One piece of feedback from a client in Portland that changed my whole approach

A client told me my email campaigns were 'too clever' and they couldn't figure out what I wanted them to do. They said the call to action was buried at the bottom after three paragraphs of fluff. I rewrote the next campaign with one clear CTA right at the top, and the open to click rate jumped from 2% to 8%. Now I always lead with the ask, not the story. Has anyone else gotten feedback that forced you to simplify something?

2 comments

2 Comments

gavinw451d ago

Too clever" is a real gut punch but I see where you're coming from. It's funny, I actually went the opposite way with my own stuff. I started making my emails way too blunt and people told me they felt like they were being yelled at. So I backed off a bit and found a middle ground where I still put the important stuff early but I keep a little bit of that story or humor in there too. It's not always about just stripping everything down, sometimes people need a tiny bit of warmth before they trust a direct ask.

the_john1d ago

exactly dude, it's like you gotta find that line between "too much" and "not enough." i remember i used to work with this guy who would literally start every email with "per our conversation" and it just felt robotic. no warmth at all. but then i tried the opposite once and wrote a whole paragraph about how my dog was sick that day as a lead-in and people were like "bro what are you even asking me to do?" so yeah, finding that balance is a nightmare sometimes. i think the humor thing works best when it's directly related to the topic at hand. keeps it human but still focused.