Read a great book over the weekend: Made to Stick.

I am not reading as many business books as fast as I used to, but this one was truly worthwhile for me. In a sense it is a bit of a follow on to Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point. But while Gladwell's book was more focused on widespread social factors, this book is a bit more prescreptive in how to practically create messages that stick. A must read for those in advertising and marketing.

This article on MarketingSherpa, "How to Maximize Impact of Email Newsletter Ads - 4 Takeaways on Ad Recall, Forwards & More," is about a study conducted by the American Institute of CPAs on the effectiveness of their own email marketing.

Of the four major takeaways, two are lessons in how to use content, especially in B2B marketing. They key is to educate the reader, not push a sale.

• Substance really is more important than style. AICPA found that content that was understandable, believeable, and memorable was more likely to influence a buying decision. At the end of the day, buyers don’t want to believe they were influenced by incentives or flashy copy, but rather by solid due diligence, based on educational information.

• Sponsored content outperforms a banner ad. AICPA found that readers spend about as much time on sponsored case studies and white papers as they do on editorial content in a newsletter--and the sponsored content has the added benefit of being associated to a vendor.

This article also lists some interesting metrics about how readers use and recall the content from email newsletters--click-throughs don't tell the whole story. Overall, the believability of the information is what impacts a buying decision over the long term.

Labels: email marketing