Product Design, the “Concept Car” Way
Online Personality Disorder: Resumes & Profiles
Knitting a Long Tail in Niche Publishing
Snackable Content: Working in a Bite-Sized Future
Hunt or Be Hunted: Get the Design Job You Want
Keeping Kids off the Street: Wall St. vs. Startups
Death of Digital Downloads: MP3s the New 8-track?
Target an Audience with the Best Email Subject Lines
Right-handed marketers, take note! Targeting your audience can significantly increase the relevance to two groups of people: those to whom you are speaking, and those who feel left out by the fact that you aren’t speaking to them (you left-handers felt a twinge of anger at being left out, didn’t you?). This approach takes guts, as you are consciously ignoring part of your audience in the hope of truly engaging another.
Why Women Fail to Rule the Social Networks
Greek to Geek: Classical Rhetoric & the Modern Web
Blogging: Why So Many Women Are Doing It
Digital Divas: How Girls Rule the Digital Universe
Monetizing Mommy
Lists of Three
There is something memorable, readable, and easy-to-count about lists of three. This method is especially successful when the third item is overly specific or doesn’t fit. See “Things that Don’t Fit Together” above.
Drugs, Milk & Money: Social & Regulated Industries
Credits Coins Cash: Social Currency & Finance 2.0
Free Coffee, Bad Apples & the Future of Currency
Clouds Here, Clouds There, Clouds Everywhere
Pop Culture References Can Make Awesome Email Subject Lines
If you know your audience, you slip them some “Funky Cold Medina” in the form of a pop-culture reference. For your geeks, “Star Trek” or “Star Wars” will do. For the younger generation, something from the “Harry Potter” series might make a connection. Music is usually a sure bet. Can you name the sources of the following references?
Star Trek and Social Media
Do Gamers Dream of HTML5 Sheep?
The Cloud as Skynet: Conquering Digital Overload
Get Smart! Hack Your Brain for Peak Performance
Wall-E or Terminator: Predicting the Rise of Al
Gimme Shelter from the Storm Clouds
Defense Against the Dark Arts: ESAPI
The Field of Dreams Manifesto
Is That Your Final Offer? Mobile Dynamic Pricing
Not Your Mommy’s Blog: The Evolution of Dad Blogs
Why Doesn’t Congress Grok The Internet?
LEAN STARTUP: Baby Got (Feed)Back – Putting the Lean in Learn
So Long, and Thanks for All the Babelfish: Automated Translation
U.S. Military’s Mad Science Revealed: DARPA Projects predict the future
Dear Miss Manners: the Social Web, WTF?
Social Media and the NBA
Zombies Must Eat: How Genre Communities Make Money
Minority Report: Social Media for Decreasing Health Disparities
My Prototype Beat Up Your Business Plan
Geppetto’s Army: Creating International Incidents with Twitter Bots
#FAIL: Infamous social Media PR Disasters
Contrarian Email Subject Lines, why not?
Stop Listening to Your Customers: Researching customer needs without asking them.
I’ve Never Met My Coworkers: Running International Teams
Who Are You and Why Should I Care? Personal branding
When Facebook Falls: Future-proofing Your Social Media Efforts
27 (Fun!) Ways to Kill Your Online Community
HTML5? The Web’s Dead, Baby.
A World without SXSW
Fail big, Fail Often: How Fear Limits Creativity
Congratulations! Your Brand is About to Become Obsolete
The End of Reading in the USA
Science or Science Fiction References
The Next Rocket Scientist: You
Do Tablets Dream of Electric News?
How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe
Pure Shock and Awe Email Subject Lines
Boring subject lines make me want to poke needles into my eyes! Sometimes it makes sense to hit readers over the head with something that is just plain shocking. Sometimes.
How Not to Die: Using Tech in a Dictatorship
How Mexico’s Drug Traffickers Harness Social Media
Language of Mutilation: Grammar for Ads & Life
Demographics Are Dead: Unlocking Flock Behavior
Everyone Is Gay: Social Media As Social Action
Media Measurement: Science, Art or a Load of Crap
Please Touch Me! Enterprise Delight via Multitouch
Your Social Media Job Is Dead: Now What?
Avoiding Bulls**t Personas: A Case Study
Eat, S**t, Sleep: Enlightenment Through Unemployment
Bordering Incest: Turning Your Company into a Family
Baby’s Gotta face For Radio: Web Based Radio?
Grow some balls: Build Business Relationships
Social Media and Comedy: F**k Yeah!
Kill Your Call Center! Bring Your Support Home
Bend Over? Surprise! Agencies Are Screwing You
How Blogs with Balls are Saving Sports Media
How to Personalize Without Being Creepy
Conflict
Bloggers vs. Journalists: It’s a psychological Thing
Seven Reasons Your Employees Hate You
Influencer Throwdown: Proving Influence Once and For All
Email Subject Lines with Invented Words
If you find yourself with subjectlinitis, tossing a memebomb or two may be your best hope. New words can turn a deletophile into a reader.
Adprovising: Agile Marketing Made Easy
The Making of Twittamentary
Newsjacking: How to Inject Your Ideas
Discover the New Frontier of the Glocal Internet
The Local Backbone of the SoLoMo Revolution
Coolhunting and Coolfarming with Social Media
Wireless Wellness: App-tastic or Just Fun & Games?
The Hyperlocal Hoax: Where’s the Holy Grail?
Radically Onymous: How Ending Privacy is Awesome!
Old Spice Resurrected: How Aging Icon Pwned Internet
The Future Enernet: a Conversion with Bob Metcalfe (Internet founder)
Technomadism: Becoming a Technology Enabled Nomad
Rhymes and Alliteration
Sensual subject lines supplement the bottom line. Alliteration is the repeated use of consonants. Rhymes grab your readers like a musical phrase. Don’t be afraid to add a little poetry to your prose.
