Nat King Cole was famous for crooning “Unnnnforgettablllllle”. Many years after his passing, his daughter Natalie Cole turned it into a duet in a truly unforgettable video. If your marketing emails have fallen into the doldrums of mediocrity, it might be time to start thinking about making your emails unforgettable.

Your Email Message Is Better Than Sex

Several years ago in Europe, an ice cream bar company aired a television commercial that was thoroughly unforgettable. On a moonlit beach, a young and attractive couple is strolling on the balmy sand. She enticingly whispers into his ear and indicates towards a stand of vending machines by the sidewalk. He hurries towards the machines and stands in front of the condom vending machine. Right next to it is a machine filled with the ice cream bars. He digs into his pocket and pulls out a lone one Euro coin ($1.50). He gazes at the coin and then back to the lady, who is winking suggestively. He returns his gaze at the coin, takes a deep breath… and drops it into the ice cream bar machine.

There is no point waxing prosaic about the genius advertising agency that concocted this campaign: There simply is no better possible way to state that “this ice cream is better than sex.” However, the most significant point is not just that it sells ice cream, but that it’s unforgettable.

Pedantic & Doctrinaire or… Unforgettable?

“15% off with this coupon code” is not unforgettable. It’s pedantic, doctrinaire and woefully unoriginal. All your competitors are offering “15% off with this coupon code” or something just as shopworn and conventional. When your prospects receive this email, are they going to gulp, lean back in their chairs and take a minute to let it all in? Or are they going to think, “Yeah, yeah, same old, same old”?

The goal is to knock your customer out of their socks. Your email has to be so unique, so momentous, so distinctive, so… wait for it… unforgettable… that your reader literally won’t be able to get it out of their heads for days, if ever. If you think you’ve had success with your email marketing campaigns so far, just wait until you roll out your first unforgettable email.

The Essence Of The Unforgettable Email

What makes an unforgettable email? One that takes the essence of what no one in their right minds would dare to say out loud about your brand, but secretly they think it. Let’s face it, we’ve all had ice cream so scrumptious that it really is better than sex. Now let’s take that paradigm and transfer it to your product or service. Is your men’s clothing brand so attractive that ladies want to literally rip it off the wearer? Say it and show it in an email – an unforgettable one.

Unforgettable email marketing messages do not need to necessarily focus on sex. Your handheld gaming device is so entrancing that a user blissfully strolls across a busy interstate while traffic swerves all around them. Your motorcycle is so alluring that the rider walks out in the middle of a boring board meeting, hops on the bike and rides off towards the sunset. Your daytime talk show is so captivating that a young mother is riveted to the TV while her kids have the blender on at maximum speed as they pour paint into it.

Le Roi de ROI

These concepts are all admittedly cinematic, but they are also dynamic and unforgettable. There has to be some angle about your brand that will suit an unforgettable pitch, so stop cranking out coupon codes and start a brainstorming session that doesn’t end until you’ve found it. You’ll soon be known as “Le Roi de ROI”!

Editors note: Roi means “king” in the French language while ROI is an acronym for “Return on Investment”. Hal is one smart and clever guy!