Empathic Selling: "What's in a Subject Heading?"

In my last posting, I introduced the concept of empathic selling and the importance of organizing your message to break through the clutter. The competition for share of attention (B2B and B2C) is fierce, and the message you are trying to communicate is irrelevant if you can’t immediately stimulate interest with a potential prospect. One channel of communication that is as ubiquitous as it is elusive to master is e-mail.

As attention spans become shorter, filters more sophisticated, and inboxes more inundated with messages – how do you stand out? This entry will focus on the development of a subject heading that can help to capture the attention of your prospect in the fleeting 3-5 seconds you have in their inbox.

A few statistics that speak to the importance of creating a relevant subject heading are below:

• 35% of business professionals check email on a mobile device 
• 35% of email recipients open email based on the subject line alone 
• 69% of email recipients report email as Spam based solely on the subject line 

With mobile devices becoming a more predominant channel of e-mail viewing, you are now ALSO competing with millions of apps, social networks, the Internet, text messages, phone calls, angry birds, as well as thousands of others vying for the same share of attention. Let’s look at some ways to maximize your chance of success.

Keep It Simple – Brevity is Key

Email marketing company MailerMailer found longer subject lines had lower open and click rates than those that were shorter:

• 4–15 characters: 15.2% open; 3.1% click 
• 16–27 characters: 11.6% open; 3.8% click 
• 28–39 characters: 12.2% open; 4% click 
• 40–50 characters: 11.9% open; 2.8% click 
• 51+ characters: 10.4% open; 1.8% click

What You Should Avoid:

While these four specific tactics will not get you immediately sent to the spam filter, they are unpleasant, and having been the recipient of thousands of vendor solicitations – they did not work on me:

• Using all capitals in your heading – are you trying to yell at me? 
• Three words: “free”, “percent off”, “reminder” – nothing is free otherwise you wouldn’t be getting paid to solicit me 
• Exclamation points – enough said 
• Sending your initial e-mail as an Outlook invitation to secure a meeting – even if this is accepted, there was no rapport built and it is very easy to cancel at the last minute 

What Does Work?

According to a recent MailChimp study, the company analyzed the open rates for over 200 million emails. Open rates ranged from an amazing 93% to a dismal 0.5%. The study is attached to review the findings; however, the key information is below:

• Localization Helps: Personalization such as first and last name did not significantly help; however, localization such as city name did. 
• Timely and useful information: “Your April Website Statistics” or “August Back-to-School planning” 

Personal Insights

While I don’t have a sample of 200 million e-mails, I have tracked my own e-mail performance over the past 7 years of sending B2B prospecting e-mails to fortune 500 companies. Here are my findings:

• Internal Headings: My greatest success has been derived through evaluation of annual (or quarterly) investor presentations or client 10-K's; my goal is to fully grasp their internal metrics and objectives. Creating a succinct headings focused on the most pressing internal objective always wins. If you can’t find information, my all-time highest rated subject heading is “Focus for Growth”; 14 characters, has an element of being targeted but still ambiguous, and every company is in the business of focused growth (started as my control to test against and has been very strong) 
• Know Your Audience and Segment Messaging: In advertising, companies now have mobile teams, social teams, retail teams, e-commerce teams, etc. My greatest success has been identifying and understanding the metrics that drive each position, and tailoring my heading and e-mail body towards different groups within the same company – more chance for success! Take the time to understand your audience and their pain points relative to your industry- not everyone at the same company is motivated by the same keywords or metrics. 
• Name: ALWAYS use the first name in the e-mail, blanket e-mails do not work. Sales is no longer just a numbers game, it is personal, and requires a personal connection (there is no excuse with the advent of LinkedIn, Jigsaw, Google+, etc.) 
• RE: or FWD: Not my favorite tactic; however, it does work. Artificially including this on an e-mail has prompted response as it appears as if there was already and engaged conversation 
• KISS Method (Keep it Simple, well you know the rest...): Adhere to the character statistics above, MailerMailer know their stuff 

While there is no magic bullet or secret recipe, there are proven tactics that seem to generate success time and time again. E-mail is tricky, but can be your best friend, especially in a B2B environment. If the e-mail generates an initial response; you should be ecstatic! However, e-mail should be viewed as another touch point and not solely relied upon. I use e-mail to convey enough information to generate interest without giving away everything; packaged with a relevant subject heading, you have a great first touch point. A follow phone call with a reference to your e-mail is where the rubber meets the road.

Good luck with your e-mail prospecting, and the next installment will continue to focus on topics and tactics to enhance your toolkit towards empathic selling.

Useful Links:

1. MailChimp Study: http://kb.mailchimp.com/article/best-practices-in-writing-email-subject-lines
2. Convince and Convert: http://www.convinceandconvert.com/email-marketing-advice/15-email-statistics-that-are-shaping-the-future/