A few days ago, my (former) car started giving me serious barney.
Suddenly, I couldn’t change gears properly.
One time, I was in second gear, trying to shift into third.
After a struggle, I got it out of second gear… but instead of third gear, it hopped into first.
Of course, since I was trying to speed up, black smoke shot out the diesel exhaust, the car revved up with a roar, and then slowed down. The exact opposite of what I was trying to accomplish.
I bring this up because right around the time this car trouble started, I sent out an email with the subject line,
“My biggest email mistake of 2019”
It was about how I don’t get much love whenever I use bizarre, curiosity-first subject lines. To which a reader named Andrew responded:
“I’ve noticed similar variations with my own email open rates depending on the subjects. For example, my list really doesn’t like rants, but the same email posted to LinkedIn as a blog post generally does much better.”
Andrew’s definitely got a point.
There are general principles of how to create an effective message, whether that’s an email, a blog post, or a YouTube video.
But much also also depends on the medium and the market.
For example, people are saturated with marketing emails — and they are much more ready to dismiss a weird email. On the other hand, LinkedIn probably has way fewer direct marketers, and something that stands out as a little bizarre might do very well there.
In other words, what works in one setting might not work in the other. Maybe that’s Obvious Adams.
But unless you take the trouble to find out what works where… and adjust your (formerly effective) message accordingly…
Then you might find that the end result is like jamming your car into the wrong gear: black smoke, an unpleasant noise, and a screeching halt.