Entries Tagged 'email copywriting' ↓

Email marketing is possibly the most important and effective marketing tool available to businesses today. It offers a way of regularly communicating with your customers to give them up to date information, telling them about new products and offers. Within seconds you can communicate with thousands of customers simultaneously – and that’s very powerful.

I have written numerous posts about email marketing in the past, such as:

How to build your email marketing list

Email marketing – Welcome

How to be an email spammer

How to become the King or Queen of email marketing

Consistent  email marketing

10 words that will make people open your email

Email marketing – When’s the best time to send?

Boost your email open rate

So this time I want to address a question I am frequently asked by clients…

How often should I email my customers?

As we all know life is rarely simple, so you can probably guess what my answer is going to be….it depends.

Not very helpful I know, but it really does depend on your business type. What’s right for one person isn’t necessarily going to be right for the next. You have to find the right balance for you. Take a good look at your business and the products or services you offer – the frequency of your emails will dependly largely on:

• What you are offering your customers
• Who your customers are
• What you have to say

Common frequencies are quarterly, monthly, bi-monthly (i.e. once every two months), twice monthly, weekly and sometimes daily (or multiple times per day).

To help you out, here is a short guide to email frequency:

Quarterly

The businesses that opt for a quarterly mailing usually don’t have a vast amount to say. Perhaps their products or services don’t change regularly and they don’t have offers to make. Although some would argue some contact is better than none, I struggle to see the point of only making contact once a quarter. By leaving so much time between communications you run the risk the recipient forgetting who you are.

To be quite honest, if you are considering quarterly mailings I would think very hard about it. There’s almost no point in bothering.

Monthly

Many companies go for the monthly option because it is regular without seeming intrusive. Often the businesses who opt for this frequency don’t use their newsletter/email to sell things. Normally they are more concerned with imparting valuable knowledge on the recipient. Giving away great information regularly is an excellent way to build and strengthen relationships with your customers.

As a copywriter I send out a monthly newsletter which offers my readers hints and tips on copywriting, marketing and social media. It is free information that I am giving away and I never sell through it. By the way, if you want to get on the mailing list visit my website and sign up.

Twice a month

This is a compromise for those companies that want to make contact more than monthly but don’t have enough to say to make weekly contact. One of the benefits of this frequency is you can alternate the type of content you email. One could be giving away information whilst the next could be an offer on one of your products. That way your reader won’t feel as though they are constantly being sold to.

Weekly

Weekly emails are often sent by stores looking to sell. Whether they are High Street chains or independent shops, weekly emails enable them to communicate offers and new lines quickly and easily to their customers. Plus being retail outlets it won’t come as a surprise to the recipient that they are being sold something.

So these are the most common frequencies used. There are companies that email daily or even multiple times per day but you’d have to have a lot to say to be able to keep that up.

Keeping up with your chosen frequency is important. Your customers will grow to expect their next newsletter/email so if you have to miss one for any reason (e.g. holiday etc.) make sure you let them know. Just a simple one liner to say there’ll be no newsletter this month but service will resume as usual next month will keep them informed.

If you are not already doing it, give email marketing a try. Coming up with a constant stream of ideas and content can be a challenge, but the results make it worth while.

Sally Ormond – freelance copywriter

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Keeping in touch with new, prospective and existing customers has always been a headache. How much contact is too much? Should you contact them after they have purchased? Will it seem pushy if you continue to ‘pester’ them?

However, marketing to your existing customer base remains one of the most effective ways to promote your products and services.

After all, if they’ve bought from you once, they probably will again.

Be careful what you say

Although many more businesses today are turning to email marketing as a quick, effective, and relatively inexpensive method of promoting their products, they make one fatal mistake.

When an email campaign fails to deliver the expected return, it’s all too easy to blame:

• the copy of the email
• the subject line of the email
• the day it was sent out on
• the time it was sent
• the offer it contained.

Yes, some of these could have an effect if you don’t get them right, but there is a fundamental aspect of email marketing that is more likely to blame.

It is an error that is seen time and time again. What’s more, it occurs because the business doesn’t have the right tools for the job.

If you look at your mailing list, not everyone is going to be interested in the same information. For example if you run a pet supplies company, some of your customers will be interested in supplies for their cats, some for their dogs and some for their horses.

So if you have an offer on dog collars and you send that out to everyone on your list, it will only appeal to about a third of those people contacted.

If people on your list are constantly being sent information they don’t want or need, there is a good chance that your email will either be deleted (best case scenario) or they’ll unsubscribe.

Email marketing is great if you send the right information to the right people.

Divide and conquer

The key is to devise campaigns that are only sent to the customers who are likely to be interested in them. Now, not all software will allow you to do this and some of you will have vast mailing lists which makes it an impossible task to do manually. But, if you can do it, it will make a world of difference to your response rate.

So, your dog collar promotion will only go out to your dog owners. By tailoring your marketing to the direct needs of your customers, you are maximising your opportunities of making a sale. This will also have the effect of ensuring the information you send is relevant, of interest and therefore will enhance your relationship with them.

If you ignore this and simply bang out emails again and again to your entire list, you’ll start to alienate yourself. No one wants their inbox filled with ‘rubbish’.

A monthly general newsletter to your entire list will keep regular contact with everyone (just try to make sure there is something for everyone in it). This is great to keep the name of your business in their mind so when they are ready to make a purchase they will (hopefully) come to you. But special offers must be segmented.

Why do you need to know this?

