In case you don’t know him …
… Jamie Oliver’s a celebrity chef; a more smiling, less sweary Gordon Ramsay.
Don’t remember why, but I’m on his mailing list.
This email is a classic example of “How not to email”.
Here’s why:
Could do better right from the start
What do you want people who receive your emails to do?
Read them..
So make them as easy to read as possible.
Which means NOT using reversed out text like Jamie is.
Black words on a white background are the easiest to read.
What’s more, you should left justify your body copy, not have it centered.
Don’t make readers’ eyes work harder than they need to.
Where do I click … and why?
If your email is promoting or selling something, make your calls to action clear.
And make it obvious when certain words are a link to be clicked on.
“Love at first bite” isn’t the most obvious call to action (CTA) – perhaps “See the recipes” would be better. And adding an underline to the link would make it clear it’s for clicking on.
Better CTA but white!
The CTA of “Save & Review” is better.
But look how hard it is to read the white copy on the light background.
Though that’s not enough for Jamie …
The invisible sales pitch
He obviously likes the white / light blue combination so much, he’s using it to hide all his sales messages.
Sales prevention at its very finest!
Now to be fair to Jamie, he probably has little or no input as to how his emails look.
The job’s doubtless left to an “expert” designer.
Trouble is Jamie’s designer – and so many others – clearly only knows how to design stuff to make it look nice. NOT how to design for response.
What to do?
Whether it’s your emails, letters or website copy …
… when you need them to sell, your design must help your copy not hinder it.
Does your agency, or one you’re considering, have designers who know how to make your artwork look good AND get responses?
Don’t be dazzled by any awards their work may have won. The judging panel usually look for “creative” and “clever”, not how many sales did it make.
And, of course, as well as the design you must have copy which persuades people to give you their money.
So if you want copy to open purses, walllets and company bank accounts together with design which works with the words andlooks great …
… work which smashes control packs by a thumping 800% …
… we should talk.
Now you may be thinking, “Gerald’s bound to say how good they are”.
In case you are, you don’t have to just take my word for it. Here’s what three happy clients have said about what we do:
“Drayton Bird were extremely reliable to work with, always delivering work on time and within budget, usually hitting the mark within the first round of concepts presented.
“Their experience in direct marketing particularly shone through with impactful copy that got our customers to take action.
“I’d highly recommend them for any of your direct marketing needs.
“Gerald was a pleasure to work with, very responsive to our needs, and always going above and beyond.”
– Donna Ede, Marketing Manager, GLL, London, England
“One of the best things we’ve ever done in terms of marketing, was to get one of Drayton’s fit young birds to write sales copy for our workshops. In just a couple of weeks, we sold out at 5 venues. Our event partners were quite astounded at the crowds we attracted. And we’ve been able to re-use that copy many times since when we’ve run the same event in different cities. A very worthwhile investment indeed!”
– Pam Duncan, Owner, Ken Duncan Group, Wamberal, Australia
“I hope that my competitors don’t read this but for several years I have studied Drayton Bird’s books on advertising. I had often wondered what it would be like to have him help our business but assumed that we could not afford it. Finally, I took advantage of one of his email’s and contacted him. The result was the creation of two print ads and a catalog review. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that I could get quality at affordable prices.
“We have been running both ads for a while and one of the ads contributed to a year over year growth of more than 100%. And the other kick started growth for a large brand that had plateaued. We incorporated many of their catalog suggestions in our latest book. In May we had to reprint the catalog because we ran out due to increased requests. In prior years we had to throw out remaining catalogs at the end of the year.
“Recently I was asked by a vendor for advice on their advertising and I immediately recommended that they contact Drayton Bird. As long as you are not a competitor, I would suggest that you check them out.”
– Rich Hassert, CEO, Braxton-Bragg LLC, Knoxville, TN, America
Just from these three happy clients, you can see it doesn’t matter what you sell …
… where you sell it …
… or who you sell it to, we get you results.
And it doesn’t matter how much your product / service costs, whether it’s simple or complicated, we get you results.
If you’d like results too, let’s have a chat.
Talking to us won’t cost you a bean and you’re definitely not obliged to do anything else.
So if you’re interested, get in touch with me right now while this is fresh in your mind.
Best,
Gerald
