Greg re: the "don't listen to anyone, test it". It's a good blanket answer but not practical. I only have so much time, energy, resources to test the many pieces of the campaigns. If I test EVERYTHING, I never take action on new releases because I'm trying to get my 1% to 1.2% in one area or my 4% to 4.5%. If you're operating with one business or funnel, rock on.

My own intuition with roughly 10 years of getting these kinds of emails and 7 years of sending them and the replies from an ex-spammer (he probably knows email marketing fairly well) and the only primary authority I'd trust on email marketing because out of the entire IM world, he's the only one who still heads out to all the Email marketing conferences to actually study this (and gets paid top dollar by every brand name "guru" for their launches and re-launches to handle their email marketing).

To me that's enough to make a decision. I do agree TESTING is the ultimate answer...

That being said, testing WHAT?

Because the scenarios vary.

Which is the other point and clarification I wanted to make.

If you're Joe Expert and you have a cult-like following just twiddling their thumbs, refreshing their inbox page to see if a new email came in from you... then for that guy, you sending a convenient, fast-to-read email is likely your best bet. No question.

But when I referred to email marketing (I didn't clarify, sorry), I wasn't talking about this IM branded-expert guru world.

In fact, who is the target audience?

Savvy internet marketers who have seen it all and know exactly what autoresponders are and what Aweber is?

Or niches? Novices?

If you're mailing to IMers, again, no point in trying to be authentic. You're teaching magic tricks to magicians... they too already know the magic.

But when showing that magic to horse trainers or chiropractors or biz opp "work at home" types even.... is making your emails look like a pretty, scientifically calculated, manicured, commercial mailing going to help you?

Or will it arriving in their inbox looking like an authentic email convert better?

Ask this as well.... if you're capturing first names, why is it? Because you want to use the customization field to better connect with the reader. In niches, this also means many of them feeling like you genuinely sat down to write it for them.

That goes out the window as soon as you chop your lines to pre-calculated 45 characters. Because nobody's mom or friend or associate or co-worker sends them emails like that. You just became a commercial mailing.

And for the negative, easily upset, nothing-better-to-do types on your list... you just became "spam". How dare you invade their inbox with your obvious commercial sales pitch crap you damned spammer! :-)

There are a lot of variables in this debate.

I'm not suggesting an end-all-be-all for every email marketing campaign.

I'm just suggesting that we don't forget to THINK.

Because there are many variations when marketing to a non-savvy audience, using a custom name field but then chopping the email like a commercial email is a great way to be viewed just like the 40 other guys who hit that person's inbox this week.

And regardless of what specific testing will indicate, there's a lot of long-term profit value in a purple cow...

If you cluck, move, act, dance just like every other chest thumping IMer, you get neatly grouped in with them.

If you do things differently and have your readers thinking "oh.... well this is different", you at least got their attention. And you slowly start branding yourself as an outside-the-box type.

Nobody likes following the masses. (The regular black and white cows of IM). You build loyalty and notability faster by being a purple cow. (not to continue stealing from Seth especially since I've never read his book, but it's a great visual of the same point he was trying to make).

FINAL POINT: I didn't do a good job clarifying. My emails focus on higher ticket deals, lower volume. And not to IMers. And also often in niches where people would have no idea what an autoresponder is let alone "Aweber". For my needs, there's no doubt that chopped lines are a mistake.

I just encourage everyone to play around and think of what really works best for their audience.

ALSO recommended... setup a "spy" email address if you haven't already. I have a gmail with just a who's who of marketers on there. Not just in the IM niches. "Gurus" of other niches too. One of the best ways to beat the competition in one niche is to steal (errr... creatively borrow) the best techniques of a parallel business in another niche.

Enjoy your weekend everyone!!