I’ve ended up on too many Internet Marketing lists and I go through periods where I just start unsubscribing in the hopes of eliminating all the noise in my inbox.
Today I unsubscribed from the list of a major, well-known Internet Marketer. Why? Because of the subject line of his email… “Copywriter Commits Suicide?”
I understand that you’re supposed to use your subject line to catch their attention and stimulate emotion but sometimes the reaction your subject line gets may not be the reaction you wanted. Sure, I opened his email instead of deleting it…but that was just to get to the unsubscribe link.
Did the copywriter whose product this marketer is trying to sell actually kill himself? No. It was a reference to “professional suicide” which he’s supposedly doing by giving something away for free.
So why make light of something as serious as suicide just to earn some affiliate commissions? Is it really that effective? I’d love to find out his stats and see how many of those emails were even opened and if there were others that unsubscribed.
There are better ways than this to write attention-getting subject lines. And if you’re delivering quality products and valuable information to your clients and customers, they’re going to open your email and read it no matter what the subject line is.
In fact, I don’t even pay attention to headlines. I check to see who its from, because there are certain marketers I trust…and one that would use a sensitive topic like suicide for profit isn’t on that list. I don’t care how rich he is or how many others may trust him. I don’t.
P.S. Avoid the cuss words in subject lines too…unless you’re Frank Kern.
Excellent post, April. Recently, I’ve clicked the unsubscribe link in many of the emails, within my inbox, due to the same reason you referenced above. It amazes me what some will do in order to get their emails opened.
Like you, I have a few IM’ers that I’ll open their emails regardless of what the subject line says. Once they have gained my trust, I’m hooked and a loyal follower.
Thanks for writing on such a great topic! We can all learn from this.
I guess you have to give them credit for working hard to grab our attention. But it does seem to be in poor taste.
I like the last line, especially:
P.S. Avoid the cuss words in subject lines too…unless you’re Frank Kern
I have said almost the same thing to a friend of mine, even brought up Frank in the conversation. He seems to get away with it, but anyone else just comes off as unprofessional