Keep the language of emails consistent with your other messages. And make it personal.
Major brands go to enormous lengths to maintain a consistent voice across all channels.
A McDonalds TV ad, billboard, voucher, placemat and burger-wrapper all speak with one voice. The same goes for Sony, Ford or the American Cancer Society. They all protect their brands by ensuring that their core message and its style of delivery remains pretty consistent across all media.
In the offline world, the disciplines and processes have long been in place to ensure a consistency of message. But often this isn't the case online. The online environment, still in its infancy, is home to some terrible discord between different messages from the same company.
As a case in point, here are some of the messages put out by Victoria's Secret.
Here is the description of a bra from their Every Body's Essentials page on their Web site:
Body By Victoria® - Strapless Convertible Bra
One bra to wear five ways. Seamlessly smooth under your barest tops, so all you see is curves.
That's pretty much as you would expect. Brief and not too gushy. But with a sense, strongly supported by photography, that this is a classy and sexy piece of underwear.
And here's the introductory text from a recent Victoria's Secret mail order catalog.
"This summer's uniform is more summer camp than boot camp. Shorts and skirts and floaty fabrics that flow with the breeze. Basics that need no training. Olive drab mixed with glitter. Lingerie that's anything but army issue. Even on the most oppressive summer days, when the air wiggles like a bunch of springs, you'll appear perfectly at ease."
True, the phrase 'when the air wiggles like a bunch of springs' might have benefited from a rewrite (or a chainsaw). But the tone and style of this text is consistent with the Victoria's Secret image and brand. It fits. It feels right. It's their voice.
Now look at the text from a recent Victoria's Secret email. This is the first half of the email. The remainder is simply more links.
Fall essentials are now 25% off at VictoriasSecret.com - only until 8/15. It's the perfect time to begin putting your fall wardrobe together.
For a limited time, SAVE on the season's best looks.
https://VictoriasSecret.p01.com/u.d?xEU4jP63egzkzS=340
Sweaters: The fall classics. Chunky, ribbed, fitted. Sleek, shimmery, striped.
https://VictoriasSecret.p01.com/u.d?mkU4jP63egzkzX=350
Tops: Weekend casual and elegant stretch silk.
https://VictoriasSecret.p01.com/u.d?xEU4jP63egzkzM=360
Pants: Flattering Flex Wool and comfortable yoga pants.
https://VictoriasSecret.p01.com/u.d?7kU4jP63egzkzB=370
For a Victoria's Secret fan, this email certainly packs in the links. But isn't there something missing here? Isn't this a wasted opportunity?
Where is the Victoria's Secret brand? Where is that style and tone that reinforces their position in the marketplace? Where is that faint, human voice that tells people that this email comes from real people at their favorite lingerie store?
The irony here is that email, the most personal of communications tools, is being used here in a very distancing way. The strength of email to get up close and personal is being ignored. Of these three examples of text from Victoria's Secret, the email text is the least personal of all. It fails to connect, to engage, to paint a picture consistent with the company's brand.
Email is interactive, it's personal. It brings you closer to your customers. That doesn't mean that you have to invest in more and more sophisticated software 'solutions'. It simply means that email should be written in a way that is both personal and consistent with the tone you use elsewhere.
In the case of Victoria's Secret, it would make sense for them to write emails that share some of the language and style from their other communications media.
There should also be an intimacy about the language of their emails. Victoria's Secret doesn't sell dowdy, practical clothing. There is something special, something comfortable, something luxurious and sensual about their products.
Why doesn't that come over in their emails? And why don't they at least hint at being personal by including a salutation at the beginning of that email?
"Dear Julie,"
That would be a start.
And then perhaps they could follow with an introductory paragraph that identified this email as being from the same company that created the Victoria's Secret site and sent out those glossy catalogs.
Something like...
"Dear Julie,
It's that time of year again. Summer is drawing to a close and the shorter days of Fall will soon be with us. Time to dull down and retreat until Spring? I don't thing so! From silk sweaters that hug every curve to comfortable denims that keep out those November chills..."
Then introduce some links. And close the email in a personal way as well. And add a name.
"Until next time.
Tracy Kenrick
Victoria's Secret"
Victoria's Secret isn't the only company that misses the opportunity to get closer to their customers with email. Nor are they the only company that writes their emails in a whole different voice than the one they use elsewhere.
Why does this happen? The usual reason. Nobody pays quite enough attention to text. And, all too often, text emails get the least attention of all. They are written in a hurry. They are written by people who have too little experience or too little support.
This is a pity, because a well-written email is perhaps the most powerful of all ways in which you can reach out and connect with your customers, one-on-one.
