{"id":223,"date":"2009-09-17T09:28:21","date_gmt":"2009-09-17T13:28:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.emailcritic.com\/?p=223"},"modified":"2022-03-26T09:04:03","modified_gmt":"2022-03-26T13:04:03","slug":"pharmaceutical-industry-email-marketing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.emailcritic.com\/pharmaceutical-industry-email-marketing\/","title":{"rendered":"How a 'Pharm\u00e1' Email Avoided Filters and Gained New Customers"},"content":{"rendered":"

For legitimate email marketers it\u2019s often difficult to avoid the dreaded spam folder. Now imagine that you service the pharmaceutical industry and your best selling point is that you specialize in said industry. Ouch. That\u2019s the challenge that Bragfolio, a niche job board for pharmaceutical and medical job board, is faced with everyday. However through creativity and ingenuity the marketer claims huge returns on their email marketing efforts.<\/p>\n

The email below was mailed to four separate 3rd-party, rented email lists. In this case their target audience was recruiters. First let\u2019s look at the email with images on and off. Then we\u2019ll identify some of the elements that most likely contributed to the strong performance.<\/p>\n

Subject Line: <\/em>Want to know the best kept secret in recruiting?
\nFrom Line:<\/em> Bragfolio and [publication\/list owner and name]<\/p>\n

\"Click<\/a><\/p>\n

The subject line \u201cWant to know the best kept secret in recruiting?\u201d is intriguing and to relevant to the audience.<\/p>\n

The preview text\u00a0 read \u201cFinding top ph\u00e1rm\u00e1ceutica| sales talent should cost less…\u201d (via the alt tag on the upper-left image), which effectively continued the theme of the subject line and further incented the reader to open the email. Note the use of alternative characters to avoid falling into the Pharma\/Viagra spam bucket. Although this is not ideal it is necessary.<\/p>\n

Once opened, the reader was encouraged to download the images, which again continued the story of the subject line and the first image. Those two image descriptions read \u201cKnow why?…\u201d, \u201cPlease download the images first.\u201d Once the images were downloaded, they displayed copy that was different from that n the alt tags, which answered the question of the subject line and delivered on the promise.<\/p>\n

The offer was clear and above-the-fold. The copy was concise and crafted for the niche. The graphics were on brand, light, and well balanced. The email used clean inline CSS and standard fonts. I tested the code across all major business and consumer email clients. It was bullet-proof. The arrow which directed attention to the offer used a subtle amination (although I cannot recreate it here, it worked, trust me). My only criticism is that the landing page, often the ugly sister of email marketing and search marketing for that matter, needed work and I would also recommend including social media invites.<\/p>\n

Jeff Stahl, CEO at Bragfolio, reports that this promotion received an average open rate of 38%, a 17% click-through rate, and a conversion rate of 6.2%, which crushed their previous control by a country mile. Keep in mind that I have no insight into their list selections or if the offer was particularly strong. But\u00a0 from looking at the creative it’s apparent that much time and attention was paid to crafting a message that resonated with their prospects and ensured that it was delivered to the inbox, opened, and acted upon. Very good stuff!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For legitimate email marketer it\u2019s often difficult to avoid the dreaded spam folder. Now imagine that you work in the pharmaceutical industry. Ouch. However through creativity and ingenuity this marketer got huge returns on their email marketing efforts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":2,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12,20,27],"tags":[188,202,197],"yoast_head":"\nHow a 'Pharm\u00e1' Email Avoided Filters and Gained New Customers - Email Critic<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.emailcritic.com\/pharmaceutical-industry-email-marketing\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Scott Hardigree\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.emailcritic.com\/pharmaceutical-industry-email-marketing\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.emailcritic.com\/pharmaceutical-industry-email-marketing\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Scott Hardigree\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.emailcritic.com\/#\/schema\/person\/e2710fe0f549a043c5d05bd2f06f8240\"},\"headline\":\"How a 'Pharm\u00e1' Email Avoided Filters and Gained New Customers\",\"datePublished\":\"2009-09-17T13:28:21+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-03-26T13:04:03+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.emailcritic.com\/pharmaceutical-industry-email-marketing\/\"},\"wordCount\":489,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.emailcritic.com\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Email Design\",\"Email Marketing\",\"HTML Emails\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Email Design\",\"Email Rendering\",\"HTML Emails\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.emailcritic.com\/pharmaceutical-industry-email-marketing\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.emailcritic.com\/pharmaceutical-industry-email-marketing\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.emailcritic.com\/pharmaceutical-industry-email-marketing\/\",\"name\":\"How a 'Pharm\u00e1' Email Avoided Filters and Gained New Customers - Email Critic\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.emailcritic.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2009-09-17T13:28:21+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-03-26T13:04:03+00:00\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.emailcritic.com\/pharmaceutical-industry-email-marketing\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.emailcritic.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.emailcritic.com\/\",\"name\":\"Email Critic\",\"description\":\"The Bloody Truth About Email Marketing\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.emailcritic.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.emailcritic.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.emailcritic.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Email Critic\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.emailcritic.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.emailcritic.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.emailcritic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/emailcritic-logo.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.emailcritic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/emailcritic-logo.jpg\",\"width\":400,\"height\":91,\"caption\":\"Email Critic\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.emailcritic.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.emailcritic.com\/#\/schema\/person\/e2710fe0f549a043c5d05bd2f06f8240\",\"name\":\"Scott Hardigree\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.emailcritic.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6aab7943edae63ab32813d607644cea8?s=96&d=mm&r=pg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6aab7943edae63ab32813d607644cea8?s=96&d=mm&r=pg\",\"caption\":\"Scott Hardigree\"},\"description\":\"Scott Hardigree is founder of email industries and Indiemark, an email marketing agency. 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