Social Music Marketing: Bands, Brands & Fans
An Unusual Arsenal: Tech Tools to Topple a Tyrant
Invention & Inspiration: Building a Better World
Contextual Communication: Crowds and Coordination
Check Yo-Self Before U Wreck Yo-Self, Startup Metrics of the Masters
The Creative Collaboration Conundrum
Binary B****es: Keeping Open Source Open to Women
Teaching Touch: Tapworthy Touchscreen Design
Defining the Diaspora: Global Collaboration and Social Change
The Man in the Van needs Geo Location
Chatter Matters: Using Twitter to Predict Sales
People as Peripherals: The Future of Gesture Interface
Of Fanboys & Fidelity: Adopting Comics for Broad Audiences
Twisted Euphemisms
Cure for the Common Font – Secrets of selecting type
Influencers Will Inherit the Earth. Quick, Market to Them!
Create a Common Enemy
You may find your reader united behind you by identifying a common enemy – like the delete key.
When IT Says No: How to Create Fast Feature Flow
The Systematic Undoing of Copyright Trolls
Screw the Job Market: Young + Passionate ≠ Broke
Rise of the Social Spammers
Can Washington Make Your App Illegal?
Epic Battle: Creativity vs. Discipline in Social
Why Your 5-Year-Old Is More Digital Than Most CMOs
Has Twitter Made the Sports Reporter Obsolete?
Insult Someone
Don’t be a wimp. When all else fails drop the political correctness and tell the reader what you really think.
Advise THIS! Matchmaking Startups & High Profile Advisors
Shut Up & Draw: A Non-Artist Way to Think Visually
Flash: F Bomb or Da Bomb?
Big Ol’ Babies: Why Baby Boomers=Public Media FAIL
Your Marketing Sucks: Why You Need to Think Local
Powerful Email Subject Lines: Lead With a Number
Four session titles that use numbers. When we offer the reader a specific number of things, they know they are going to get a manageable set of tips or tricks that is easy to scan and digest.
11 Reasons QR Codes Are Not Engaging Consumers
3 Secrets to a Killer Elevator Pitch
100 Things Designers Need to Know About People
Enterprise Social Media: Five Emerging Trends
Big Email Subject Lines Make Big Promises
If you’ve got the goods, big promises will make you rich in as little as three days. Big promises make the reader ask, “So, how can you do that?” even if they are skeptical. Of course, if you can’t deliver on the promise with sufficient proof in your email, all is lost – including your credibility.
Expanding Our Intelligence Without Limit
How to Live Forever
We Are Legion: Digital (R)Evolution
Change the Course of History with Greasemonkey
UCB Comedy presents: The Best Damn Stand-up
New This Year: Add an “i”
Turn your subject line into an iLine! All it takes is one little vowel.
iVision Africa: New Media’s Role in Reframing Africa
iPlant: Advanced Computing to Feed the World
Any Email Subject Line Will Do
There you have it. Over 100 titles to tantalize and titillate your email mind like a jolt of electricity from an unlicensed nuclear reactor, guaranteed to help you get lucky and make your ex jealous – if you’re not a total iDiot. Did I miss anything?
Hit us with your favorite subject lines in the comments.
Even the most abstract subject line can be used to make a point. Here’s how I would tie one from the list to an offer for my business:
From: Brian Massey, The Conversion Scientist
Subject: OMG! My Pancreas Just Texted
OMG, my pancreas just texted.
My Liver just phoned.
My stomach just tweeted.
My brain is sending smoke signals.
Every cell of my body is dying to tell you about a new video I’ve just released.
Why am I (and all of my bodily parts) excited? Because online video marketing is rocking conversion rates.
Search engines love it.
Visitors love it.
Businesses like yours are getting more leads and sales from it.
And I think I’ve made it easy for anyone to understand how to use video on their Web site.
In just 11 minutes, I’m going to show you how to present a video on your site that will significantly increase the number of leads you’re getting from the traffic you already have.
Skeptical? Maybe I’m crazy.
I challenge you to take a look and see. If you don’t come away with a better understanding of how to increase conversion rates with video, I’ll get my spleen to cut down the chatter and leave you alone.
If you DO get it, I invite you to join a very special mailing list in which you’ll start to understand how to make all of your marketing convert visitors to leads and sales.
The art works, but bad science lowers lead conversion rates and keeps you from capitalizing on their genius. What to do?
Perhaps the hardest thing to do in Conversion Science is getting the art right.
Your value proposition, value statement, unique selling proposition or offer are critical to getting seen, heard or read.
At Enviromedia the art works, but the science keeps them from capitalizing on their genius.
Good Art, Good Engagement
I love bold value propositions. “Business-savvy Tree-hugger” and “Capitalist pigs with a social conscious” communicate the value system of this company much better than something like “An environmentally-focused communications company.”
It will totally turn off businesses that aren’t concerned with environmental issues. Conservative republicans will leave the site quickly. This company has staked it’s claim and isn’t worried about losing the wrong business as it enchants the right clients.
Bad science lowers lead conversion rates.
Enviromedia has a great value proposition but their implementation is not conversion friendly
Bad Science Lowers Lead Conversion Rates
For some reason, this fabulous value proposition was implemented as a flash panel. It took close to five seconds to load on a very fast broadband connection.
I almost didn’t see it.
Search engines won’t see it.
Why? So that the words can shimmer.
Why is this bad science?
Slow load times increase bounce rates and reduce conversion rates.
The human brain is hard-wired look at movement. Movement draws the eye.
In this case the eye is constantly drawn away from the page content. Doesn’t Enviromedia want me to click on “Who we are” and “What we do?” If not, why put them on the page.
The coup de tat? This big attention-drawing graphic isn’t clickable.
