I had an email land in my inbox with the subject: Talking about food waste.
Now I’m already waging my own war on food waste, and I will gladly learn all the ways I can smash it (much like avocado) out of my life. But I just didn’t feel like clicking on that email based on this subject line alone. Because nowadays we don’t want to talk about it. We want to be entertained about it. Nudged into caring about it. Or just simply heard.
I know, it’s not fair. I’ve had an entrepreneur tell me that they don’t want to turn their message into clickbait to get their email opened. And they’re sticking to their very factual “talking about [subject]” in their messaging. And that’s fine. If it works for them, then that’s what they should do.
But most of the time it doesn’t work because people don’t just want to ‘talk about waste.’
That’s not what galvanizes spirits. That’s not what inspires action. That’s not what makes people want to learn more.
I know, it’s not fair. But while you and I grumble that it’s not fair, we risk getting left behind. And there are a whole lot of other unfairer things in the world other than people wanting your help to care about something.
How about this instead:
Subject line: Can you fit 1.3 billion tons of food in your fridge?
Email opening line: Then you could save all the food that’s being wasted in a single year in the US.
Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash
