Email Marketing Teardown: Recap

Three B2B marketing experts.

Several really bad emails.

Earlier this summer, three B2B marketing legends got together to do what most could hardly even fathom doing in their wildest dreams; blatantly and openly criticize the work of fellow marketers.

If you're a marketer, you've certainly criticized the work of other marketers. It's part of the job. But have you done it in a live session with 300+ people in the audience? I think not. These guys did.

Curious? I don't blame you!

Read on to learn some of the key takeaways from the Exit Five Email Marketing Teardown.

Meet the Speakers

Before the big reveal of our key insights, I'd like to introduce you to the three featured speakers from the Email Teardown session. Each of the three are longstanding experts in the B2B marketing space.

Meet Dave, Jay, and Pierce.

Dave Gerhardt

• Founder and CEO of Exit Five

As a seasoned B2B marketer, it's no surprise that Dave Gerhardt decided to build Exit Five, the #1 community for B2B marketers. The Exit Five community is now 4000+ members and continues to grow everyday, providing free resources to learn and promote career growth.

Jay Schwedelson

• Founder of SubjectLine.com
• President and CEO of Outcome Media
• Founder of GURU Media Hub

Jay wears many hats. With a formidable list of achievements, one of Jay's many experiences include that he founded SubjectLine.com, the #1 ranked free email subject line grading tool that has served over 200,000 marketers worldwide. He's also the founder of GURU Media Hub, the parent company which hosts conferences that amass over 50,000 attendees each year. Oh, and he's also a guest instructor for Email Marketing Best Practices at Harvard Business School.

Pierce Ujjainwalla

• CEO and Co-Founder of Knak
• Chairman of the Board and Founder of Revenue Pulse

Pierce is one of the first pioneers in the space of no-code campaign creation. Being a long time Marketo champion, he saw the roadblocks that HTML coding caused marketing teams, so he created a solution: Knak. He's also the Founder and Chairman of the Board at Revenue Pulse, a RevOps / Marketo consultancy service for companies looking to unlock the full power of marketing automation.

Jay's Subject Line Tips

If your email doesn't get opened, who cares?

Your subject line (AND PREVIEW TEXT) is the first thing your audience sees, and thus one of the most important factors in influencing a healthy open rate.

Having an amazing subject line can do wonders for your open rates.

Having a terrible subject line can do horrors for your open rates.

How can we ensure our subject lines are the best they can be? Well, here's a few tips from Jay, the founder of SubjectLine.com himself, to help you improve your subject lines.

Tip #1: Tell them who they are.

Personalization is the #1 factor that's getting emails opened.

But you'll have to do more than just say their name.

How? Tell them who they are! Let's check out some examples:

Company: Use their company name.

Example: Is {{their company}} at risk?

Job Function: State their core job function.

Example: Just for Marketing Operations Professionals...

Industry: Clearly indicate their industry.

Example: 6 Trends in the Fashion Sector...

Us vs. Them: Name drop a competitor of theirs to pique interest.

Example: {{their company}} vs {{competitor}}, a breakdown

Longevity: Mention the longevity of their relationship with your brand.

Example: Only for New Customers...

Tip #2: Don't be afraid to change the sender name.

Jay told the audience that in most occasions, you can treat the "From" as the introduction to your subject line.

You don't need all of your emails to come from the same entity! In fact, we encourage you to tailor the "From" specifically for each email you send out.

Below, you'll find an example from Apple.

Notice how each email has a different entity sending it? Instead of sending six emails from "Apple", they sent one email from six different divisions of apple. All in one day.

This allows us not only to send more emails, but also to send more effective emails by giving your audience more context and preface to your content.

Tip #3: Your subject line MUST be consistent with your email.

This is a given.

But surprisingly, people often miss the mark with this one.

Do not promise anything in your subject line that you cannot follow through on. If you're promising tips, give them tips! Don't make them click a link.

Why?

By having an inconsistent subject line and email, your customers will end up expecting one thing but finding another.

This can build feeling of mistrust and cause them to avoid opening future emails from your brand.

For example, one email we saw in the teardown had a great subject line that promised three insights to a recent study. However, upon opening the email, we found that there was no mention of said insights. To access them, readers had to click the CTA.

Don't do that. Give your customers what you promised them. Your whole process should be consistent and easy.

Tip #4: Always ask, what's in it for them?

You need to put yourself in your audience's shoes.

If you're drafting a subject line that you wouldn't open yourself, change it.

Instead of simply telling your readers what to expect, try telling them what they'll be getting out of it. What do we mean by this? Here's a few examples.

Instead of: New Webinar - How to Implement a Change Management Office

Try: Need some big changes at the office? We can help with that.

Instead of: What do these jobs have in common?

Try: 4 Tips to bridge the gap from Finance to Marketing

Instead of: Thanks for joining our community.

Try: Let's get you the most of your subscription.

Pierce's Email Design Tips

So you're getting people to open your emails. Amazing!

Now what?

The emails themselves need to be beautiful. Flawless. And they need to entice people to click your CTA.

Luckily, Knak's very own CEO and Co-Founder, Pierce Ujjainwalla, has developed the CHEETAH framework; a unique process that helps ensure your emails are the best they can be.