DOH!
Good Science Increases Lead Conversion Rates
Rip out the flash. Put the exact same words in an image. Make the image clickable so that I can see what you mean by “business-savvy tree-hugger” and “capitalist pigs with a social conscience.”
Now I’m engaged. I’m into the site. I’m vulnerable to offers to start a conversation.
I’d hire Enviromedia. I like and understand their value proposition. Of course, they could make it easier for me to hire them with a little conversion science in the mix.
Your Turn
Would you like us to look at your site? Sign up for a free conversion consultation with The Conversion Scientist™.
Readers may be involved in your content, like the chicken is involved in breakfast. How do you find the readers that are committed to your content, like the pig who is providing the bacon? Better yet, how do you get readers to take action?
The most common question I get from clients when I recommend a healthy diet of content is, “And how is giving away content going to increase sales?”
It can seem like content marketing finds a lot of chickens, those that are involved with a brand. But where are the committed pigs, the ones who will put some (pig) skin in the game?
If you see your content as a place to advertise, you can add some meat to your breakfast, generating traffic, leads and sales.
Conversion Beacons (or Bacon) and Calls to Action
To add some hickory-smoked goodness to your content breakfast, I recommend advertising in your own content.
I’m not talking about some namby-pamby “For more information on Company X…” message. I mean a meaty call to action, what Bryan and Jeffrey Eisenberg call a “Conversion Beacon.”
Press Button. Collect Bacon. Looking for committed readers.
If you were to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars to develop content or to advertise on someone else’s website, you wouldn’t create a call to action that said “For more information on our company call….” You’d create an ad that:
Gets the reader’s attention visually
Offers something of value (“learn more about our company” is not a valuable offer)
Includes a clear action for them to take: Call or click
Shows up in the part of the page that contains Grade “A” Choice cuts, the best placement that you can afford.
Since you’re probably spending hundreds or thousands of dollars creating reports, white papers, webinars, seminars, articles and videos, you should be using this same approach to point the reader/viewer/attendee to the next exciting thing on your content menu.
Better yet, ask them to buy or try something.
12 Ways to Get Readers to Take Action.
Ion Interactive offers content marketing with their content marketing. Their content offers a white paper on the side. The folks at Ion Interactive know that the conversion process answers a series of questions, and each delivered answer should anticipate the next question.
In this example, Ion Interactive provides five tips for lead generation. Those prospects who are studying the problem will want to learn more. The report offers more detail, but asks for contact information.
Those prospects who aren’t really studying the problem can select to join Ion Interactive’s Twitter stream.
Ion interactive uses some best practices here as well, including:
Showing the product
Using the magic word “free”
Underlining blue text which is the international standard for “click here.”
There is little room for confusion about the next step.
12 Ways to Get Readers to Take Action
Be bold. Be inline. Be shameless. Be frequent. Incentivize. Merchandize. Be mobile. Be creative. Be generous. Be miserly. Be a tease. Be exclusive.
If you are a content marketer and you’re doing the old palm-to-head routine right now, there is hope. Here are some tips for turning your content into sources for traffic, leads and sales through powerful calls to action:
Be bold. Catch the reader’s attention. Offer something of value, even if it’s more content.
Be inline. Put calls to action right in the copy.
Be shameless. Let the reader know this content is part of a promotion for your products and services. Readers should get used to having promotional messages included in the excellent content you provide.
Be frequent. Tease your “special offer” at the beginning. Include your pitch or insert an ad in the middle. Close with the “hard sell” even if it’s another piece of free content.
Incentivize. Put a coupon on your print and digital offerings.
Merchandize. Show the product.
Be mobile. Add QR codes so your readers can go on a little adventure to your next offering.
Be creative. Just like an ad in any medium, you want to create compelling calls to action for placement in your valuable marketing content.
Be generous. Have great content.
Be miserly. Hold something back that the reader or viewer has to click through to get. In the example above, Ion Interactive held back five of their ten tips.
Be a tease. Put it on the cover. If you let the reader know there is a special offer inside your content, you’re going to get more people to dive in. How many unread white papers are on your hard drive right now?
Be exclusive. Offer something exclusive to consumers in your content. In the example above, Hubspot doesn’t offer a free email and consultation to everyone. You have to be on the webinar.
Advertise Your Content in This Space
I’m going to give you a chance to advertise in this space.
Send me links to your content marketing and show me how you are advertising in your own content. Your content could be one of the examples I use in my next column when I talk about landing pages for in-content ads.
Present your content here or email me through my author page.
Here is a guide to how your blog can draw qualified traffic to your website via search, social media and email.
Does your blog squirt or erupt?
I got some inspiration from an unlikely place for my column on content marketing: the American Museum of Natural History in New York I was drawn there because I thought they were having an exhibit all about me. It turns out that the exhibit was called “Introducing the Brain,” not “Introducing Brian.” The exhibit did not have anything to say on what part of the brain causes dyslexia.
But, scientists love museums, and so I looked around. There was an entire room dedicated to the earth, from it’s heat-formed rocks to it’s carbon-choked atmosphere.
My next thought was “this is just like content marketing.” I’m sure you would have had the same thought. If you didn’t, you’ll soon understand.
Read my complete thoughts on the matter over at ClickZ to understand how a blog-cano can generate copious amounts of search, social media and email goodness for your business.
What does a geologist know about online marketing? Probably not much, but a geologist can give us a handy model for a content marketing strategy that is easy to implement and potentially explosive.
How is a Blog Like a Volcano?
How a Blog Is Like a Volcano
At the most basic level, a blog spews content like a volcano spews lava. The content typically emerges in pyroclastic flows fed from a content magma chamber deep inside.
It is the release of this magma – the content – that determines the pace at which the mountain grows. A mountain with a large magma chamber can be expected to erupt more frequently and more violently.
