Whether
it’s the World Cup, final of Wimbledon, or the humble sales email, competition
brings out the best in people (unless you play football for England).
Changes to EU data protection law, better known as GDPR, prompted a
deluge of emails. Inboxes were awash with rather desperate requests for your
consent, gentle reminders to opt-in, and needy pleas to ‘stay in touch’.
But not every brand did the obvious. In this post, we take a look at the
some of the ones that stood out.
The Economist does not beg |
1. Urgency
Robert Cialdini, in his book Influence: the Psychology of Persuasion,
cites the importance of the ‘scarcity principle’: ‘the idea of potential loss
plays a large role in human decision making. In fact, people seem to be more
motivated by the thought of losing something than by the thought of gaining
something of equal value’.
The Economist’s email immediately stresses scarcity by opening with the
superlative ‘last’. It does not plead, nor does it directly address the reader,
instead it encourages action by plainly and definitively stating, ‘you will
have no other chance to potentially receive something valuable from The
Economist’.
2. Putting
‘you’ before ‘we’
This is copywriting 101. Using 2nd person pronouns (you/your) rather
than 1st person (I/we) grants writing persuasive power. Its efficacy was
revealed by a study published in the Journal of Consumer Research, which showed
that ‘self-relevant’ messages are more effective at encouraging a desired
action.
John Lewis utilised this technique, with their GDPR subject line reading:
‘Today is your very last chance’. In reality it meant: ‘Today is our very last
chance’. But a small change in pronouns has a significant semantic effect,
placing the reader at the centre of the message.
3. Humour
GDPR emails got monotonous very quickly (even the two successful
attempts just cited are only a few words apart). With every brand essentially
wanting to do the same thing, they had to work hard to get noticed. A great
example of using humour to differentiate was found in an email from Percolate
(an electronic music promoter).
Who doesn't love regulated data protection? |
The subject line popped out of the inbox as it shouted, ‘WHAT COULD THIS
EMAIL POSSIBLY BE ABOUT?’ Before the email opened up to a picture of a vibrant
party scene with the caption, ‘HANDS UP WHO LOVES GDPR’. The email was funny,
self-aware, and above all different.
4.
Emotional benefits
One of the copywriting commandments is ‘benefits before features’. A
mistake often found in the GDPR emails was a failure to communicate a clear
benefit of staying in touch. Whilst a benefit was clearly absent from many,
others were simply too vague.
Resident Advisor (an online music magazine and community platform)
nailed their subject line, which read, ‘Life is better with music. Keep
discovering it’. The email prioritises the benefit (improving your quality of
life) over the feature (Resident Advisor provides tickets, information and
reviews for music lovers). By communicating a clear emotive reward, it compels
the reader to opt-in.
5. Call to
action
The focus so far has largely fallen on the opening to emails, but let’s
have a look at the close – the call to action. Wiser, a recruitment agency,
created an intelligent call to action that worked for two reasons: 1. It looked
different 2. It utilised intelligent phrasing.
In 2015, the Oxford Dictionary's 'Word of the Year' was the 'Face with Tears of Joy' emoji 😂 |
Emojis are becoming increasingly popular in everyday brand
communications. The ‘heart face’ emoji signifies, particularly to a younger
audience, ‘you will love this!’ It also rephrases the ‘unsubscribe’ option to
instead say, you can ‘tailor’ your preferences. This discourages the reader to
unsubscribe as tailoring takes time. So, why not go with the simple option and
click the heart face emoji?
6. Guilt
The Labour Party went for an orthodox approach to GDPR. Readers were
told that if they did not consent they would ‘ruin Jeremy’s birthday’. It may
seem risky, as many people might enjoy the idea of ruining a politician’s
birthday, but using guilt to encourage action is a proven technique.
Researchers from the Universities of Mississippi State and Western
Ontario have shown that ‘reactive guilt’, the response to having violated one’s
standards of acceptable behaviour, has a clearly observable effect on human
decision making. Surely, politician or not, no one would ruin an old geezer’s
birthday?
So, what have these GDPR emails taught us about writing persuasive emails? Well, in short: get emotional. Express urgency, 'you' not 'we', humour, loaded call-to-action buttons, guilt... they're all using emotion to get the reader involved and responding.
So, what have these GDPR emails taught us about writing persuasive emails? Well, in short: get emotional. Express urgency, 'you' not 'we', humour, loaded call-to-action buttons, guilt... they're all using emotion to get the reader involved and responding.
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