Marketing emails convey much more than the brand message – they say a lot about the writer too, according to a recent US study.

A study by Knox College, Illinois found that an author can come across as apathetic, annoyed, authoritative and even angry based on the style and content of their email. 

One hundred and sixty undergraduates were asked to read email that had small grammatical and stylistic adjustments and then assessed the person’s identity. 

Why is this useful to marketers? Understanding the judgements people make based on the way emails are written can help improve the content and style of your email marketing messages and the perception of your brand. 

Some of the results are predictable enough – writers of error-filled emails were seen as apathetic while emails in the third person were perceived as too formal.

According to the study’s co-author Frank McAndrew, the more surprising results arose out of use of punctuation. Participants believed messages with excessive exclamation marks or question marks came from women or subordinates.

Similarly, messages with very little punctuation were thought to come from superiors.

Posted by 

Nicola Carpenter