Like a blog, our volcanic mountain becomes more visible as it rises higher and higher into the top levels of the atmosphere. It can become visible very quickly to nearby villages, executive offices in neighboring cities…and to search engines.
Clearly, we can learn a few lessons from our geological friends. My question is, “How can we get our blog-cano to erupt more frequently and spread our content as far as possible?”
Have a Big Magma Chamber
You’ve got to have a plan for a steady flow of content. Your blog-cano is the heart of your content marketing strategy and can power your social marketing strategy, lead generation strategy, and search engine optimization.
The beauty of blogging is that it’s a more casual medium. Your blog content doesn’t have to be bibliographed articles. It doesn’t require your subject matter experts to be writing constantly. In fact, blog content can come from many sources: presentations, case studies, and even geology textbooks. Much blogging is simply commenting on others’ writing, which we call “curating content” for your audience.
I’m not saying that your posts don’t have to be valuable. Lava must be hot to flow. But, it must flow constantly or your blog-cano won’t grow fast enough and you won’t be able to implement some of the more explosive strategies I discuss here.
Bringing Tourists to the Slope of Mount Blogitubo
All a blog is really going to get you is an RSS feed. While your RSS feed is going to power some very helpful strategies, there aren’t going to be a lot of people reading your posts via feed reader.
Search engines, however, love blogs.
With a little geologic surveying, we can help the search engines find our naturally keyword-rich content. They will, in turn, send us tourists.
Choose a blogging platform that is search-engine friendly. Don’t just use the content management system that your corporate site is built on.
Definitely put your blog on the same domain as your corporate website so both benefit from the search engine “juice” you create.
If you have the resources, you can identify your most valuable keywords and purposefully incorporate them into your blog posts and titles. Search ClickZ for search engine optimization best practices.
Eruptions Are Worth Spreading
With a little technology, you can rain content down on people far and wide. Your Mount Blogsuveous is capable of powering engaging social media outreach, drawing qualified traffic, and growing your social networks. This can be largely automated with services like Ping.fm and Twitterfeed. Tools like HootSuite and Spredfast will help you share your content on the most popular social networks. (Disclosure: Spredfast provides its service to the author at no charge.)
Because these posts, tweets, and status updates contain a link back to your content, you can actually measure the clicks and conversions generated by your social media outreach, and this can justify production of more magma.
Spreading the Explosive Energy of Your Blogatoa
Tourists coming from social media and search are nice, but they always go back home. What if they could take a piece of the mountain home with them?
It turns out that well-qualified tourists will want to continue to receive your blava (blog-lava) and you can easily deliver that with e-mail. Ask visitors to give you an e-mail address and you can automatically power an e-mail newsletter with remarkable frequency.
Here is where your RSS feed really comes in handy. There are services that will monitor your blog for the new posts arising from your blogma (blog-magma) chamber. On a set schedule, these services will pull the content from the feed, wrap it in a nice template, and send it to your list by e-mail.
Ask your e-mail service provider (ESP) if they have an RSS-to-e-mail service. MailChimp andAWeber provide such a service. Consider FeedBurner or FeedBlitz if your ESP can’t help.
This strategy is great for considered purchases or any product or service in which the need is unpredictable. It keeps you front-and-center when it’s time for the tourists to pick their next destination.
Flow Over to Your Corporate Website
The final place on which you can rain your explosive content is on the corporate website. These sites are typically designed like a brochure, written in a “me,” “we,” and “us” style.
Blava content is generally more educational, informational, and entertaining. It’s created for the reader, and will really grab the attention of someone who is early in their decision-making process.
There are a variety of widgets available to display blog titles on your corporate site, and visitors will find this content more compelling than your recent press releases. Make sure that your blog gives them an obvious way to get back to the corporate site.
The Center of a Hub
Once these parts are in place, our blog-cano has become the center of a powerful, largely automated hub of influence. However, the system is only as powerful as our blog content. Post frequency is the best predictor of blog readership growth that I’ve seen. You should post at least once per week, in my opinion.
Remember that your editorial calendar is your magma chamber, the source of all blog-cano power. Find the resources to post helpful content frequently and you will empower search, social media, and e-mail to drive more business to your door.
You check into a discount hotel only to find it bug-ridden and run-down, and the staff is indifferent to your discomfort. What do you do? You can ask the indifferent staff for help, call management, write a stern letter… or write a review.
This is the premise on which Jay Baer and Amber Naslund begin their presentation at MarketingProfs Digital Marketing Forum in Austin. The authors of The Now Revolution: 7 Shifts to Make Your Business Faster, Smarter and More Social take us through the promise and pitfalls of social media that most any business must consider… now.
Content Rules. At least that is what a lively trio showed us at the MarketingProfs Digital Marketing Forum in Austin. C.C. Chapman, Ann Handley, and an as yet unnamed robot shared the rules and tools of great content marketing.
Content Rules
That is what a lively trio showed us at the MarketingProfs Digital Marketing Forum in Austin.
#9: Have Fun
C.C. Chapman, Ann Handley, and an as yet unnamed robot shared the rules and tools of great content marketing.
#6: Stoke the Campfire
Here is the Converison Sciences Instagraph of their presentation, captured in real time.
Elements of Successful Business Web Sites and the reactions they create for your business.
Can something as complex as online sales conversion be boiled down to some like a chemical reaction? The answer is yes, and these basic marketing reactions make it easy to create interesting new combinations.
Do you recognize this chemical equation?
Basic formula for developing a landing page.
It is the basic formula for developing a Landing Page:
Some Content, preferably persuasive in nature
An Offer
A Form to entice the visitor to action, which can be a simple button or even a link.
This shouldn’t be a revelation to any regular reader of The Conversion Scientist. However, you will see many pages that lack content, an explicit offer or both.
