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One area of life that is not suffering right now is content.

Everywhere there are live streamed concerts, free YouTube classes, celebrities going live on social media, etc.

For example, on Saturday my son and I did this live workout on YouTube put out by Nike. Bernie Sanders did a digital rally with Neil Young and My Morning Jacket (yes, the comments are a spectacle to behold). Even companies like Roku are offering free access to all different kinds of TV stations.

Basically, people are stuck at home and need stuff to look at.

Which has led me to realize that the percentage of people reading this email has been holding steady or increasing since social distancing has kicked in. And in the spirit of sharing information you might find valuable to running your edtech startup, education business, or solo consulting operation, I want to share what I'm learning.

Here's a break down of the last several subject lines I've used, with the open rates and click rates:

Right now, as you can see there are around 220 people reading the newsletter. My goal is to have it be at 1,000 readers by the end of 2020. This is a narrowly defined group of readers. Almost everyone is an EdTech startup founder or employee, education consultant, an educator, family member or friend. If you know two people who might want to read these emails, can you forward this to them?

Here's a break down of the subject lines and why I chose them:

Baptism by fire and Packetpalooza

This subject lines use "The Bachelor Commercial Break" technique, which I explain in The Lunch Time Files book. Plus, there are at least 3 very unique words in there: Baptism, fire, and Packetpalooza.

The Ramit Sethi Move for Marketing in Tough Times

One tactic you can use for subject lines is to simply pick a popular person who you are going to write about and create a name for what or how they do something. E.g. The Betsy Devos Maneuver for Avoiding Tough Questions, or The Seth Godin School of Content Marketing. Using a well-known education author in a subject line, then writing about one of their books, ideas, Tweets, etc. could be a good move.

Alexa..."how do you make crab cakes?"

Here, the goal was to simply evoke curiosity by including an absurd question (and it actually happened to relate to the contents of the email. Using a recognized name like Alexa catches attention, too.

I helped 3 of your competitors. You next?

The words "I" and "you" often catch readers attention. So do short, provocative statements. If you recall, this was an email about how to market to schools or districts near places where you've already done business.

Feed the machine ⚙️

As you can see from this subject line as well as the one I've used today, this is the style I'm experimenting with right now. Over the last year or so, I've written Facebook ads for a client that had great success with this type of copy. Basically. the idea is to use short, conversational language and include emojis where possible. Don't judge me, I'm just following what works.

Yes, things are crazy right now in life. And in particular, they are really crazy in education. Perhaps you can try out some of these subject line tactics to send valuable, informative, even entertaining emails to your customers or prospects.

And...

If you want me to take a look at some of your emails and try to make both the subject lines and the body copy more persuasive, use the link below to book your free 15-minute copy call. I think there are 5 spots remaining over the next few days. There's no sales pitch. I'll record the call and share the good stuff.

calendly.com/gerarddawson/15

Thanks for reading,

Gerard Dawson