Email Marketing Home Run
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Today I received an email from photographer Steve Marsel. I don’t know him, never heard of him. In fact when I saw the email I couldn’t tell he was a photographer. Didn’t matter. The subject line, “David Ortiz Breaks Out!” hooked me. I’m a Red Sox fan (a Yankees fan may have reacted differently) and I’d seen Big Papi hit his walk off homer against the White Sox last night, so I had to open the email to see what was up.
Lo and behold, not only was there a photo of Ortiz (that Mr. Marsel had taken for Atari/Backyard Sports), there was also a chart (that I had to scroll to see) that showed he is now tied for the most walk off home runs with such baseball luminaries as Babe Ruth and Micky Mantle.
What!? Timely baseball trivia from a marketing email!? Now that is an email I’m going to share and a story I am going to tell.
Let’s recap.
- A subject line that piqued my interest. Check.
- A design that got me to scroll to see more. Check.
- A story that made me want to share. Check.
- A whole package that didn’t make me hate the sender. Check.
Well done Mr. Marsel. Well done.
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Posted by:
Bruce Kaechele
Email the author:
brucek@fathom.net
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Sox fan or not, if I got this email, I would check out Mr. Marsel’s goods for sure.
Makes you think: why do we keep ourselves within our own traditional boxes of what marketing needs to be? Too much noise out there not to take chances and do something cool, Yankees fan or otherwise.
As a Yankees fan – I would not have opened it!
I guess you gotta know your audience.
Or sometimes you just need to be lucky and catch people in the right fame of mind.
I also think Suzi has it right – what made this interesting was that it was different. Most photographer emails I get only show photo samples. While I understand the logic – photos are what they are selling – all things being equal (quality, timing) why would I notice one photog over another if they all approach me in the same way. There’s that fundamental positioning question again. Do you want to stand out as different and turn some people off? Or do you want to look and sound like everyone else and not miss any opportunities? Both are viable options. The first relies on finding the small audience that shares your point-of-view. The second is playing the numbers game.
Bruce,
Thanks again for your great insights and comments on this emailer. Our conversation on the phone was equally eye-opening, and as a result, I’m changing my approach to email marketing. I’ll keep you posted as the results as they come in.
Thanks again for your time!
Steve Marsel
You you could edit the page name The Deep End » 2009 » August to more catching for your webpage you make. I enjoyed the post however.