I just received a protional email from the Wall Street Journal.
The title of the message was:
From the President of the Wall Street Journal Online
... This title sounded kind of scary to me... or maybe I perceived it as funny. I'm not sure.
Anyhow I think it's an high-sounding way of addressing people. Ok, you wanted people to immediately understand that wasn't spam, but please don't make it sound like an heavy statement, don't take yourself too seriously.
In medio stat virtus.

What would have been a better title for their audience? "From the Wall Street Journal Online"

Any suggestions on making subject friendly but professional? I serve an executive marketplace and I frequently wonder the same things.

Posted by: Justin Hitt at July 16, 2003 02:59 AM

Well, if we look to this specific case, I think that the WSJ has a big name to spend to attracting people's attention.
I mean a title message like "Special Offer from the WSJ: get it free for 2 weeks"
would have worked better.
Furthermore, when I first read the title, "a statement..." I thought they were going to tell me something new about themselves as a corporation, not about a special offer to get the journal.

Posted by: Martina at July 16, 2003 06:24 PM

Martina:

Your title is much better, however, it might cause problems if it was in the subject line. "Special Offer" might trigger a SPAM filter, but it gets to a better point than the original.

Great points!

Sincerely,

Justin Hitt
Consultant, Author & Speaker
http://iunctura.com/weblog/

Posted by: Justin Hitt at November 8, 2003 04:26 AM