Michael L. Perry (e) MLPerryNY@mac.com (t) @mlperryny (fb) www.facebook.com/mlperryny (LI) www.MLPerryNY.com (m) 973.229.4695 Are You a WORM? Published: 20 Aug 08, Online Marketing Connect http://www.onlinemarketingconnect.com/michaelperry/2008/08/are-you-a-worm/

Yesterday I received a comment about the preview pane and it highlighted something that may be useful to talk about. Simply put, are you a WORM?

WORM stands for Write Once, Read Many – it is normally associated with print. E-mail was a wonderful technological advance that allowed us marketers to break free from having to send a lot of people the exact same message. However, I really don’t think as an industry we have gotten past WORM.

E-mail and other digital platforms are perfect to turn WORM into WMRM, Write Many, Read Many. I know it is a lot of work, I know, I know, I KNOW!!!! But it is so worth the effort, it really is. One trick to make the burden a bit less is to redesign your email so it will support “content blocks” – we all talk about Information Architecture (IA) for websites, I am a huge fan of IA for e-mail. Why? Well because it isn’t about what you want them to do; it is about what you want them to do next, that is the key. A good IA design for email will help you ward off fatigue and keep your receptivity high.

How does this relate to the value of your open rate? In Monday’s post I did say that one value of the open rate was for A/B or DoE testing. Taking that a bit further…how many of you are creating subject line tests on a segmented basis. Are one time purchasers/subscribers/viewers being spoken to the same way as someone you have no relationship with, or worse someone you have a deep relationship with?

Moving toward a WMRM subject line strategy will help to drive WMRM content. Additionally, if you keep a robust archive of what subject lines were tested and what the results were it will help you construct better subject lines in the future. Not just from a “what worked” but more from a “what worked” for different segments.

While we are on the topic of subject lines, do you write your subject lines first or after the creative is complete? I hear from a lot of folks that they do it last; I used to do that. Now I write my subject lines first. By doing this it ensures that my copy and imagery are completely on target.

When I wrote my subject lines last I found that I was trying to “explain” the content. When I switched to writing them first it became my “elevator speech” albeit in 50 characters or less. Again, it isn’t easy to do, but it is worth a test. It is also a great way to shake up your marketing and creative teams in a positive way; it gets them thinking about the usual things but in different ways.

Subject lines, which the open rate is supposed to measure, are tricky things. Get them right and it is a gateway to your content. Get them wrong and your content doesn’t even get seen.