And all kinds of other different ways of writing.
Linguists use the term “non-standard” to describe the types of language that are not found in formal speech and writing. So what this means is slang words and phrases, intentional misspellings, grammar that isn’t considered “correct,” and even strange punctuation. Here are some examples:
- Helllllloooooooo!
- Well done!!!
- Sooo Great You Just Gotta Share It!
- : D -25%
- Sale – e x t e n d e d !
- S a l e – continued !
- N(()) M(())ney D(())wn!
- So do these ways of writing actually increase open rates?
Professionals and consultants in email marketing often warn against using non-standard ways of writing. The fear is that you will alienate or anger your readers if you don’t stick to the norms of formal English. But is this really the case?
There is some research showing that people will evaluate emails with spelling and grammar errors more negatively (Queen & Boland, 2015; Boland & Queen, 2016). But these studies are about personal emails, not marketing emails. So what happens if you put an “ain’t” or a “s a l e” in a subject line?
The open rate goes up! At least that’s what I found in my research. Subject lines with a non-standard feature increased open rate by 3.91%. This could be major for marketers.
Why do non-standard features increase open rates? There could be a few reasons. First, they could make you sound more like a human since everyone uses non-standard features when they talk. And when they write. Non-standard features are much more common in texting (u mad bro?) – another possible benefit to marketers.
On the other hand, there weren’t that many subject lines in my data with non-standard features. This is probably a good thing as marketers should be cautious with how loose they get in their subject lines. But it also shows that marketers are following the advice and practices in the field. Nothing wrong with that.
In a future post, I’ll talk more about non-standard ways of writing in email marketing. For now, it’s good to know that writing like the cool kids won’t kill your campaign – it may actually help it! We’ll also talk about what counts as non-standard might not actually be that unusual in marketing language. But that’s a story for a whole nother post.
References
Boland, J. E., & Queen, R. (2016). If You’re House Is Still Available, Send Me an Email: Personality Influences Reactions to Written Errors in Email Messages. PLOS ONE, 11(3), e0149885. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0149885
Queen, R., & Boland, J. E. (2015). I think your going to like me: Exploring the role of errors in email messages on assessments of potential housemates. Linguistics Vanguard, 1(1), 283–293. https://doi.org/10.1515/lingvan-2015-0011
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