Of course, a landing page will not generate any leads or sales without something more.
Here’s the formula for a lead generation landing page:
Converting Traffic to Leads
This formula is important in that it highlights the fact that your landing page must generate equal parts Leads and Permission in order to continue the conversation with prospects.
Why? Because, we need Permission to satisfy this little equation:
The Email Conversion Reaction.
Combining Content with Leads for which you have Permission to communicate provides the components for generating effective Email.
Given an amount of Email, what reaction would you create to turn your email into Web Traffic? Find out in my post The Chemistry of Content at The Content Marketing Institute.
Hint: Consider what mixing an Offer with your Email would do.
Stay tuned to The Conversion Scientist as we explore the Elements of Successful Business Web Sites and the reactions they create for your business.
Here’s a preview:
Youranium: Elements of Successful Business Web Sites
Youranium is a powerful radioactive element derived form your knowledge of your visitors.
Sales: The Elements of Successful Business Web Sites
Brian Massey is a veteran online marketing strategist, writer and national speaker. His practice, Conversion Sciences is conducting experiments to determine how business Web sites can turn visitors into leads and sales. Follow our blog and put some science into your online marketing.
Tim Hayden is one of those dynamic idea guys, and knows how to execute for his clients. It was a pleasure to present along side him at the University of Texas McCombs School of Business Conference and Alumni Reunion recently.
He gave us a thought provoking presentation on the integration of the live, mobile and online life of our prospects and customers, including some important tips on the use of QR Codes and email.
Email is the currency of the Web.
Here is my Infograph of that presentation captured with Instagraph technology.
Mobile Social Intelligence
21 Quick and Easy CRO Copywriting Hacks
Keep these proven copywriting hacks in mind to make your copy convert.
The basic Conversion Rate equation is online sales or leads divided by traffic.
When you get a lot of bad traffic, your conversion rate drops, as would be expected. However, if you get traffic that is well qualified, you generate more sales, more leads for less effort.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of telling the search engines what your Web site is about, so that people who are looking for things you offer find you (and everyone else goes somewhere else). There are few online marketing strategies that deliver such highly qualified traffic over long periods of time with no advertising buy.
Carolyn Shelby took PubCon Masters Training attendees through the basics of SEO. She is one of the most respected speakers at PubCon, and if you get a chance to see her, I strongly recommend you sit in. She is the source for Chicago SEO.
Here are my notes from her presentation captured using Instagraph Infograph technology.
165 Great Email Subject Lines from the SXSW Catalog [updated]
Persuasion ScienceThe amazing SXSW conference has kicked into full swing here in Austin. I haven’t been to a single session yet, and I’ve already learned something of great value I can share with you.
It came in the SXSW session catalog.
The session selection process is very competitive. Every summer, SXSW puts out a call for session and panel ideas. People vote on their sessions and then the crew at SXSW passes final judgment.
If your session gets accepted you will find yourself competing for attendees with some of the most interesting, influential and innovative professionals. Your session title has to really grab attention in a sea of hundreds of choices.
It’s kind of like the competition for your inbox. All of this competition has created perhaps the most creatively named agenda in conferencedome. The SXSW conference has always been known for the quirky session titles it inspires. The competition for panel slots is intense, with 2500 ideas were submitted in 2011 and 3,000 panel submissions presented for 2012 alone. Part of the selection process involves voting by the public. So, an effective title gets attention when garnering votes for a panel.
We have the same problem with email.
Your email campaign would enjoy significantly greater open rates if you used SXSW email subject lines. No one’s going to click through from your email if they don’t open it and read it.
165 best email subject lines from the SXSW catalog.
Email Subject Lines Must Wake Up the Mind at Any Cost
To use these techniques, you must believe that you can use almost any premise in your subject line to engage the reader and entice them to click.
To prove this point, I am going to take the most abstract title from the following list, use it as a subject line, and create an email that will get readers to click through to my site.
First, the list. Yes, these are actual SXSWinteractive session titles. I’ve grouped them by the strategies the presenters used in naming their sessions, strategies that you can incorporate into your email subject lines.
Best Email Subject Lines on Sex and Relationships
Even the “oldest profession in the world” required some persuasive messaging. Your reader may see sex as the most base or most exalted activity humans can engage in. This is the risk and the reward for bawdy banter in your email subject lines.
Things that Don’t Fit Together (non sequiturs)
Our brains are wired to discard the familiar faster than a bear can spell Constantinople. It is the unexpected that gets the attention of our conscious and prepares us for action. These titles demonstrate the use of twists to pull readers out of their inbox apathy.
Great Email Subject Lines out of Left Field
Metaphors and Similes
Similes are like can openers for the mind. Metaphors are the batteries in the flashlight of your email. The technical term for this style of messaging is “transubstantiation,” using the characteristics of one thing to add meaning to another in the eyes of the reader.
Target an Audience with the Best Email Subject Lines
Right-handed marketers, take note! Targeting your audience can significantly increase the relevance to two groups of people: those to whom you are speaking, and those who feel left out by the fact that you aren’t speaking to them (you left-handers felt a twinge of anger at being left out, didn’t you?). This approach takes guts, as you are consciously ignoring part of your audience in the hope of truly engaging another.
Lists of Three
There is something memorable, readable, and easy-to-count about lists of three. This method is especially successful when the third item is overly specific or doesn’t fit. See “Things that Don’t Fit Together” above.
Pop Culture References Can Make Awesome Email Subject Lines
If you know your audience, you slip them some “Funky Cold Medina” in the form of a pop-culture reference. For your geeks, “Star Trek” or “Star Wars” will do. For the younger generation, something from the “Harry Potter” series might make a connection. Music is usually a sure bet. Can you name the sources of the following references?
Contrarian Email Subject Lines, why not?
