Please interact with me

Most promotional or marketing emails bore me. Maybe it's just me. Mabe it's because all it takes is a click to get it out of my face. Or because I'm old-fashioned and want something physical in my hands.

Think about this word: interaction. How often do you get emails that really connect to you? That stimulate you? For me, the answer is 'rarely'. Even the well-designed fundraising appeals with really emotional graphics and killer copy usually don't do it for me. That same appeal in snail mail form might work. But in email, it loses its edge.

So here's a breath of fresh air for you marketers out there. I got this email from MASA the other day, and quite frankly, I really like it. If you haven't heard of them, MASA is known as "The Gateway to Long Term Israel Programs," as they call themselves.

The email starts with their logo and catch phrase at the top. Clear and catchy. Then it asks us a question: "In this new year, what are you hoping for? A Challenge? Adventure? Romance?" Great so far. They've captured my interest. I want to know more.

But it gets better. Now they offer me a chance to interact with them: "Take the Rosh Hashana Quiz below to find your perfect match!" Amazing. I can interact with the email itself without having to click on a link first! It's only after I've already done this that I need to click on a link. It also doesn't hurt that the content of the quiz is witty and original. And then they follow it all up by capturing my contact information, and again, all in the original email.

I'm loving it. PLUS, there is the prominent Happy New Years wish (with cool logo), the succint 3 sentence description of who MASA is, 'send the quiz to a friend' button, 'connect on facebook' icon, and 'follow us on twitter' link. Talk about interaction!

Thank you MASA for renewing my faith in the potential of email marketing. Everybody else, take notes.

Eight type and layout facts you need to know now

Here's some good advice from Colin Wheildon's book, Type and Layout: Are You Communicating or Just Maiking Pretty Shapes?. Thanks to Ivan Levison for pointing this out and for his comments here:

On Headlines:

Wheildon has a lot to say about headlines, and well he should. Just as the job of an envelope (in direct mail) is to get opened, the headline's job is to get the reader into the body copy. That, of course, is where the heart of the message is communicated. It doesn't matter whether you're producing an email, a brochure, a Web page -- you want your headline to be easy to read and to communicate quickly. Check out some of Wheildon's key research findings . . .

1. "Headlines set in capital letters are significantly less legible than those set in lower case."

2. "The darker the headline, the greater the comprehension level. Black headlines are well understood by nearly four times as many readers as brightly colored headlines."

3. "Slightly condensing headline type makes it easier to read. Settings between 70 per cent and 90 per cent of natural width appear to be optimal."

4. "Using periods at the end of headlines may have a detrimental effect on readers' comprehension."

On Body Type:

A headline may be eight or nine words long, but body copy can run on and on. This means that readablity is an extremely important issue. People just won't stick with you and keep reading if your art director or graphic designer makes things difficult. Here are a few more of Colin Wheildon's findings that make excellent sense . . .

5. "Body type must be set in serif type if the designer intends it to be read and understood. More than five times as many readers are likely to show good comprehension when a serif body type is used instead of a sans serif body type."

6. "Text must be printed in black. Even copy set in deep colors is substantially more difficult for readers to understand. Seven times as many participants in the study demonstrated good comprehension when text was black as opposed to either muted or high intensity colors."

7. "Black text printed on light tint has high comprehensibility."

8. "Text set in capitals is difficult to read."

Psychology of a Sales Letter, Part I

I thought it might be interesting to delve into the step-by-step process of receiving, opening and reading a sales letter. Each step is a world in and of itself - perhaps one day we can investigate each one in more depth. For now, the general overview will suffice.

What goes through our mind as we're reading it? What do we look at first? What motivates us to act?

To answer these questions, I picked up a sales letter I recently received and observed my reactions to it. This is what I came up with:

Step 1: I get a sales letter in the mail. Congratualtions! I made it on the mailing list. Ok, so Company X is off to a good start. In addition to getting my information from somewhere (how did they get it?), they also got my address right. Quite a feat indeed.

Step 2: I decide to open it. This is even better news for Company X. Countless letters across the country have already made their way to the trash at this point.

Whoever was in charge of the outer envelope design for this letter did something right. It caught my interest. Or maybe I was already familar with the company. Either way, I'm curious, so I open it up. Of all the decisions that occur during this process, this is probably the most significant. The second I open that envelope, I invite Company X into my home to make their pitch. By opening the letter, I subconsciously tell myself, "I'm interested in what's inside." In effect, I make a subtle commitment to keep going. To "play the game." To keep reading.

Step 3: The Investigation. At this stage I had yet another opportunity to throw the letter out. But after opening it, I am still interested enough to keep going. So I open the envelope and find a few things: A letter, a reply card with a SASE, a lift note and maybe even a free gadget or toy. Cool! There is nothing cerebral about this stage. I'm just noticing the different elements of the package.

Step 4: The Glance. Now I turn my brain on first gear. I flip through all the content, on the lookout for stuff that stands out. The lift note attracts my attention. Any free item of value will do the same. Free pen? I'll put that aside for safekeeping. But I'm not really "reading" anything yet. Just browsing. Basically my eye is naturally wandering, taking in the overall tone of the mailing.

Ok, now I have a good sense of what the mailing is all about. What are they selling? Am I interested? Is this a professional looking company? I can probably answer these questions already. Human intuition works incredibly fast. And amazingly, I haven't even read one sentence of the sales letter yet!

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That's it for Part I. Look out for Part II soon, starting with Step 5: Skimming the Letter.