Email copywriting has all of the hallmarks of classic direct response mailings. It’s the channel of choice for marketers who want to make sales, not #hashtags.
It could be interesting, then, to test whether or not a “customer service tone” might work with a channel that usually allows fairly aggressive pitches and selling. That’s what Active Network, a large event management software provider, did in an exceptional case study posted on MarketingExperiments.
They wanted to know how they could improve total lead inquiries from prospects who abandoned the free trial sign-up process. They saw this as a big leak for the company, and they recognized the opportunity to improve with their follow-up broadcasts.
The test, unsurprisingly, consisted of a change in tone that put the following two conversational styles against each other:
- Treatment #1: “Prospects who abandoned the free trial sign-up were sent an email that focused on the value of the software.”
- Treatment #2: “Prospects are engaged by addressing the elements of anxiety, or what lead them to abandon the sign-up process.”
In other words, the second treatment had a “customer service tone”—focusing on “What didn’t you like, what can we help you with?” over a more traditional sales pitch. Frankly, the results of the test surprised me:
“The direct response tone in Treatment #1 gives you a good reason to start now and the second one is a helpful tone that’s focused on reducing your anxiety,” Flint said. The marketers at Active Network saw a 349% increase in lead inquiry rate by addressing customer anxiety through the tone of the email copy.
While you shouldn’t throw away your copy of Breakthrough Advertising anytime soon, it’s certainly interesting to see how an email that eschewed hard selling in favor of a personal, helpful style could perform this well.
The success of this test lead me to look into other ways this casual customer service tone might be used in communicating with customers.
Think about the companies you love to interact with—there’s a good chance they’re putting this conversation style to use already.
Culled from Helpscout
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