Science or Science Fiction References
Pure Shock and Awe Email Subject Lines
Boring subject lines make me want to poke needles into my eyes! Sometimes it makes sense to hit readers over the head with something that is just plain shocking. Sometimes.
Conflict
Email Subject Lines with Invented Words
If you find yourself with subjectlinitis, tossing a memebomb or two may be your best hope. New words can turn a deletophile into a reader.
Rhymes and Alliteration
Sensual subject lines supplement the bottom line. Alliteration is the repeated use of consonants. Rhymes grab your readers like a musical phrase. Don’t be afraid to add a little poetry to your prose.
Twisted Euphemisms
Create a Common Enemy
You may find your reader united behind you by identifying a common enemy – like the delete key.
Insult Someone
Don’t be a wimp. When all else fails drop the political correctness and tell the reader what you really think.
Powerful Email Subject Lines: Lead With a Number
Four session titles that use numbers. When we offer the reader a specific number of things, they know they are going to get a manageable set of tips or tricks that is easy to scan and digest.
Big Email Subject Lines Make Big Promises
If you’ve got the goods, big promises will make you rich in as little as three days. Big promises make the reader ask, “So, how can you do that?” even if they are skeptical. Of course, if you can’t deliver on the promise with sufficient proof in your email, all is lost – including your credibility.
New This Year: Add an “i”
Turn your subject line into an iLine! All it takes is one little vowel.
Any Email Subject Line Will Do
There you have it. Over 100 titles to tantalize and titillate your email mind like a jolt of electricity from an unlicensed nuclear reactor, guaranteed to help you get lucky and make your ex jealous – if you’re not a total iDiot. Did I miss anything?
Hit us with your favorite subject lines in the comments.
Even the most abstract subject line can be used to make a point. Here’s how I would tie one from the list to an offer for my business:
From: Brian Massey, The Conversion Scientist
Subject: OMG! My Pancreas Just Texted
OMG, my pancreas just texted.
My Liver just phoned.
My stomach just tweeted.
My brain is sending smoke signals.
Every cell of my body is dying to tell you about a new video I’ve just released.
Why am I (and all of my bodily parts) excited? Because online video marketing is rocking conversion rates.
Search engines love it.
Visitors love it.
Businesses like yours are getting more leads and sales from it.
And I think I’ve made it easy for anyone to understand how to use video on their Web site.
In just 11 minutes, I’m going to show you how to present a video on your site that will significantly increase the number of leads you’re getting from the traffic you already have.
Skeptical? Maybe I’m crazy.
I challenge you to take a look and see. If you don’t come away with a better understanding of how to increase conversion rates with video, I’ll get my spleen to cut down the chatter and leave you alone.
If you DO get it, I invite you to join a very special mailing list in which you’ll start to understand how to make all of your marketing convert visitors to leads and sales.
Watch Getting a Reaction from Online Video, and let me know what you think.
My heart will thank you for it.
Best regards,
Brian Massey
Good Art, Bad Science Lowers Lead Conversion Rates
Lead GenerationPerhaps the hardest thing to do in Conversion Science is getting the art right.
Your value proposition, value statement, unique selling proposition or offer are critical to getting seen, heard or read.
At Enviromedia the art works, but the science keeps them from capitalizing on their genius.
Good Art, Good Engagement
I love bold value propositions. “Business-savvy Tree-hugger” and “Capitalist pigs with a social conscious” communicate the value system of this company much better than something like “An environmentally-focused communications company.”
It will totally turn off businesses that aren’t concerned with environmental issues. Conservative republicans will leave the site quickly. This company has staked it’s claim and isn’t worried about losing the wrong business as it enchants the right clients.
Bad science lowers lead conversion rates.
Enviromedia has a great value proposition but their implementation is not conversion friendly
Bad Science Lowers Lead Conversion Rates
For some reason, this fabulous value proposition was implemented as a flash panel. It took close to five seconds to load on a very fast broadband connection.
I almost didn’t see it.
Search engines won’t see it.
Why? So that the words can shimmer.
Why is this bad science?
Slow load times increase bounce rates and reduce conversion rates.
The human brain is hard-wired look at movement. Movement draws the eye.
In this case the eye is constantly drawn away from the page content. Doesn’t Enviromedia want me to click on “Who we are” and “What we do?” If not, why put them on the page.
The coup de tat? This big attention-drawing graphic isn’t clickable.
DOH!
Good Science Increases Lead Conversion Rates
Rip out the flash. Put the exact same words in an image. Make the image clickable so that I can see what you mean by “business-savvy tree-hugger” and “capitalist pigs with a social conscience.”
Now I’m engaged. I’m into the site. I’m vulnerable to offers to start a conversation.
I’d hire Enviromedia. I like and understand their value proposition. Of course, they could make it easier for me to hire them with a little conversion science in the mix.
Your Turn
Conversion Beacons: 12 Ways to Get Readers to Take Action
Conversion Marketing StrategyThe most common question I get from clients when I recommend a healthy diet of content is, “And how is giving away content going to increase sales?”
It can seem like content marketing finds a lot of chickens, those that are involved with a brand. But where are the committed pigs, the ones who will put some (pig) skin in the game?
If you see your content as a place to advertise, you can add some meat to your breakfast, generating traffic, leads and sales.
Conversion Beacons (or Bacon) and Calls to Action
To add some hickory-smoked goodness to your content breakfast, I recommend advertising in your own content.
I’m not talking about some namby-pamby “For more information on Company X…” message. I mean a meaty call to action, what Bryan and Jeffrey Eisenberg call a “Conversion Beacon.”
Press Button. Collect Bacon. Looking for committed readers.