Email marketing is a very efficient way of promotion and selling, but the blanket approach will do more harm than good.

If you consistently send information to people who don’t want it, they’ll unsubscribe. It will come across as though your organisation is remote and out of touch. Taking the effort to tailor your message to your recipients will enhance your chances of a sale and strengthen your relationship with them. You will come across as someone who cares, someone who doesn’t send them useless information and only sends things that you know are relevant to them.

So if your email campaign doesn’t perform as you expect, don’t immediately blame the copy, subject line or offer; take a look at who  you sent it to. That could be where the problem lies.

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Email marketing is fast becoming the new black. It’s been around for a while but companies are now beginning to understand the potential it has.

In the past your mailings involved folding copious numbers of letters, sticking them in envelopes and slapping on stamps – today you simply spend a bit of time crafting your email and pressing send.

But how do you stop your email going directly into the delete file?

It’s all in the opening

The first thing your recipient will see is the sender’s name and subject line. So how do you make sure you pique his curiosity sufficiently to click on your email and open it?

Take Henry here for instance. He’s been tasked to come up with an email that will knock his customer’s socks off. 

He works for a washing power factory. His company has come up with a new detergent that will banish every stain known to man. To help him out, I have emailed him 10 little words that should him create something amazing.

———————————————–

Sender: sally@briarcopywriting.com

Subject: At last, the words you need to succeed

Hi Henry,

I thought you might find this list of words useful when putting together your sales email today. As a copywriter I find them invaluable when creating email campaigns for my clients. Try them out and see how you get on.

1. Advice – this indicates you’ll be sharing something really useful “Advice for getting your whites white”
2. Why – this indicates they’ll learn something new “Why stains will be a thing of the past”
3. At last – this indicates that it’s finally here “At last a washing powder you can trust”
4. Introducing – this gives you the opportunity to use your product name or company name “Introducing Magic White”
5. How to – everyone loves to learn things “How to get whites white first time”
6. How – very similar to the previous one but allows a more subtle introduction “How you can banish stains forever”
7. Announcing – this can be used as an effective teaser because you don’t have to include your products name “Announcing the latest laundry technology”
8. Which – this will get their interest because they’ll want to know if there is something new they need to know “Which powder banishes stains every time?”
9. New – This is an old one but a good one because everyone loves something that’s new “New advanced formula that banishes stains”
10. Now – this is one of the most powerful three letter words used by copywriters “Now you too can have whiter whites”

I’m sure you can come up with some better lines than the ones I’ve written above – they are just there to illustrate how the words work.

The other thing to remember is to keep your subject line to 40 characters or less so it doesn’t get truncated.

Remember Henry, the subject line is all that stands between your email and the delete file. It should be short, directed at your reader and instantly attention grabbing.

These 10 little words are tried and tested and get results again and again. Give them a go and let me know how you get on.

Warm regards,

Sally

Freelance copywriter

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Related posts:

Boost your email open rate

Email your way to success

Email marketing – when’s the best time to send

Work you way towards the perfect email body

Email marketing – why it doesn’t always work

Is email marketing right for you?

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If you have been following my blog, you’ll recall the last few posts dealt with the issue of email marketing.

Email remains one of the most cost effective methods for today’s small businesses to market to their customers. With a single click your offer or news item can be distributed to thousands of in boxes anywhere in the world. We have already looked at the structure and content of a great email campaign – now it’s time to take it to another level.

I came across this great post on eMarketer which gives you a further trick you can try to boost your email open rate. This is an excellent piece of advice for all business owners and definitley worth a try because Coupons Boost E-Mail Open Rate ( eMarketer).

This is such a simple idea and so easy to implement. So why not give it a go?

Next time you send out an email campaign or newsletter, try adding a coupon and see what effect it has on your open rate.

Associated posts:

Is Email Marketing Right For You?

Email Marketing – It’s All In The Subject Line

Work Your Way Towards The Perfect Email Body

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Most emails sent today are HTML which carries an extra benefit – the hyperlink. This little fella allows you to direct your reader to a website for further information or an opportunity to immediately buy or sign up to an offer.

But if your email is to be interesting you will need to make sure it is appealing to your reader.

1. Be friendly

Write as you would a letter – use a salutation, if you can, personalise it with the recipient’s name. This adds a personal touch and begins to build a relationship. Always remember to close it in a professional way too.

1. Communicate in a glance

A solid wall of text isn’t going to be very appealing. Use headings and subheadings to allow the reader to see at a glance what information the email holds.

1. Don’t make them wait to the end

You will want to include within your email a link to your offer, but don’t leave it until the end. Buy incorporating it within the email several times you are allowing your reader to click through to it as soon as they have made their buying decision.

1. Short and sweet

There are times when you’ll want to communicate a lot of information to your reader, but sending an incredibly long email is a no no. Give them a taster of what you want them to know and then ask them to click for more information. That link can them take them through to your website or blog where the full article is shown.

1. Benefits and features

As in your website copy and sales letters, make sure you add in your features and benefits. You don’t have to include everything, just the most important ones in relation to what you are writing about.

1. Don’t forget the opt-out

Always, always, always include your opt-out link in all your email communications.

Don’t forget, your emails don’t always have to sell. To enhance your relationship with your customers use them to also share information that might be useful to them. By giving away free hints and tips you’ll help build trust and credibility and strengthen your relationship.

Read also:

Is EMail Marketing Right For You?

Email Marketing – It’s All In The Subject Line

Sally Ormond – freelance copywriter

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