Why 7 Seconds has changed
You'll notice our new design for our monthly 7 Seconds email. Why?
The old design was certainly visually pleasing and had served us well for a couple of years. But things move quickly in the online world and it was time to go back to basics and check that 7 Seconds was as good as it could be - both from the content and technical perspectives.
Here's some of the technical 'must have' issues that needed addressing ...
Must Have #1: Must be readable with the images off
Nearly three quarters of the 7 Seconds readers read using a version of Outlook. 27.3 percent of our readers use Outlook 2007. Since the release of Outlook 2007, most email clients come with images disabled as the default setting. We needed to be easily readable even if the images could not be displayed.
7 Seconds old design.
7 Seconds new design.
Must Have #2: Must be readable in text only readers
We don't know how many of our readers look at us on their Blackberry (or other devices) in ugly text only mode. Analytics packages rely on counting graphics retrieved and displayed to determine how many opens an email is receiving. So yes, you have to read my statistics in my Must Have #1 as proportions of readers using HTML enabled email clients, but I do know there is at least a few ... actually quite a few. So rather than specially crafting the text version for each edition, why not make the ugly text version as reader friendly in its native state?
Must Have #3: Must be optimised for the preview pane
I've seen studies that suggest about 64 percent of readers - yes, I'm one of them - don't actually open emails. Instead we click on them and do all our reading in the preview pane. It's very convenient, but it also means that readers only get to see a much shorter version of an email.
So the first 150 pixels are prime real estate. That's where we have to make our case for being read or being discarded. It's in this space that we have to live up to the promise of 7 Seconds ... for subscribers to decide in 7 seconds or less if there is content worth clicking on and reading. Fortunately, we've always enjoyed a fantastic response from our readers with click-through rates averaging between 52 to 58 percent.
But surely at this point we were committing brand suicide by not having our logo prominent. Not really. For two years our subject line has been "7 Seconds :: Headlines from Image 7 Group :: 01 Mar 07", so our brand is embedded in the subject. And our audience is very specifically limited to clients and friends of Image 7 Group ... people who know us.
It was also time to simplify the links at the top of the email. We don't have to explain each of these options with full sentences anymore. Readers know what to do with a 'Forward' or 'Unsubscribe'.
7 Seconds old design.
7 Seconds new design.
Must Have #4: Must be easily scannable
Our readers have one thing in common. They don't have time to read irrelevant articles. That's what 7 Seconds is all about ... deciding in 7 seconds if there is useful content to read.
Of course, the contents as links in the preview pane is a big help, but usually, readers want to know just a little more - but not a whole lot more - behind the headline. So ...
- The cleaner single column design helps the eye scan the content easier.
- The larger headline font guides where the eye should scan first.
- We kept important information like the reading time, which helps subscribers decide if they want to invest the time in reading the article.
- Links are highlighted a more prominent colour.
For our dedicated reader - that's anyone who has scrolled down past the headlines and story summaries - there's a taste of graphically rich email to support the most relevant articles from our archives.
Must Have #5: Must be human friendly
Readers don't always remember where they subscribed or even what email address they subscribed with. I currently have at least five email addresses all landing in my inbox. It is functional and polite to remind subscribers of the email address they used to subscribe. We have always used the elegant "This email was sent to you at this address: [email]" at the foot of each email. We've never had the opportunity to do a direct test, but apparently it reduces unsubscribes and that makes sense ... so it's right at the bottom of my 'variables to test' list.
If people have a problem, or want to contact you, they don't want to send an email to No-Reply@xyz.com. So many email newsletters expect that ... it's de-humanising and it's wrong. We like to include a simple one-liner near the contact details inviting a response: 'Questions? By all means, reply! Your message will be answered by a human.' Again, it's untested, but it costs nothing in cash and certainly can't hurt the response rate.
Results?
Well I'm really sticking my neck out here. I'm writing this to explain the science and technology behind our decisions, but it's yet to be tested. Keep watch here. I promise to update after a couple of editions when we have good solid data to report.
Regardless of the open and click-through rates, I'm happy that our new email is closer to best practice and that our subscriber's experience will be enhanced, so it's worth a test by putting it to the only market that counts ... you.
Of course, getting our design and delivery right is only one piece of the puzzle, and a nice design is useless without relevant, engaging content. That's a job that's never finished.
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