If you were to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars to develop content or to advertise on someone else’s website, you wouldn’t create a call to action that said “For more information on our company call….” You’d create an ad that:
Since you’re probably spending hundreds or thousands of dollars creating reports, white papers, webinars, seminars, articles and videos, you should be using this same approach to point the reader/viewer/attendee to the next exciting thing on your content menu.
Better yet, ask them to buy or try something.
12 Ways to Get Readers to Take Action.
Ion Interactive offers content marketing with their content marketing. Their content offers a white paper on the side. The folks at Ion Interactive know that the conversion process answers a series of questions, and each delivered answer should anticipate the next question.
In this example, Ion Interactive provides five tips for lead generation. Those prospects who are studying the problem will want to learn more. The report offers more detail, but asks for contact information.
Those prospects who aren’t really studying the problem can select to join Ion Interactive’s Twitter stream.
Ion interactive uses some best practices here as well, including:
12 Ways to Get Readers to Take Action
If you are a content marketer and you’re doing the old palm-to-head routine right now, there is hope. Here are some tips for turning your content into sources for traffic, leads and sales through powerful calls to action:
Advertise Your Content in This Space
I’m going to give you a chance to advertise in this space.
Send me links to your content marketing and show me how you are advertising in your own content. Your content could be one of the examples I use in my next column when I talk about landing pages for in-content ads.
Present your content here or email me through my author page.
Originally published on The Content Marketing Institute
The Blog Volcano Drives Search, Social Media and Email
Conversion-Centered DesignDoes your blog squirt or erupt?
I got some inspiration from an unlikely place for my column on content marketing: the American Museum of Natural History in New York I was drawn there because I thought they were having an exhibit all about me. It turns out that the exhibit was called “Introducing the Brain,” not “Introducing Brian.” The exhibit did not have anything to say on what part of the brain causes dyslexia.
But, scientists love museums, and so I looked around. There was an entire room dedicated to the earth, from it’s heat-formed rocks to it’s carbon-choked atmosphere.
My next thought was “this is just like content marketing.” I’m sure you would have had the same thought. If you didn’t, you’ll soon understand.
Read my complete thoughts on the matter over at ClickZ to understand how a blog-cano can generate copious amounts of search, social media and email goodness for your business.
What does a geologist know about online marketing? Probably not much, but a geologist can give us a handy model for a content marketing strategy that is easy to implement and potentially explosive.
How is a Blog Like a Volcano?
How a Blog Is Like a Volcano
At the most basic level, a blog spews content like a volcano spews lava. The content typically emerges in pyroclastic flows fed from a content magma chamber deep inside.
It is the release of this magma – the content – that determines the pace at which the mountain grows. A mountain with a large magma chamber can be expected to erupt more frequently and more violently.
Like a blog, our volcanic mountain becomes more visible as it rises higher and higher into the top levels of the atmosphere. It can become visible very quickly to nearby villages, executive offices in neighboring cities…and to search engines.
Have a Big Magma Chamber
You’ve got to have a plan for a steady flow of content. Your blog-cano is the heart of your content marketing strategy and can power your social marketing strategy, lead generation strategy, and search engine optimization.
The beauty of blogging is that it’s a more casual medium. Your blog content doesn’t have to be bibliographed articles. It doesn’t require your subject matter experts to be writing constantly. In fact, blog content can come from many sources: presentations, case studies, and even geology textbooks. Much blogging is simply commenting on others’ writing, which we call “curating content” for your audience.
I’m not saying that your posts don’t have to be valuable. Lava must be hot to flow. But, it must flow constantly or your blog-cano won’t grow fast enough and you won’t be able to implement some of the more explosive strategies I discuss here.
Bringing Tourists to the Slope of Mount Blogitubo
All a blog is really going to get you is an RSS feed. While your RSS feed is going to power some very helpful strategies, there aren’t going to be a lot of people reading your posts via feed reader.
Search engines, however, love blogs.
With a little geologic surveying, we can help the search engines find our naturally keyword-rich content. They will, in turn, send us tourists.
Choose a blogging platform that is search-engine friendly. Don’t just use the content management system that your corporate site is built on.
Definitely put your blog on the same domain as your corporate website so both benefit from the search engine “juice” you create.
If you have the resources, you can identify your most valuable keywords and purposefully incorporate them into your blog posts and titles. Search ClickZ for search engine optimization best practices.
Eruptions Are Worth Spreading
With a little technology, you can rain content down on people far and wide. Your Mount Blogsuveous is capable of powering engaging social media outreach, drawing qualified traffic, and growing your social networks. This can be largely automated with services like Ping.fm and Twitterfeed. Tools like HootSuite and Spredfast will help you share your content on the most popular social networks. (Disclosure: Spredfast provides its service to the author at no charge.)
Because these posts, tweets, and status updates contain a link back to your content, you can actually measure the clicks and conversions generated by your social media outreach, and this can justify production of more magma.
Spreading the Explosive Energy of Your Blogatoa
Tourists coming from social media and search are nice, but they always go back home. What if they could take a piece of the mountain home with them?
It turns out that well-qualified tourists will want to continue to receive your blava (blog-lava) and you can easily deliver that with e-mail. Ask visitors to give you an e-mail address and you can automatically power an e-mail newsletter with remarkable frequency.
Here is where your RSS feed really comes in handy. There are services that will monitor your blog for the new posts arising from your blogma (blog-magma) chamber. On a set schedule, these services will pull the content from the feed, wrap it in a nice template, and send it to your list by e-mail.
Ask your e-mail service provider (ESP) if they have an RSS-to-e-mail service. MailChimp andAWeber provide such a service. Consider FeedBurner or FeedBlitz if your ESP can’t help.
This strategy is great for considered purchases or any product or service in which the need is unpredictable. It keeps you front-and-center when it’s time for the tourists to pick their next destination.
Flow Over to Your Corporate Website
The final place on which you can rain your explosive content is on the corporate website. These sites are typically designed like a brochure, written in a “me,” “we,” and “us” style.
