Hermanoff Public Relations

In a series of “think-aloud” studies in 2011, the Carnegie Mellon professors asked participants to sort through emails in their own inboxes and in inboxes developed for the study.

The results? Readers were most likely to open emails with subject lines focusing on:

1. Utility, or relevance: People are most likely to open emails when the subject line focuses on “information I can use to live my life better.”

2. Curiosity: Carnegie Mellon is heavily invested in “knowledge gap” research. That is, once people know what they don’t know, they’re eager to close the gap. So this study tested emails with vague subject lines, not entertaining ones.

Curiosity worked when recipients:

Knew who the email was from but were uncertain about the contents
Understood the contents because of a detailed subject line but were unfamiliar with the sender

Utility was more effective than curiosity in getting emails opened. And the more emails recipients received, the less effective curiosity became.

The researchers did not look into the effect of interesting, or feature-style, subject lines. I suspect that engaging subject lines that raise interest in the topic, but don’t spell it out clearly, would also be effective.

But unless your reader knows you personally and will be driven to open your message solely based on your relationship, I do not recommend using vague or empty subject lines.

Given the research, here are three ways to make your subject lines more effective:

1. Focus on readers’ self interest.

The best subject line I received last year came from Portland Monthly’s Shop Talk e-zine. It said: “Talk to Tim Gunn | Free Kiehl’s Product | Bad Mall Photos.”

You had me at Tim Gunn!

Opportunities, offers and discounts drive the most opens, according to Lyris Technologies. So focus on what’s in it for the recipient, not what’s in it for you, the sender.

2. Make it interesting.

Among the most popular subject lines for my e-zine, Wylie’s Writing Tips:

“Pleading for shorter sentences”
“Don’t commit verbicide”
“Can you read me now?”

Why did these lines get higher click-through rates than usual?

Because they focus on what the reader will learn and they sound intriguing.

3. Make it easy.

EmailLabs studied 23,475 email campaigns of more than 650 companies. They found that:

Recipients opened email messages with subject lines of less than 50 characters 12.5 percent more often than those with 50-plus characters.
The click-through rates for the shorter subject lines were 75 percent higher than for the longer ones.
Some email platforms truncate subject lines after 5 words or so. So limiting your subject line to 50 characters or less will also ensure that it displays fully in inboxes and on mobile devices. Plus, shorter subject lines are easier to understand at a glance.

Ann Wylie works with communicators who want to reach more readers and with organizations that want to get the word out. To learn more about her training, consulting or writing and editing services, contact her at ann@WylieComm.com
Email: ann at WylieComm.com

I received the following note the other day via LinkedIn, from someone who has apparently been in the business for more than 20 years:

“I found out on a web site called social media today that you have considerable experience in PR and social media expertise.

“Although I also have an extensive PR background, I up to now haven’t needed to get involved in social media very much. My PR areas of expertise are media relations, writing, research, and special events.

“I have developed many customized media lists using Excel.

“Can I somehow use Twitter also to develop customized media lists using media data that I find from a variety of sources, which I do when creating Excel media lists? If I can, how do I go about creating customized Twitter media lists that include writers’ names, title, media name, email address, etc.

“Also, I want to find some articles/case histories that detail how companies have specifically used Twitter and Facebook to in PR campaigns to boost awareness of products and services,

“If you can provide me with links to such articles/case histories, that will be fantastic.

Any questions, send them.”

I responded that the person in question should read this post, and if he wanted to chat further, he could book a two-hour (paid) consult via my assistant.

To which he asked where he could find the post, and made a snarky comment on how perhaps he should become a “social media expert consultant at that hourly rate,” as it’s more than he’s “ever received in PR on hourly basis.”

***

When PRSA asked me to author a guest post on the evolution and elevation of social media, I was wondering how I could do so without stating the obvious: that social is here to stay, it’s not just for the “kids,” and if you haven’t gotten on board that particular bandwagon yet, you should start dusting off the old drum kit pronto.

Then I received this note. And it seemed to me to illustrate exactly how our industry needs to evolve vis-à-vis social media and the elevation thereof.

Clearly there is a sizable group in the industry that is still grappling with social, while grudgingly realizing they need to learn how to deal with it. Despite my irritation at this interchange, I sensed that the arrogance (“Tell me everything I want to know! Do it now! Free!”) and snark (“Whaaa? How do you get away with charging that?!”) were layered on top of confusion and, perhaps, fear. Because while this gent and others of his ilk may see the writing on the wall, clearly they don’t like the story it’s telling.

Social media cannot be elevated from the tactical to the strategic if it continues to be boxed in or silo-d. While its evolution has been breathtaking—a day does not go by that I don’t marvel at what a remarkable time we live in, to literally see technology change the world, minute by minute—it must be invited to sit at the family table, not banished to the kids’ corner.

Public relations practitioners of all stripes must understand this. They must start to respect what social brings to the table, even if they choose not to make that a core part of their business offering. They must start looking at public relations in an integrated and measurable way, because that’s the only way it will be regarded as an integral business function.

That means a genuine desire to learn, grow and engage, resisting the urge to make digs at those who’ve taken the time and trouble to at least be in step with today’s world. That’s what I hope to see happen, and our industry take larger strides toward, in 2014.

Shonali Burke, guest blogger

Shonali Burke was named to PRWeek’s inaugural top “40 Under 40″ list of US-based PRprofessionals and is considered one of 25 women that rock social media. As President & CEO, Shonali Burke Consulting, Inc., she helps take business communication strategy from corporate codswallop to community cool™. Shonali is also Adjunct Faculty at Johns Hopkins University, and publisher of the popular PR and digital media blog, Waxing UnLyrical. The Washington Business Journal recently named her one of 10 CEOs to follow on Twitter… follow their advice by finding her @shonali.

Reposted from: http://prsay.prsa.org PRSA/Editor’s note: This is the finalin a series of guest posts from industry thought leaders predicting key trends that will impact the public relations industry in 2014. Hosted under the hashtag #PRin2014, the series began Jan. 8, 2014, with a compilation post previewing some of the predictions.