E-mail marketing is no different than any other type of marketing, the same type rules apply. It is important to understand that e-mail marketing is just a tool and like any tool you must learn how to use it. Your goal should not be to make the sale, but to get the prospect to request additional information.
Most e-mail marketing is doomed from the start, in that over 90% of e-mails sent will never be read. Why is that?
1. Poor subject line - screw this up and the rest of your message is irrelevant.
Your subject line announces your e-mail and tells the reader if the message is important to them or not. Your subject line should do one thing and one only - get your reader to open the message and read the first sentence. Simply stating "You can make $20,000 in the next 30 days" just wont cut it. In fact, a line like this will increase the chance that it will be considered spam. The more hyped your subject is, the less chance of getting a response. How do you attract the reader's attention without hype? There's no magic formula, but personalizing the subject line with your prospects name almost guarantees a second look. But name alone wont get you great results, you still need to craft the rest of your subject line without the hype.
2. Don't confuse the prospect in the first paragraph.
Now that the prospect has opened up your message, another 90% or more of your prospects will not make it past the first sentence. Your goal is to get them to read the first sentence, which leads to the second and so on. Don't state in the first sentence why you sent the e-mail message, how to opt-out, apologize for your message and for sure don't state that this message is not spam! Every sentence should contribute toward moving your prospect towards your objective what ever that objective is. If your subject gets the prospects' attention, the first paragraph should lead them into the rest of your message. You should always keep one thing in mind, your prospect only cares about one thing - what is in it for them.
Provide your prospects with something of value and they will take you up on your offer. What do you have that can help them in making a decision? What can you give away that will be an asset to them? If you become a resource to your prospects you will see the quality and quantity of responses change for the better.
Not surprisingly, the purpose of the second sentence is to get the reader to read the second paragraph. If we can get the reader to read the second paragraph then we have a good chance that they'll go down the entire slippery slope of readership and read the entire letter.
If the focus of the first sentence is to raise a potential problem that the reader may be facing, the goal of the second sentence is to expand on that problem. There are a couple of ways we can do this.
The first is to focus on the reasons why the problem occurs. In some instances the problem that you're communicating is well understood. It's been around for a long time and everyone acknowledges it's an issue. Thus simply stating that you too understand the problem, won't earn you much credibility in the eye of the reader.
What will enhance your credibility is briefly communicating why the problem exists. Now I realize that every company is unique, and it's impossible to communicate the exact reasons for why a problem exists with anything close to 100% accuracy. However, if you're marketing to a specific niche (which you should be) then there are going to be some common reasons that are shared across companies within a particular group.
By communicating the reasons for why the problem exists, you will demonstrate that your understanding of the issues are deep rather than superficial. An approach I use is the following:
Although the problem is well understood, the underlying issues are often not so readily apparent. For example in many cases we find that the key contributors to this problem include: (A, B, C)
When you create the three bullet points make sure you keep them short and concise. Remember that at this point in the relationship building process what we are tying to do is to raise enough interest so that the reader will do what we want them to do once they have finished reading the letter.
In other situations the challenge may be that the problem you raised in the opening sentence just isn't seen as ?all that big a deal.? If that's the situation, then the second sentence needs to focus on why this issue is important. The way I do that is by communicating what is likely to occur if the problem isn't addressed. The key at this stage is to strike the right balance. You want to raise real consequences of not addressing the problem, while not going overboard and sounding like Chicken Little.
I like to use a bullet point approach for listing the consequences. The bullet points can be set up with a simple statement such as; Unfortunately, the consequences of not addressing this issue can include?
If we've done our work correctly, at this point we've got our reader's attention. This is the point when we want to shift the focus of the content to What Do We Want To Reader To Do When They Finish Reading The Letter? This is where we make the reader a very compelling and specific offer, which is designed to move the relationship building process to the next step.
Both John Patton & Mark Satterfield are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
John Patton has sinced written about articles on various topics from Divorce and Infidelity, Email Marketing and Network Marketing. John Patton is a successful , coach and mentor. Visit his websites at. John Patton's top article generates over 22200 views. to your Favourites.
Mark Satterfield has sinced written about articles on various topics from Marketing, Email Marketing and Finances. Mark Satterfield is the creator of the Gentle Rain Marketing System: How to Generate a Consistent Flow of New Clients. Quickly & Easily. With No Cold Calling. Find out more:. Mark Satterfield's top article generates over 2900 views. to your Favourites.