Social media has set the bar on online relationship expectations. Because of the personalized nature of social media sites, users now expect their email messages to provide a similar experience.
Polls in 2008 and 2009 showed a significant increase in the weight given to subjects that contained “you” or “your” for 2009, when in 2008 they hardly beat terms like “free,” “ship,” “welcome,” and “% off” in importance.
What should marketers do? If you have a users name to go along with an email address, use that information in the subject (e.g. Jodi, This Special Offer is Available Online), title of the email or in the body. If not, use terms such as “you” or “your” and word your message as if you are talking directly to that person instead of a more generalized message and avoid “free” or “shipping.” These are major Spam indicators, so not only will users be less likely to read your email, they may never see the email because their Spam filter prevented it from reaching their inbox in the first place.
