My birthday gift from my parents came in today on special order: A Nike Dymo Driver. It’s a pretty sweet deal, and naturally I had to take myself to the driving range to check it out.
The place I had special-ordered it from did all sorts of diagnostics on my swing, and determined that I need the “X-Flex” shaft. Those of you who are serious about golf know what that is. But that’s neither here nor there… a topic for another time.
Anyway, as I headed to the driving range, I got to thinking about how golf and email are very similar. Sometimes it’s an exercise in futility (in fact, often), you’re always testing new approaches to see if it improves your game, and ultimately there’s that one shot that keeps you coming back for more and more (including emptying out your wallet). And, of course, everyone has their theories about what works best for their game and they’re happy to tell you all about it.
But, as the movie “The Legend of Bagger Vance” tells us, golf (and email) is a game that can’t be won, only played. You’ll have good days and bad days. You’ll constantly work on your game, reinvent your swing, and enlist the help of experts to get better. But ultimately, there’s no one right way to hit a golf ball, just like there’s no one right way to send an email. (There are, however, plenty of wrong ways to do both.)
To take the analogy further, I want to look at sending the right email as playing a par 4 to perfection:
- Shot 1: A perfect drive into the middle of the fairway–That’s getting the recipient to open your email (legitimately). How you convert this perfect shot depends on your content–the second shot.
- Shot 2: A perfect shot to hole-high on the green–That’s getting the recipient to find what they’re looking for in your content and clicks through to your landing.
- Shot 3: Holing the putt for the birdie–The landing page converts the recipient into a sale. Voila, a great way to play the par 4!
And just remember, in golf just as in email, you want to be better than par!
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