C — Captivate

This step is all about getting your customers to open your emails in the first place. Jay gives us a few great subject line related tips above, so we won't dive too deep into this. However, here's a couple questions to consider before you send off your email:

• Are you dropping bombs with your send display name, subject line, and preview text?
• Are you going to use emojis to capture it or just let it slip?

H — Human

The worst thing you can do with your emails is have them sound like they're coming from a robotic, corporate entity. You need to sound like a human! From your subject lines, to your email copy, to even your CTA, you should strive to be real and relatable.

• Are you writing in authentic language like a human?
• Write your marketing emails as if you’re writing to a friend, or a customer you know.

E — Entertatin

This is my personal favourite. Entertaining is essential in nearly any form of marketing. Obviously you want to stay within your brand and keep a professional composure, but don't you love it when you see a campaign that makes you stop and go, "ha, that's good".

• Who said B2B is boring?
• Take a chance. Take a risk. Have fun with your emails.

E — Easy

Your emails need to be easy to understand and digest. How? Before you even begin your email, define your goal. Stick to your goal, and have your entire email focus on that. Causing any form of confusion is an easy way to ensure your audience never opens your emails again.

• Define the goal. What do you want them to do?
• Highlight the purpose of your email and ensure your CTA is visible.

T — Transitions

Please listen when I say this: nobody said every section in your emails needs to be divided by a straight line across it. It looks boring, and about the same as the most exciting email you get from your library. Using creative transitions adds an extra element to your emails that helps set your brand apart. Also, it's as easy as adding in just one more image!

• Get creative with the transitions in your emails.
• You have the tools to create unique emails. Use them!

A — Animate

Adding animated aspects in your emails is a fantastic way to boost engagement metrics and overall delight your audience. However, there's a fine line; you don't want to do too much. If you're going to include animations, gifs, or interactive content, you want to make sure that they are subtle. Also, never do anything that is more than 2MB, as it may not load.

• Animate your emails with videos, gifs, and interactive content.
• Helps to stand out, be different, and catch attention.

H — Harmony

Consistency is key. Every single part of your email needs to be consistent. But it goes beyond that. Say everything goes perfect — they love the email, they click the CTA — what's next? A landing page. To ensure real consistency, your landing page needs to be just as smooth as your email. Your email should hook, and your landing page should convert.

• Are your emails and landing pages consistent?
• Your email should hook and your landing page should convert.
• Do you make it easy for your prospects/customers to convert?

Other Tips You Might've Missed

You've got the major tips from Jay and Pierce, but there were TONS of other nuggets of information sprinkled throughout the session.

Although many of these may have been easily missed, luckily, we went through the recording and compiled every piece of advice to help you bring your email marketing game up to par.

Don't call your webinar a webinar.

The word "webinar" is a great way to kill a lead. People don't like going to "webinars". They like going to Email Live Teardown Sessions. They like learning how to implement positive, lasting change in their offices. They like discovering new methods to improve their social media strategies.

See what I'm doing here? Don't focus on the vehicle (webinar, e-book, etc.), focus on the topic. Focus on what your audience is interested in.

Your first email to a customer is your most important.

First impressions matter. Don't let anyone tell you differently.

Especially in email marketing, your first impression on your customer is the more important. If the first email they receive is boring, misleading, or even worse, broken, they may never open one of your emails again. On the other hand, if you are able to wow them with your first email, you may just be starting a wonderful journey with a loyal customer.

In the early stages, an email open is a clear indication to their inbox that you are a trusted sender, so don't skimp out on your subject line.

One CTA is enough.

Your CTA should be clear and easy to find. Notice how I said CTA (singular), not CTAs (plural). You only need one CTA. Anymore and you'll probably just end up confusing your reader and tanking your engagement metrics.

Pierce has a great analogy where he compares the In N Out menu to the Cheesecake Factory menu.

You want your emails to feel like In N Out — easy, simple, and fast.

You don't want your emails to feel like Cheesecake Factory — long, confusing, and takes forever to make a decision.

Emails from a person are typically better than emails from a company.

Why? Well, it goes back to Pierce's tip on being human.

People respond better to people. So, when you're crafting your "From" address, try sending it from a person in your company.

"Jen from Knak" is better than just "Knak".

However, you need to be consistent in the email. You don't want your email to come from a person but sound like a robot. As mentioned earlier, try writing your email as if you're writing it to an individual, rather than a group.

Write your CTAs in first-person.

Writing your CTA in first person is a fantastic way to immediately have your audience become more invested in your offering.

According to Jay, it can even boost your click-through-rates by up to 20%. Also, it differentiates your emails from everything else in the inbox.

How do you do this? Instead of "Register Now", try "Save My Seat", "Sign Me Up", or if it's for an e-book, "Give me the Content".

Catch the full Email Teardown Live Session here!

Looking to catch the session in it's full glory? Worry not!

Exit Five recorded and turned the entire session into a podcast. Listen to it on your commute to work for some insightful tips, quality banter, and jokes that'll brighten your morning.

Find the full podcast right here!