I am always looking for eye-catching headlines, subject lines, letter box droppers and other imaginative devices and a couple of items caught my attention the other day.
The first was a great subject line in an email, which was quite simply…
You won’t believe what’s inside this email!
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Unfortunately, when I opened the email and read it, I didn’t believe it, find it interesting or get a trickle of anticipatory dribble running down my chin. In other words, what the sender had to say was of absolutely no interest to me BUT it did get me to start to read the message. So, maybe it’s worth a try when you next want to get things read. But remember to match the message with the audience so it does amaze, excite or stimulate them so they read the whole message… and then do what you want them to do!
The next example was a letter dropped in our mail box the envelope of which contained the message that really got me in!
Was this near neighbour, someone I knew that was hurting? Somebody near us who desperately needed help? Feverishly I opened the letter to read it… and felt conned!
It was from a large charity organisation making a general, state wide appeal. It was not even from anyone in my neighbourhood, my town or my municipality. It would certainly have been more credible if it had mentioned that Kylie, or several women like her, lived near me but, no, it was just a trick to get me into opening the envelope.
And yet, properly done, it can work gangbusters. The key is to make sure that whoever wrote it can be seen to be a neighbour by proximity or some other commonality. I’ve helped many businesses use a “Hi neighbour” letter successfully many times where we have ensured that the neighbour bond is credible.
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