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Hi friend,

When I read a good newsletter, I end up learning something that I didn’t know before I read it. But when I read a really great newsletter, I end up learning something new and feeling something. Depending on the newsletter, I might feel happier, inspired, or even uncomfortable from a newsletter that challenges me to think or be different.

When looking at traditional engagement like open and click rates it can be hard to capture how what you wrote made your audience feel.

At the end of the day, the goal is to write emails that grab attention, create trust, and leave readers feeling like they want whatever you have to offer (your content, a product, a personal connection).

I’ve been fascinated with learning more about people’s emotional reaction to what we write, and have run a number of experiments to gauge how different content impacts people’s sentiment.

I want to share what is probably my favorite experiment from the bunch.

The Experiment

Our Customer Solutions (CS) team had just won an award for exceptional service (as they frequently do). We were planning on sending an email to our audience thanking them for their business and promoting our CS team if they needed help.

Since this email was so focused on communicating the human, personal care we offer through our CS team, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to experiment with ways to showcase that humanity.

We ran an experiment where half of the test would get a static image of our CS team, and the other half would get an animated gif of the team being their wonderful, silly selves. Other than that, the emails would be exactly the same.

The hypothesis was that motion would let people’s personality shine through more directly, and lead to more positive vibes from our readers.

To measure the vibes, we included a little sentiment widget at the bottom of each email where readers could tell us how the email made them feel.

The Result

The version with the animated gif generated significantly more clicks.

But here’s the real kicker. The entirety of the increase in clicks was attributed to more people clicking to say the email made them feel happy.

Not only that, but we got direct responses to the gif version saying things like:

“I love the positive, happy energy that I feel when I see this. —- You guys are definitely one of the best out there for support. Thanks for being a group of individuals that make those of us who aren’t tech savvy very comfortable with the whole process. You guys ROCK………Thank you.”

“I loved the little animated group photo. I loved you had two different places to click to cast your vote. Nicely done and modeled for us!”

We’ve replicated this experiment a number of times, and in each case, the animation of a person showing their personality leads to people indicating they were happier than those seeing a static image.

What do you do with this information?

This is not an across the board endorsement for using gifs instead of static images. In fact, there’s research that suggests that gifs can negatively impact your readers perception of you in some cases (like when using an animation of a product instead of a static image).

What I am endorsing is that you use gifs (sparingly) when you want to show that you or your team are real flesh and blood people. And I’m suggesting that you do this by including animations of yourselves doing something goofy, or relatable.

Here’s an example of a gif we included in an email to people inviting them to our Facebook community.

But don’t take my word for it. Here’s how someone replied when we asked them why they said that particular email made them happy.

“You gave me the feeling that you are close to me, that you care about my job, you want to show people how to work better, plus I saw you guys dancing.”

So here’s your next step. Include a gif of you acting like a human in an email where you’re introducing yourself or sharing something personal about you. It could be a challenge you had to overcome in building your business, or the impact you want to have on the world through what you offer.

And include a sentiment widget in your email to see how it impacts people’s reactions.

Let me know how it goes.

What did you think of this email?

❤️❤️❤️ Loved it. Can't wait to get the next one.

💔 I didn't really care for it.

We’re here for you when you need a hand

When you’re up against a deadline to send an email and need help there’s nothing more frustrating than feeling alone or stuck. I send newsletters myself (like this one), so I know how stressful it can feel.

That’s why we’re super focused on getting you help when and where you need it. Whether that help is in AWeber itself, in our Knowledge Base, on the blog, or through our absolutely fantastic Customer Solutions team.

The AWeber CS team is available to contact 24/7 for when you need help, have a question, or are just looking for another set of eyes on what you’re working on.

These folks know email better than just about anyone in email marketing, and they are some of the kindest, most helpful people you’ll ever talk to.

Need a hand or want us to help you migrate your audience to AWeber?

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As always, thanks for reading!

- Chris V. and the rest of the AWeber team