OK, so it's not as politically incorrect as the "Name 3 Famous Belgians (There are only 2)" trick question, but its a troubling poser for different reasons: I've been rummaging through the impressive library of emails I have amassed for professional reasons and have something sad to report - there are very few good email marketers.
I'm actually pulling some slides together for E-Consultancy's Email Marketing Masterclass next week so thought it would be easy to get my hands on some "best in breed" emails. No such luck. So what is it with emails that leaves me, and maybe you, feeling a bit deflated?
I'll tackle email more in my blogs in future, but here are my Top 3 based on working on getting me to open.
Number 3 - iMedia Connection
I like iMedia because they use a few tried and trusted techniques to capture my attention. Ask questions to draw people into the story; Create lists - 5 mobile success stories implies a quick fix of top tips; if all else fails a dollop of Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt works a treat "The target audience you shouldn't ignore if you want to keep your job" is the implicit threat. Copy some of them. They work.
Number 2. Motley Fool
The From field defines the relationship with the recipient and Motley Fool recognises that their brand has a number of facets. Using brand extentions that are short and snappy creates the recognition you need and manages the expectation of the content.
Number 1 Email Labs/Lyris
Plenty of losers, not many winners in the "design for the preview pane" game. Why oh why do designers insist on slamming big images into the preview pane area when it's so easy to create HTML code that renders well in the preview pane area when people have images disabled. With so many email clients offering both image disabling and preview panes there are really no excuses for not copying what EmailLabs/Lyris do...even their Logo is rendered in HTML code rather than an image.
So, three companies who understand the value of great From fields, Subject Lines and preview panes. How easy is that to emulate? If you want to see a more detail I recently presented a session on Testing in Email Marketing for the Institute of Direct Marketing.
Of course, finding one company that does all three well is another issue!