Challenge: A Balancing Act
The middle of the funnel is an optimal moment to use tactics that attract prospects with added value or cost savings—e.g., special offers, free trials and discount codes. For eyewear brands in particular, this might be an effective tactic. As one white paper stated on the buying habits of consumers in this space:
“There is a risk associated with purchasing a lens for the first time, and it is a risk that potentially remains for the life of the eyeglasses. Offering a trial period or a money back guarantee goes a long way to overcoming this concern as an obstacle.”
The notion of cost savings, in other words, can lower the initial psychological barrier to entry: encouraging prospects to try a new product by reassuring them a financial transaction would be in their favor.
However, the kinds of marketing emails that promote cost savings have long been deployed by bad actors, peddling scams and bait-and-switches—and this has understandably jaded both prospects in marketing funnels as well as the email service providers (ESPs) that house their inboxes. This drives a two-pronged challenge:
ESPs—platforms or software that enable sending and managing email campaigns—are sensitive to the kinds of words often seen in spam emails, like “free gift” or “free sample.” Emails with subject lines that use these phrases have a higher chance of being automatically flagged as spam, which damages the sender reputation (and thereby the deliverability of future email marketing) of the brand.
Precisely because people are so wary of “here is something for free” emails, marketers may sense themselves in a bind. Does a brand like Katoa set out to prove that it, unlike those discount-offering emailers of Yahoo! times past, is a good actor? If so, it would seem one way to do it would be to provide potential customers with proof—to show them the exact, specific details on how to claim the financial incentive. But this intuitive solution has its own downside. More details means longer emails. And longer emails are less scannable and less engaged with, which can hurt everything from channel metrics such as click-to-open rate and read rate to business metrics like conversion rate and cost per acquisition.
Solution: The Goldilocks Principle
Two main action items will help us manage this tightrope.
First, we need to craft an enticing subject line that not only accurately conveys the incentive inside but also steers clear of the words that’ll consign the message to the spam folder: a fate suffered by one in five emails. (ActiveCampaign has published a list of words to avoid using.) This maximizes the odds our message reaches its destination and the odds it intrigues our target audience at inbox level.
Secondly, Katoa must tread the fine line between giving enough information and giving too much, a version of The Goldilocks Principle. Prospects need to understand why the special offer or discount code is worth it in very few words, so those words must be well chosen and to the point.
How do we know when the copy is right? That is a judgment call, of course: “These [qualitative] types of objectives are felt,” writes Octapull, and “[their] importance is usually undermined.” But there is room, and need, in marketing for these subjective assessments in campaign creation. If we are correct—and what we “feel” is good copy is actually good copy—then the measurable stuff will follow.
Details: Reducing Cognitive Load
While Email Service Providers (ESPs) look for spam trigger words in subject lines, the patrol halts at preview text. This gives us a chance to deploy accurate, straightforward language that would normally be verboten—like “free x” or “free y”—in that part of the email.
Inside the email itself, to both establish credibility for the incentive (for example, getting free sunglasses that can be tried on at home) and to keep text concise, we can focus on step-by-step instructions, a good tactic for several reasons:
Specifics lend the offer realism—again, this is sorely needed when many prospects will already be skeptical of promotional marketing.
Step-by-step instructions make it easier for email recipients to understand what they should do next by reducing cognitive load. Cognitive load theory is a model of human information processing that defines cognitive load as “the amount of information our working memory can process at any given time.” Bite-sized directives that tell people what to do in order to achieve a certain goal are easy on the brain, which makes those actions likelier to occur.
Speaking of telling people what to do next: Instructions use the imperative voice (pick the pair you want, wait 5-7 business days for them to arrive, etc.) Imperative voice hinges on verbs, action words—which though technically commands are usually internalized by consumers more as fair and reasonable suggestions. One study found this voice increases email engagement, an effect that heightens when positive verbs like “add” or “try” or “get” or “buy” are used.
In The Inbox: Subject Line And Preview Text
[ Subject Line A: Try on our bestsellers at home ]
[ Preview Text A: Timeless. Durable. Versatile. Take our classics for a spin at home for free. It’s fast, easy and 100% on us. ]
As ActiveCampaign warns, there are 188 words and phrases that inboxes spam-flag. Among them for certain is “free trial”—and “100%” would probably be dicey too, though in theory it’s only explicitly bad when part of a historically scam-adjacent phrase, like “100% free” or “100% more.” But both are in the preview text, since there it can both inform users and go unpunished by Gmail filters. The subject line, meanwhile, leverages imperative voice and one of its most positive representatives: “try.”
The Email
Click here to see the full email. This will open in a new tab.
Split Test: Who Is Our Audience? What Is Their Style?
[ Subject Line B: Try on our newest arrivals at home ]
[ Preview Text B: See and be seen. We’ll mail you our latest trend-setting frames so you can try them out for free. ]
Between these two emails, the key difference is product focus: the ‘tried-and-true’ of Email A versus fashion-forward Email B. The idea is A will appeal more to prospects to appreciate iconic fashion and B will attract prospects who are braver or more cutting-edge with their style choices. With this experiment we may be able to glean some general truths about what motivates and interests people in the marketing funnel for Katoa Frames.
The hypothesis is that Email A will win: Bestsellers are best-selling for a reason. Classic styles appeal to most people, by definition. Classics are neutral: a valuable trait in sunglasses, an accessory that jump from outfit to outfit. Classics are a sensible, safe-feeling purchase for shoppers who have less time or desire to pore over options. And classics are the preference of the consumers with more buying power, i.e., those with a few more years to their name.
Email B, however, is a compelling potential undercut for that hypothesis. It’s possible it can win the split test if only because its prospect base may, in fact, skew younger than eyewear shoppers at large.
The perception of the need for diversity in fashion, specifically in eyewear, is new. This could mean that anyone in the funnel for Katoa Frames—a brand that acknowledges this need and stridently hopes to help solve it—is more attuned to younger cultural discourse. Born from the mid-1990s to the early-2010s, members of Generation Z are unlocking their purchasing power; “are more racially and ethnically diverse than any previous generation”; and champion an aesthetic of “individuality and self-expression,” with fashion “used as a medium to showcase their unique identities.”
Who is our audience? What is their style? The answer will influence which email wins the split test. And those results will inform future marketing decisions for Katoa, enabling sharper messaging, brand positioning and segmentation.
Click here to go to the next stage in this campaign: Decision