Blava content is generally more educational, informational, and entertaining. It’s created for the reader, and will really grab the attention of someone who is early in their decision-making process.
There are a variety of widgets available to display blog titles on your corporate site, and visitors will find this content more compelling than your recent press releases. Make sure that your blog gives them an obvious way to get back to the corporate site.
The Center of a Hub
Once these parts are in place, our blog-cano has become the center of a powerful, largely automated hub of influence. However, the system is only as powerful as our blog content. Post frequency is the best predictor of blog readership growth that I’ve seen. You should post at least once per week, in my opinion.
Remember that your editorial calendar is your magma chamber, the source of all blog-cano power. Find the resources to post helpful content frequently and you will empower search, social media, and e-mail to drive more business to your door.
7 Shifts to Make Social Media Work in Your Business (INFOGRAPHIC)
Conversion Marketing StrategyYou check into a discount hotel only to find it bug-ridden and run-down, and the staff is indifferent to your discomfort. What do you do? You can ask the indifferent staff for help, call management, write a stern letter… or write a review.
This is the premise on which Jay Baer and Amber Naslund begin their presentation at MarketingProfs Digital Marketing Forum in Austin. The authors of The Now Revolution: 7 Shifts to Make Your Business Faster, Smarter and More Social take us through the promise and pitfalls of social media that most any business must consider… now.
CLICK TO ENLARGE
INFOGRAPH: 7 Shifts to Make Your Business Smarter, Faster and More Social
CLICK TO ENLARGE
9 Ways to Make Content Work for Your Business (INFOGRAPHIC)
Conversion OptimizationContent Rules. At least that is what a lively trio showed us at the MarketingProfs Digital Marketing Forum in Austin. C.C. Chapman, Ann Handley, and an as yet unnamed robot shared the rules and tools of great content marketing.
Content Rules
That is what a lively trio showed us at the MarketingProfs Digital Marketing Forum in Austin.
#9: Have Fun
C.C. Chapman, Ann Handley, and an as yet unnamed robot shared the rules and tools of great content marketing.
#6: Stoke the Campfire
Here is the Converison Sciences Instagraph of their presentation, captured in real time.
CLICK TO ENLARGE
Content Rules + Content Tools: INFOGRAPH
CLICK TO ENLARGE
Getting a Reaction from Your Online Marketing
Conversion Optimization, Landing Page OptimizationCan something as complex as online sales conversion be boiled down to some like a chemical reaction? The answer is yes, and these basic marketing reactions make it easy to create interesting new combinations.
Do you recognize this chemical equation?
Basic formula for developing a landing page.
It is the basic formula for developing a Landing Page:
This shouldn’t be a revelation to any regular reader of The Conversion Scientist. However, you will see many pages that lack content, an explicit offer or both.
Of course, a landing page will not generate any leads or sales without something more.
Here’s the formula for a lead generation landing page:
Converting Traffic to Leads
This formula is important in that it highlights the fact that your landing page must generate equal parts Leads and Permission in order to continue the conversation with prospects.
Why? Because, we need Permission to satisfy this little equation:
The Email Conversion Reaction.
Combining Content with Leads for which you have Permission to communicate provides the components for generating effective Email.
Given an amount of Email, what reaction would you create to turn your email into Web Traffic? Find out in my post The Chemistry of Content at The Content Marketing Institute.
Hint: Consider what mixing an Offer with your Email would do.
Stay tuned to The Conversion Scientist as we explore the Elements of Successful Business Web Sites and the reactions they create for your business.
Here’s a preview:
Youranium: Elements of Successful Business Web Sites
Youranium is a powerful radioactive element derived form your knowledge of your visitors.
Sales: The Elements of Successful Business Web Sites
Sales is gold to a business.
You should subscribe to the The Conversion Scientist by email to find the reactions that create gold for your business.
Brian Massey is a veteran online marketing strategist, writer and national speaker. His practice, Conversion Sciences is conducting experiments to determine how business Web sites can turn visitors into leads and sales. Follow our blog and put some science into your online marketing.
Mobile Social Intelligence (INFOGRAPH)
Conversion OptimizationTim Hayden is one of those dynamic idea guys, and knows how to execute for his clients. It was a pleasure to present along side him at the University of Texas McCombs School of Business Conference and Alumni Reunion recently.
He gave us a thought provoking presentation on the integration of the live, mobile and online life of our prospects and customers, including some important tips on the use of QR Codes and email.
Here is my Infograph of that presentation captured with Instagraph technology.
Mobile Social Intelligence
21 Quick and Easy CRO Copywriting Hacks
Keep these proven copywriting hacks in mind to make your copy convert.
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Success in a World of Influencers (INFOGRAPH)
Conversion Marketing StrategyI had the honor of presenting at the University of Texas McCombs School of Business Conference and Alumni Reunion along side some smart people.
These included Sam Decker, recently of Bazaarvoice, who gave the attendees three tips on how to succeed in a world of influencers.
Here is the infograph of his presentation captured with instagraph technology.
SEO 101: Good Traffic Converts Better (INFOGRAPH)
Conversion Marketing StrategyWhen you get a lot of bad traffic, your conversion rate drops, as would be expected. However, if you get traffic that is well qualified, you generate more sales, more leads for less effort.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of telling the search engines what your Web site is about, so that people who are looking for things you offer find you (and everyone else goes somewhere else). There are few online marketing strategies that deliver such highly qualified traffic over long periods of time with no advertising buy.
Carolyn Shelby took PubCon Masters Training attendees through the basics of SEO. She is one of the most respected speakers at PubCon, and if you get a chance to see her, I strongly recommend you sit in. She is the source for Chicago SEO.
Here are my notes from her presentation captured using Instagraph Infograph technology.