Write Makes Might! Subject Line Research. Comprehensive Style Guide. Could It Be Worth Testing? Marketing: Details Matter: Gender Versioning:

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1 VOLUME 4.2 Write Makes Might! Marketing: Subject Line Research Details Matter: Comprehensive Style Guide Gender Versioning: Could It Be Worth Testing? Plus Jays Tickets, Giving Back Winners New Willow Web Site

2 our FiRSt three GivinG BacK WinneRS: habitat FoR humanity toronto uja FedeRation of toronto cystic FiBRoSiS of canada help your favouritecharity win $500 of print and mail services through our Giving Back program. each month for the balance of 2013, we will select a deserving charitable organization registered in canada to receive our gift of $500 worth of print and mail services (note: postage is not included and no purchase is necessary to qualify). help us celebrate 60 years by nominating your favourite charity using the linked form. Scan the QR code or visit: call us: ext us: sales@willowprint.com

3 subject lines CHARACTERCOUNT U.K. service provider Adestra analyzed the subject lines of thousands of broadcast campaigns to gain insight into what works and what doesn t. Here is a summary of their findings. SUBJECT LINE LENGTH Less than 30 characters. Shorter subject lines work best with highly focused and carefully selected words, generating high levels of engagement in terms of click throughs. For one offer, stick to fewer than 30 characters in your subject line. Over 90 characters. Longer subject lines get the best open rates when they include multiple benefits characters performed the worst. Avoid subject lines between characters. This is the dead zone. SUBJECT LINE LENGTH FOR B2B In B2B s, longer subject lines work better than shorter ones. Up to six word subject lines are advised for awareness s that don t necessarily have a direct need for a call to action to click. Subject lines with six to ten words drive open rates, but not click throughs. While subject lines with more than 10 words saw a drop in open rates, they saw a huge increase in click throughs. Subject lines with 16 or more words delivered both opens and clicks. B2C LENGTH SHOWS DEFINITIVE RESULTS Short subject lines with three to five words appear to have a negative effect on open and click through rates. Subject lines with three or four words perform around 40% worse than average both in open rate and in clicks. Subject lines with over 15 words perform significantly better in B2C marketing. A 20-word subject line is the clear performer, with 115% more opens and 85% more clicks. FYI Willow offers complete marketing services from design to delivery! SUBJECT LINE CONTENT Use a dollar sign early in your subject line to boost performance. The word sale drives the highest open rates. Other promotional words like free, discount, half-price, and save don t perform well. Subject lines that communicate specific value perform better. Avoid the word newsletter. Instead, use words like alert, breaking, news, or update. These words seem to create a stronger sense of urgency and interest. The word research performs better than report. The words issue and latest perform better than forecast and whitepaper. The words profit, money and revenue perform better than ROI, asset, and industry. Subjects that refer to specific events performed well across both B2B and B2C. Personalized subject lines perform better than nonpersonalized ones. Click throughs are higher when personalization occurs throughout the content of the , beyond just the greeting. Interestingly, social networks were poor drivers of response rates overall. We highly recommend that you add both subject line length and trigger words to your testing matrix, whether you are marketing B2B or B2C. It may be an easy way to boost performance. 3

4 It s the little things that can make all the difference. The things you might not notice when they re right, but you always notice when they aren t. Those things that, once you have learned the right way, will make you cringe when seen any other way. 4

