First Impressions Matter

Interview Hell

A few years ago I found myself thrust back into the corporate world.  Thankfully, with a newly beefed up resume, I found myself in the middle of interview hell.  Every new meeting became an epic moment in history as I first walked through the door.  No matter how open we keep our minds, an impression is made during a first encounter that gets no second chances.  Being a professional with long, wild dreadlocks, and an inked lion on my arm, it is no thoughtless feat to tame my appearance into a well put together and impressive business woman.  I learned that it was better to ease employers and clients into the “experience” of my unleashed hair and tattoos after a positive repetoire was established.  The subject line of an email should be regarded in the same manner.  47% of all emails are opened because of the first impression, the SUBJECT LINE!  Why would I risk the value of a potential opportunity because of undervaluing first impressions?  Here are a few simple ways I have learned to amplify the open click rate of an email campaign.

First and foremost, PERSONALIZE!

A subject line of: Proven Sales Leads For Your Area triggers the reader to immediately think the following:

1.  You have no idea where I live
2. You have no idea what leads I’m looking for
3.  You have no idea what my name is
4. YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT ME

This obviously will not cause the recipient to open the email.  Instead, it does the exact opposite, triggers them to mark you as spam.  Jenny!  New late mortgage leads are available for Parma, MI as a subject line would immediately spark my interest and drive that instinctive click.  Collecting data relevant to your campaign is crucial to drive the personalization.  Using that information to hone in on a specific customer base is the next step in optimizing your marketing.  Instead of thinking of your email database as a solid unit, relate that list to a puzzle.  Each piece is a specific market, group, or demographic.  Catering your email subject line to be as client specific as possible maximizes your ROI by optimizing relevancy and building brand trust.  While this insight may seem obvious, 9 out of 10 email campaigns do not employ this strategy known as segmentation.

One more element to consider is the ability to impress on mobile devices.  Inevitably, during the interview process, I did a lot of waiting.  How did I pass the time?  FB and Email!!  Humans have evolved into mobile email checking machines.

On average, 50% of all email is opened on a mobile device.

The ability of your email campaign to perform over a mobile platform is critical.  Every time I open an email where the subject line is cut off, text is garbled, or the pictures not available, my first response is an internal “EW!”

Once you have employed these incredibly effective, simple strategies, execute your campaign at the highest level by testing your email.  Testing allows you to reconfigure your puzzle where all pieces fit best.

Back to the email and dreadlock comparison. (A stretch, I know.)

By testing first impression hair styles, I found my first “do” still gave a chaotic vibe, where a tightly pulled back bun flew under the radar and didn’t distract from my resume and professionality.  In my most recent career advancement with GrowData, no one even knew they’d hired a Rasta haired thirty something.  Not until we had a trust, a conversion have you, did I introduce them to the other sides of me.  Which at that point, just like upselling a product, it only increased the scope of who I was, instead of instantly defining me in a negative manner.