Badsender of the week: A headline with the same "Headline" every day! Ok or Ko ?

published on 03/07/2013,

updated on 19/12/2022

Unless there is an incredible concept behind it, it is totally "Ko"! Yet, that's what Libération has been doing for its daily newsletter since I subscribed to it (that's a little more than six months ago).

Every day, the subject of the newsletter sent by Libération is invariably the same: "The news update from + DATE + to the morning".

Why what is unthinkable with the paper version of the daily becomes possible with email? Yet, the Libération newsletter probably generates considerable traffic on its website. A traffic that is essential to the digital monetization of the newspaper. So why not optimize? Why this laziness?

It is all the more regrettable that with email, the online press has an extremely powerful tool ... but underused. If you haven't read it, I recommend you to read this article : Behavioral targeting: A potential revolution for the media ... example!

For the rest, the newsletter gets a score of 4,5/8 for the checklist (see below) ... which is not too bad ! It is relatively well constructed, readable ... Some points are nevertheless to be improved :

Total absence of call to action (but everything is clickable);
Technical links in grey on grey background (header and footer);
No text version available;
An address in reply-to ... but which does not exist;
No preference center;
…

On the positive side, we can note the implementation of a strategy to convert readers into paying subscribers! A strategy that should be further refined.

Identity card

Generic email information:

Subject of the email : The news update of Tuesday, July 02 in the morning
From : NewsLetter Libération
Preheader : To view this email in a web page, please visit our online version
Emailing platform : Emailvision

Checklist :

Link to privacy : KO
Link to unsubscribe : OK
DKIM : OK
Text version : KO
Text to Image Ratio : OK
List-unsubscribe : OK
Friendly reply : KO
Mobile ready : Bof

Screenshot of the email

newsletter-liberation

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The author

Jonathan Loriaux

I've been involved in email marketing for over ten years, and my career path began on the technical side (email campaign integration) before moving on to sales (as an eCRM expert) and finally marketing consultancy. For the past 9 years, I've been the author of the Badsender.com blog. Emailing isn't just an expertise, it's truly become my passion, which is why Badsender is now my main activity, with the creation of an emailing consulting business linked to the site.

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4 responses

Charles Boone

12 years ago

It can also be so that the content is clearly identified, easily, by the recipient. It's his newspaper and no matter what news he reads, he reads it. Adapting the subject to the news is potentially allowing the recipient to "miss" the email, and increase the chance of being caught by the filters because of hot spamwords temporarily. Finally, it can make the content look like a service email for some filters since the content is always similar but behaviorally there is a good responder behind it. Maybe that's just the incredible concept behind it 😉
Jonathan Loriaux

12 years ago

Same comment, same answer 😉

For me, identification remains the prerogative of the "From" field, not of the object! I understand the idea of filters ... but with the rise of behavioral analysis to the detriment of content analysis, I'm not sure that this is a good strategy in the long term.

On the incredible concept ... I have a doubt 😉
Dan Emailing

12 years ago

Thanks for the article, I agree with you 100%

The date is convenient at 100% especially in their case but it must be narrowed down like: June 25 or Vend. 25/06

Now it would have been practical to put in the title of the mail a part of the title of the articles, it motivates even more to read (instead of the text that is repeated unnecessarily ...)

e.g. Friday 25, Snowden affair, Delphine Battho, Gattaz at the medef ...
ditto for the title of the newsletter page, a plus for natural referencing

and don't forget to use the header example x-date-newsletter, this is the kind of information on which outlook and gmail are now able to make filters or searches
BACHER

12 years ago

We have done some testing of regular items with clients whose regular newsletter we manage.
And believe it or not, when we go out of the regular object by trying to innovate, the opening rate drops!
But of course there is a compromise to be found between the two, especially with the header