5 details STYLE GUIDE matter HYPHEN VS. DASH. There are actually three hyphen-like characters: The hyphen itself, the en dash and the em dash, with specific rules when you should use each one: Hyphen Used as an automatically-generated dash when a multi-syllable word breaks at the end of a line Use the hyphen to link compound modifiers and other hyphenated words (Catherine Zeta-Jones) Use it for telephone numbers (e.g ) Do not put a space before or after a hyphen En Dash Use as a substitute for through ( ) Do not use with from ( I attended college , not from ) No space before or after an en dash Em Dash Use it to signify an abrupt change of meaning or thought in a sentence (The em dash a long dash used to separate a thought in a sentence is twice as long as an en dash.) Do not put a space before or after an em dash AVOID UNDERLINES. The underline is a visual relic of the typewriter age. The typeset equivalent is Italic. ITS VS. IT S It s a dog eating its dog food. It s is a contraction, a combination of the pronoun it and either the verb is or has. Examples of contractions: He d and they re. Use its, without the apostrophe, to refer to a possessive, like hers or his. Though most possessives (Jimmy s, for example) use an apostrophe, its does not. ELLIPSIS Use an ellipsis to replace omitted text. These dot-dotdots are subject to their own grammar rules that are often overlooked. If words are omitted at the end of a sentence, use an ellipsis followed by a period. If sentences are omitted between other sentences within a quotation, use an ellipsis after the period. QUOTES VS. INCH MARKS. Typewriters didn t differentiate between quotes and the inch symbol, but fonts do. Unfortunately, keyboards do not have a smart quote key. You have to know how to access the right character. To make it easier, a number of word processing and layout programs support smart quotes. With smart quotes, straight quotes convert automatically to open-close quote pairs if you manually type text. [BRACKETS] VS. (PARENTHESES). Brackets are used to enclose explanatory material inserted into a quotation by someone other than the original writer or person being quoted [I did not know that! Editor]. Use parentheses (the marks surrounding this) as a way to provide an additional or alternative explanation of the subject at hand: The record low for July 9 was 60 (15 C). Acronyms are good examples of when to use parentheses: Canadian Anti-Spam Law (CASL). SPELL OUT NUMBERS UNDER 11. The rule for numbers: Spell out when they are less than ten and use numerals for 11 and above. Always spell out numbers when they begin a sentence (Four score and seven years ago), except for calendar years (1776). Use numerals for percents (5%), time (8 minutes; 3:00 pm) and ages (the baby will be 6 months old tomorrow). COLONS AND SEMI-COLONS. Use semi-colons to connect two closely related sentences and avoid run-ons. Do not capitalize the word following a semi-colon. Rely on a colon when announcing a list or as a way to transition to a similar point of focus. Unlike the semi-colon, capitalize the initial letter of a word immediately following a colon: Use colons and semi-colons just like this; don t worry, this is the right way! AVOID DOUBLE SPACING. Never use double spacing to separate sentences. It is an outdated holdover from the days of the typewriter. Double spaces create gaps in paragraph spacing and make the eye jump around the page. Layout and word processing software require only one space. Use just one space after periods, colons, exclamation points, question and quotation marks, etc. With the space bar, less is definitely more. 5

6 Does Your Marketing free app to genderize your list: Suffer from Gender Bias? A slew of research suggests that, in aggregate, men and women react differently to colours, images, topic matter and even the style of copy. Should you take these differences into consideration when designing direct mail and broadcast campaigns? Could gender-targeted versioning improve your campaign response rates?

7 SO WHAT WORKS, GENERALLY? We surveyed the research on what works best when marketing to men vs. women, and here's the consensus: APPROACH TO FEMALE MALE shapes, lines rounder, softer edges harder, more defined lines/edges colour schemes brighter, more complex simpler, darker copy, voice casual language and tone formal, expert, minimize abbreviations visuals informal photographs images featuring motion tap into desire for value over time, impulsiveness, immediacy of need, inclination to share information inclination to brag make the case tell a story, focus on value, prove it with numbers & testimonials, focus on problems provide stories to share solved, provide the little details and talking points BREAK-THROUGH OR BUNK? It's pretty easy to test your marketing for a gender gap. 1. Evaluate Your Most Recent Results. Visit and you will find our free Gender Finder app, an easy-to-use way to determine the gender of your list if it contains a first- or full-name field. Export the first names of the people to whom you mailed your last direct mail or campaign, as well as your list of people who responded. Run these lists through the Gender Finder application. Get a sense of what the make-up of your initial list was vs. the make-up of your responders. 2. Next time, design to appeal to either men or women. Evaluate the results from that effort. If gender marketing doesn't work, you should get the same approximate percentage of response from your list as you did before you tweaked the design to appeal to a specific gender. If the response is skewed more heavily toward the gender for which you designed, you now know the easiest way possible to increase your response rates: Do two versions! Like many ideas to boost response, the value of gender marketing can be intially gauged with a simple A/B test. Encourage your team to rely on testing and analysis, rather than opinion, to determine what works for you. Why settle for no when it is so easy to know? GET MORE FROM VARIABLE DATA Chances are you have produced or direct mail campaigns with some embedded personalization. Why not use the power of variable data personalization to do more than add a "Dear John" field to your mailer? With variable data, you can write copy, choose colours and images, even design offers and call-to-actions based on gender. It's quick, easy, and quite economical when you consider the potential benefits. NEED SOME HELP? If you need some help with gender marketing, personalization or variable data in general, give us a call at We'd be happy to help you think through your tests, creative options and even produce your campaign.

8 , Willow survey Blue Jays tickets winner We would like to thank all who participated in the Willow survey. The lucky winner of the pair of Blue Jays tickets is Kelly Petit, Advertising Production Manager for Staples. Willow announces first three winners of its Giving Back program As part of our 60th Anniversary cele bra tion, Willow is running a contest, Giving Back, where charities can win a dona tion of $500 in print and mail services via a monthly draw. Our first three winners: Cystic Fibrosis of Canada, UJA Federation of Toronto and Habitat for Humanity Toronto. For more information or to enter or refer your favorite charity, please visit: Canada Pooch, Autism Ontario win Willow's free online marketing consultation Willow partnered with Zuz Marketing to offer two lucky winners a one-hour consultation on their online marketing. Congratulations go to our winners: Canada Pooch and Autism Ontario. Willow launches new web site Willow launched a new version of its web site this month, featuring a slew of new content, apps and other cool features: Woman Sitting Under the Willows, Claude Monet