Friday Favorites #1

Currently Listening: The Riveters and Joblogues Podcasts

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If you love badass ladies as much as I do, then you should definitely check out The Riveters and Joblogues Podcasts. The Riveters podcast talks openly and honestly about the good, bad and hilarious that is #LadyLife. The Riveters are Sally Smith, Founder and Executive Director of The Nexus Fund, and Buffy Wicks, a political strategist that runs local and national political and advocacy grassroots campaigns. Each week they talk about stuff like how to stop saying you're sorry, owning your place at work, becoming an authentic leader, how sexism is still a thing, and so so much more. I love hearing honest answers and advice from these boss women.

Joblogues is a weekly podcast, hosted by childhood friends, Joymarie & Cortney, that highlights candid, career conversations with young professionals around the globe. These ladies bring in some of the most inspiring and impressive guests. One of my favorite episodes features General Assembly and Forbes Career Coach, Ariel Lopez. I also love the Hired & Fired segment where the give props (or termination papers) to folks making waves in pop culture & media.

Currently Reading: Jonesy

The comic stars a teenage girl named Jonesy who has equal affection for Bikini Kill and One Direction (a girl after my heart), and also happens to have the power to make people fall in love -- well, except for herself. I pretty much love anything and everything that Boom! Studios puts and Jonesy is no exception. If you want to giggle and smile, check out this sweet comic book. Also, be sure to check out other Boom! titles like Lumberjanes and Giant Days!

Currently Coveting: Etsy Edition 

    

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I regularly turn to Etsy to find creative and handmade clothes. I love that I can find one-of-a-kind clothing and art on Etsy. Plus it gives me a chance to support small local businesses, artists and designers. What's not to love?

Enjoy your weekend! 

Motivation Monday: Madeleine Albright

Shop Talk: The 4 Ways Planning an Email Campaign is like Throwing a Party?

Email data solutions provider, ReturnPath, shows you how planning your next email campaign is like throwing a party. 

1.  Keep it exclusive: Mailing exclusively to users who have indicated they want your messages is the best way to build a loyal and engaged subscriber base.

 If you’ve invited a casual acquaintance to a few of your parties and they repeatedly declined the invite, chances are they’re not interested. The same logic can be applied to subscribers who aren’t reading your messages. Having low engagement may affect your deliverability, so keep a close eye on users who are deleting without reading or, worse yet, marking your messages as spam. 

2. Clean House - Just as you would clear your house of dirt and junk, taking the time to tidy up your email lists is something that should be done on occasion.


Over time, your lists may accumulate spam traps or inactive addresses. These party crashers can definitely ruin the fun, as sending to large amounts of these addresses is a common attribute of spammers. If your list contains too many spam traps or inactive accounts, mailbox providers could mistake your email for spam and block you from reaching the inbox.

3. Decorate - A clean list can help get you in the inbox, but your message’s appearance is often the key to winning over your subscribers. 


Just as you would rearrange furniture for a party, consider trying new locations for your call to actions or trying out different subject lines to see what your guests prefer. Having a clean layout and an accessible design can also increase your chances of engagement. Before you hit “Send,” take a look to see how your messages render across different email clients and devices.

4. Always Have a Warm Welcome - Just as if you’re inviting guests into your house, make sure your subscribers know they’re welcome. 


Sending a welcome series lets users get to know your brand. It’s an introduction that tells them what type of content they can expect from you and encourages them to start interacting with your brand immediately. A welcome series can also set the tone for your relationship. Subscribers who are highly engaged with your welcome series are likely to remain interested. Use feedback from your welcome series to determine if you should invite them to your next party, how often you should invite them or if you should just take them off the list.

Shop Talk: Write Emails That Get Responses

Before you craft that perfect email message, keep this in mind: you're more likely to get a response if you write like a third grader!

According to data from the mail plugin app, Boomerang, emails written at a 3rd-grade reading level were optimal. They provided a whopping 36% lift over emails written at a college reading level and a 17% higher response rate than emails written even at a high school reading level. 

The main parts of your reading grade level score are the number of syllables in your words and the number of words in your sentences. So try simpler words and fewer words per sentence than you normally would. 

Other tips about what really matters when you send that email:

Write with emotions! Another significant factor in determining response rates is how positive (words like great, wonderful, delighted, pleased) or negative (words like bad, hate, furious, terrible) the words in the message are. Response rates for positive emails peaked about 15% higher than neutral for emails with a slightly warm tone. After that, response rates declined as the amount of positive language exceeded what would look “normal” in an email.

Write short (but not too short!) emails. The sweet spot for email length is between 50-125 words, all of which yielded response rates above 50%. Response rates declined slowly from 50% for 125-word messages to about 44% for 500-word messages. But wait...before you send a Hillary style email (10 words...total!) take note, emails under 50 words showed a much steeper decline in response rates. A 25-word email works about as well as a 2000-word one, with only a 44% chance of getting a response.

Same goes for subject lines! Use short (like super short) subject lines! Subject lines with only 3-4 words (excluding email conventions like Re: and Fwd:) received the most responses. Once again, though, the response rates dropped slowly as more words were added.

Does asking questions help increase response? The answer is yes! Emails that asked 1-3 questions are 50% more likely to get a response than emails asking no questions.

Interested in learning more about how to write effective emails, including which words to use and  which words to avoid? Check out this infographic!