Saturday 29 November 2014

Is Technology Making Today's Youth More Lonely?

My niece is a single child. Her teen years seem to be very very different from mine. Unlike my childhood where I had a brother, multiple cousins, ‘building friends’, ‘family friends’ and various other segments of friends, her primary and only set of friends her age are her school friends. Her time outside school is spent between multiple screens – watching TV, messaging friends and browsing Facebook. I often wonder, is she growing up to be a lonely child.

It was quite reassuring to read a researches by two Australain schools - Griffith University and the University of Queensland. They say, no lonliness is not increasing. In fact, quite on the contrary – loneliness is on a decline with every passing generation.


Their data points out that recent cultural shifts like urbanization, increased social emphasis on personal success, freedom arising from greater economic opportunities and parents placing less emphasis on raising obedient kids – has led to greater sense of individuality. Individualism, in turn, reduces the feeling of loneliness. Increasing self reliance, self esteem and decreasing interest in human interest – decreasing loneliness. 

Tonight,  I will go to sleep a happier aunt knowing that perhaps my tech saturated niece's tech based social interactions are perhaps making her more adept at social interactions than I ever was or ever will be. So, cheers to yet another plus point of technology. 

Thursday 13 November 2014

9 things to remember for your email marketing campaign

In the arsenal of marketing tools available today, email marketing is one of the most difficult ones. From catching the receiver's attention to dodging spam filters - life can be really difficult. However, it is also one of the most popular ones. If you do manage to get the receiver to click on the mail and spend 15 seconds of her valuable time, you would have got a lot more in terms of engagement than multiple thousand GRPs spent on your television campaign.

Now, that sounds like music to your ears. Doesn't it? But how do you manage to do it? How do you get her to not only click on the email but actually engage with it? For people who keep their eyes open to the world around them, there are multiple ways to get clicked. Here's my top nine tips:

1.  Write. Rewrite. And Then Again Write The Subject Line
Subject line is where the magic lies. I suggest that to ensure your email is opened, you must research the motivators, spend disproportionate amount of time crafting the copy and above all talk about a great benefit - do all that it takes to make the subject line absolutely irresistible. But confine that irresistible sentence to a mature statement sans multiple exclamation marks and other signs and symbols found in a teenager's Whatsapp message box.

2. Make Sure The Content Is Valuable  
A subject line can only ensure a click but if the content is not valuable enough, hope in hell your emailer will ever get clicked again. Keeping this in mind - always draw up a great email strategy. Detail out everything you know about your TG and the information they are most likely to look for online. Incorporate that in your email cleverly and you will be home and dry.

3. Make It Graphic But Don't Forget to Use Text    
Yes it is true that netizens like to consume graphic messages a lot more than volumes and volumes of text. But remember, not all mail boxes load images automatically. So to ensure both the challenges are tackled - use a well coded HTML instead of an image heavy design. And don't forget to add a little bit of text or else it may not escape the strict spam filters.

4. Always Optimise For Mobiles
Today more mails get read on a mobile device than calls get made from them. So, it will be rather foolish to not agonise about making your email campaign mobile friendly. And if you are doing that, don't forget that the top 2 to 4 inches of your emailer  is your prime property - use it well to communicate the key points that will get the rest of the email read.

5. Sound Human
Each time I receive an emailer, I wondered if there is a secret robot that writes emailers to customers. Really, there is no substitute for a well written, human sounding emailer.  Why do we often forget the importance of pushing up the EQ when writing emailers?

6. Keep Your Text Short
Attention span of your favourite gold fish is 9 seconds. Your consumers' is even lesser. Keep the copy really short. Also, don't forget to make it as scannable as possible. No one reads every word any longer. People just scan through texts and move on.

7. Don't Forget To Make It Sharable
If you are going to take the effort to make the content useful, don't forget receivers may just want to share the useful information with friends and family. Don't get me wrong - your emailer will never go viral. However there is a possibility that someone just might find your information useful and perhaps may want to share. Make it easy for them to do so.

8. Ask To Be Added In The Contact List
In today's world,  Spam filters are way much more advanced than email strategists and email crafters. So while there is every chance that your email will fall into incorrect hands, never forget to ask the receiver to add you to their contact or mailing list. That way you will avoid being caught by the spam filters and your message will get delivered.

9. Never Forget To Add A Gratification  
Oops I almost forgot. Never ever forget to reward the guys who have actually stopped their world from spinning to open your email. A little gift at the end of the emailer always goes a long way.

So if you are embarking on a new journey of email marketing, I wish you good luck. And if you are an old hand, please do write to me and let me know other tricks which you find useful. Always happy to learn a couple of new things.