Comments on: Dear marketer: You lost me at Dear

By: chris uschan - Omnipress

chris uschan - Omnipress — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 23:13:47 +0000

Howdy Ben —
Hi Ben –
Ben —
Ben!
Hello -

Dear Ben — <>

Email is a non-formal type of conversation where don’t replaces do not and salutations can be softened. Wow – I didn’t realize there were rules.

Okay then, let’s break the rules. Here’s why.

I had a conversation with Shelly Ryan, the communications director at http://www.marketingprofs.com last year about her tone and formality of her emails/newsletters.

She’s writes on the edge… “Hey Chris, I was sitting at the pool and almost forgot to tell you about this weeks webinar… ” or something to take effect. Now mind you, mprofs has over 300,000 marketing professionals in their association (from associations to omnipress to google).

I told her I felt engaged by her emails… Finally, someone who writes like we’re having a conversation as Starbucks. I asked why. She indicated her renew rates were dropping when she was “Dear Christopher’ing” and boring her readers as she called it. So she changed her salutations, her tone which had tremendous results in renewals.

I truly believe if you can provide meaningful, engaging emails that help the reader… they’ll quickly get over the “Howdy Ben” and realize the 90’s email filter is hungry for “Dear Ben” emails.

I didn’t start with Dear Ben, so I trust you made it to here.

Good article and good comments by the others too. You need to do what works best for you. Consider me a risk taker or just fitting in to the evolving ways we communicate.

: )

By: Ben Martin, CAE

Ben Martin, CAE — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 22:40:13 +0000

Peggy, I think that can be done in your writing’s tone or voice, use of images, more sophisticated personalization (like those mentioned in Cindy’s original post).

By: Sarah Lawler

Sarah Lawler — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 21:15:11 +0000

Personalization is a great way to talk to your audience, but your data and fields have to be right. This week I have gotten 2 emails addressed to “Dear Lawler.” Well, you lost me right there. In my personal email I am skeptical of personalization so when you get it wrong I stop reading, chuckle, and hit delete.

By: Peggy Hoffman

Peggy Hoffman — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 12:53:08 +0000

Okay I can buy into dropping the dear but how then do you suggest we put the warm & fuzzy in? We still have to be personal, yes?

By: Ben Martin, CAE

Ben Martin, CAE — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 19:43:25 +0000

Lisa, I’m specifically writing about e-mail marketing e-mail. Personal correspondence is a whole `nuther story.

Dear Keith, good one! I’d expect nothing less of a segway-riding cape-wearing wiki web wonder.

By: Keith

Keith — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 14:59:17 +0000

Dear Ben,

While I see your point, there are times when using Dear is still important. This reply is not one of them.

Keith

By: Lisa Junker

Lisa Junker — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 14:29:27 +0000

I don’t necessarily agree–I think e-mail salutations depend a lot on what kind of e-mail you’re sending, and who you’re sending it to. For what it’s worth, I always begin person-to-person e-mails with “Dear” unless it’s the middle of an ongoing e-mail conversation or it’s someone I know well enough to say “Hi Ben!” to. It’s probably because I spent some time as an executive assistant, writing a lot of correspondence for my boss at that time, but my e-mails do tend to use the same conventions as postal letters. Perhaps I’m just a dork. =)

I think it depends on industry, too. If your members are very formal (college professors, scientists in other countries), you’d better open your e-mails with “Dear Dr. X” and not “Steve,” or some members are likely to take offense. Once you get to know that member, you may be able to skip the “Dear Dr. X,” but I wouldn’t go there until I knew the member and was sure he/she would be OK with it. In other industries, of course, starting with “Yo!” will be perfectly acceptable, and “Dear Mr. X” would be ridiculously formal. It all depends on what works for the people you’re trying to reach out to.