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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The inbox is a harsh and unforgiving environment. For an email to survive it has to be strong, clear and concise otherwise it could end up in the pit of doom – also knows as the deleted items folder (or worse still, the junk mail).

Subject lines that won’t get ‘junked’

The subject line of your message is its ‘do or die’. If it doesn’t catch the recipient’s eye the email will go straight to the delete box.

So how do you make sure your email survives this particular hurdle?

• Keep it short – no more than 60 characters (including spaces)
• Personalise it – if possible add the recipient’s name
• Identify your company – get your company name in there
• Tell them what your e-mail’s about (e.g. new ideas for home makeovers)
• State a benefit – this will act as an enticement

Don’t go too salesy

If you have a hard salesy subject line your email will probably be deleted. Your recipient will know in an instant you just want to sell them something and the barriers will go up.

You also have to be careful about what words you use. Tripping a spam filter can be all too easy so you have to choose your words very cautiously. Therefore words you would normally use in headlines should be avoided in subject lines, such as:

• You – almost always shows the email is coming from a stranger
• Exclamation marks – I’m not a fan of these little fella’s anyway and they certainly are not welcome in subject lines.
• Buzz words such as – free, sale, only, urgent, information, limited-time, opportunity… By all means use these in your email body, but not the subject line.

By following this advice your email marketing should run a bit smoother. Your subject line should come across as unthreatening and hopefully, interesting enough for the recipient to open and read on…

Further reading:

Is Email Marketing Right For You?

Work Your Way Towards The Perfect Email Body

Sally Ormond – Freelance copywriting services

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Email marketing provides businesses with a quick and inexpensive way to reach hundreds of customers instantly. It has revolutionised marketing – but its impact has also been lessened by the spammers out there.

Spammers are email marketers who fill millions of inboxes with unsolicited messages. The problem is their abuse of the system has made in increasingly difficult for genuine businesses to use this method.

You used to only have to worry about having a strong message to make sure your email got read. Now you have to prove it’s not spam.

What is a spam email?

Spam is unwanted email that is delivered to thousands of recipient simultaneously. Obviously you could argue what constitutes ‘unwanted’ email until the cows come home but as a general rule if the email comes from someone you don’t know it is perceived as spam.

When you should use email…

• To tell your customers about new offers
• When sending advice, useful information to enhance your customer service
• Keeping leads warm by staying in touch
• Following up contacts in a sales campaign (e.g. to encourage sign-ups etc).

All of these have one thing in common – they are concerned with building relationships with your customers and keeping them up to date.

…and when you shouldn’t

• Prospecting – this can be seen as an annoying and impersonal method of initial contact
• Generating leads  - again this is impersonal and your email will be deleted
• Using rented lists – you have no relationship with these contacts so you’ll be seen as a spammer

If you want to market through email your best bet would be to develop your own opt-in list – if you have the recipient’s agreement for you to send information to them they are more likely to buy from you at some point.

Build your own list

Building your own opt-in list is fairly straightforward but it can take time. Therefore you should start immediately rather than wait until you have a campaign in mind.

You can attract opt-ins through your website (give away a free report in exchange for their details), your reply devices and your order forms.

Your request doesn’t have to be complicated, simply:

• Ask for their email address
• Ask for permission to send emails to them
• Tell them exactly what kind of emails you will send them
• Assure them you won’t share their contact details with anyone else

Of course, one thing to remember is that you must create an opt-out. This should consist of a reminder of why they are receiving the emails (i.e. they requested updates) and an opt-out link which will take them through to a webpage which automatically removes them from your mailing list.

Before you know it, you’ll have an in-house marketing list.

Further reading:

Email Marketing – It’s All In The Subject Line

Work You Way Towards The Perfect Email Body

Sally Ormond – Freelance Copywriter

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Email is a quick and easy way to get your message out to thousands of people in one hit.

So what do you need?

Well a copywriter is always a good start, but well written sales copy will only get you so far. Many people make the mistake of thinking that if they get a copywriter on board their email marketing campaign will be a sure success.

But come on, this is the murky world of marketing – nothing is that simple. For a campaign to have the highest possible chance of success (there are no guarantees here) there are several factors that need to be taken into consideration.

• Content

Yes, this is a biggy but it’s not the be all and end all by any means. Your copy needs to be strong, compelling and sales orientated (hence the need for a freelance copywriter) with a strong headline and call to action, but it also has to have a ‘human side’. No one likes to think they are being sold something. The content has to be interesting, personable and engaging to give it the best possible chance of getting your message across.

• Offer

Possibly even more important than the writing (did I really say that?) is the offer you are making. If it’s not irresistible it won’t work. And don’t forget it’s your readers that have to find the offer amazing – your opinion doesn’t count. Let’s face it we all think our products and services are the best, but that obviously can’t be true. It doesn’t matter how great you think your offer is, if your reader doesn’t get excited about it your email will end up in the deleted folder.

• List

You can send out the best offer ever written by the world’s top copywriter, but if you are sending it to a ‘bad’ list it won’t work. You have to carefully research your target market to make sure your message is reaching the correct audience.

• HTML

If you are sending an HTML email, have you tested it? Now I’m not an expert in HTML but I do know that not all browsers/email clients view it in the same way. What might look like a stunning email to one recipient may look like a pile of garbage to another. Test your email to make sure it works otherwise your hard work could either end up in a spam filter or deleted file.

• Timing

Timing is everything. Avoid sending out your mailing on a Monday or Friday. The best time to send is mid morning on a Tuesday or Thursday. Also don’t forget that your recipient has a life too. The reason why your email failed to get their attention may be due to factors beyond your control – too busy, having a bad day, going to the wrong person or simply that you’ve contacted a company at a time when they don’t want or need your product.

I’m sure you can think of many more reasons why an email campaign may not work. But I want to get across the fact that you can’t blame one aspect for failure as there may be multiple reasons.

When embarking on a campaign it should be exactly that – a campaign. One email won’t do it. To be highly effective you need to send a series of emails over a time period. Use them to give information as well as sell. By constantly appearing in your reader’s inbox over a period of time increases your chances of being called when they need your particular product or service.

People will only buy if they need your service. It doesn’t matter how attractive your offer is, if they don’t have a need, they won’t buy.

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When you think of copywriting services, what springs to mind?

Web copy – newsletters – direct mail – brochures – press releases – articles – blogs – white papers…

Some businesses spend a lot of money hiring freelance copywriters, but they don’t consider doing the same for their email copywriting needs.

Why?

The customers won’t want those emails unless they’re well written. And if they don’t want them, they’ll just unsubscribe and then they’ll be gone – forever.

Having good email copywriting will help your business in the long run, so here are a few tips.

Tell them what to do next

This is vital no matter what form your copywriting takes, but rather than a strong request for a direct action, you require something a bit more gentle. The more information you reveal in your email, the less response you’re going to get. You want your readers to get just a taste of what you’re offering, so they’ll click on your link instead of the delete key. But it still has to be specific enough so the recipient will take action.

Avoid the Spam

You may not be writing Pulitzer Prize novels but you must still pay attention to spelling and punctuation because nothing turns off a reader more than silly typos. You also need to avoid spam filters so watch out for phrases like “risk free” and “order now.”

Don’t go it alone

These very simple steps will help you have more success with your email marketing, but don’t consider getting your freelance copywriter to do the work for you. Your business is well worth the investment, particularly when it comes to excellent email copywriting. Besides, using the services of the same copywriter for your marketing materials will also generate a consistant voice which will help generate a feeling of trust and credibility in the eyes of your customers.

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