The Importance of Design in Email Marketing - Part III

The Human Interest Angle

This is the final installment of three on the subject of design in email marketing. So far we've covered simplicity and clarity, and the call to action. Now we'll wrap it up with the human interest angle.

There is a reason that Time Inc's People magazine is the most profitable magazine in the world. Well, they sell a lot of ads, but vendors buy that ad space because people READ People. A lot of people. And they read this magazine because People has got us figured out. They know that we can't help but be intrigued by the lives of the rich and gorgeous, the extraordinary, dazzling, sexy people. They understand that we all spend a portion of our time imagining ourselves as celebrities. We've all stood in front of the bathroom mirror, singing into a hairbrush. It's only human.

So we borrow a page from People when we publish our email campaigns. Not literally, of course - that would be plagiarism - but we try to find a way to work a human interest angle into the mix. Granted, an article on Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie may not be appropriate in all instances, but if we can massage a story to be relevant to the topic at hand and still pique human interest, we've got ourselves a sticky message.

How this Relates to Design

In the January issue of House & Home Digest (see sample) we ran with a story about Mick Jagger's West Indies vacation home. As a publisher of home-related content, it's relevant to our genre, and it's also about a really rich, enigmatic guy who will rent out his home to you. So we juxtaposed a photo of the british rocker against a backdrop of his private Caribbean beach and gave it a headline that reads "Want to Party like a Rockstar in the Caribbean?" At a glance, it's enough to catch peoples' attention and garner some click-thrus.

The Upshot

While we're still monitoring the metrics for the January issue, so far Mick has almost as many click-thrus as the free iPod giveaway. That's huge. So, catchy design + human interest content = great water cooler fodder. Yeah, we admit it's fluff. But fluff is exactly what many of us want to read once in awhile.

'Til Next Time

I hope you've found value in this article. Next week we'll discuss the importance of landing pages.

If you have questions or article ideas for this newsletter, please send them to me: . Expect another issue of our best practices email in two weeks. I thank you for your attention.