To reduce unsubscribe rates, send more email Last time I visited Laura Wylie — aka the most adorable 5-year-old on the planet — she said, “Aunt Ann, if I don’t see you more often, I might forget to miss you.” Turns out your email subscribers feel the same way. Consider these numbers, from viral marketing scientist Dan Zarrella's recent email marketing study: Send your … [Read more...] about Inside the inbox
Archives for March 2011
Boxes and arrows
Hybrid story forms go beyond news and features “When you have news, report it,” advises Roy Peter Clark, Poynter Institute senior scholar. “When you have a story, tell it.” But what if you have both? Some stories don’t fit into the traditional boxes and triangles of the inverted pyramid news structure or the feature-style story structure. That’s where hybrid story … [Read more...] about Boxes and arrows
Monkey business
Don't take serious stories so seriously If you were trying to convince employees to follow brand guidelines, you could deliver stern do’s and don’ts about how to handle the company logo or warn employees not to use people's personal photos in campaigns. Or you could illustrate your message by mocking up an employee's photo in an ad like this: That's how Chatter … [Read more...] about Monkey business
The emperor of etymology
Siddhartha Mukherjee explains ideas through language “The names of ancient illnesses are condensed stories in their own right. Typhus, a stormy disease, with erratic, vaporous fevers, arose from the Greek tuphon, the father of winds — a word that also gives rise to the modern typhoon. Influenza emerged from the Latin influentia because medieval doctors imagined that the … [Read more...] about The emperor of etymology
People Power
Bring your ideas to life with human interest Human interest — using a person to stand for your point — can make your ideas more interesting, understandable and credible. But too often, communicators reduce the most compelling, human stories to the most boring, abstract, ineffectual level. Don't let that happen to you. In Ann's manual, "People Power: Bring your ideas … [Read more...] about People Power