Entries Tagged 'email copywriting' ↓

If your business is new to email marketing working out how to get people to open your emails can be a real headache.

Mind you, you don’t even have to be a newcomer to email marketing to feel the frustration.

The problem is the success of your email all comes down to the recipient, the type of day they are having and the amount of time they have.

Little wonder then why it can seem an up hill struggle to get your emails opened and read.

Improve your email open rates

This is a short list of 5 very simple things you can do to give your email open rate a boost. Some of them may seem obvious but I think it helps every now and then to restate what many people over look.

1. When?

The day on which you send your mail will have a big effect on whether it’s opened or not.

Generally speaking Mondays and Fridays are not good days. On a Monday most people are wading through emails that weren’t cleared the week before, came in over the weekend or they just haven’t gotten into gear yet.

Fridays are bad because people are winding down for the weekend and they don’t have time to read your email.

So, in general, the best days to send are Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday.

2. Subject line

Subject lines are difficult to write. Not only do they have to grab attention and make the recipient want to open your email, they also have to avoid spam filters.

Including things like ‘discounted offer’ or ‘free product’ or ‘free trial’ will get attention but you must test them to make sure they don’t trip any spam filters.

Another good way of drawing attention to your email is by using your brand name – especially if it’s one the recipient will instantly recognise.

3. How often?

When’s too much or too little?

Getting the frequency right is vital. As a general rule, once a month is ideal. If you bombard your readers with several emails a week they’ll soon get fed up and unsubscribe.

Equally if you send them only once every 6 months or so (or at random intervals) they may forget they’d subscribed in the first place and delete it.

4. List

Your list – who you email to – is vital which is why it’s always best to build your own rather than buy one in.

If someone has signed up for your emails there’s a pretty good chance they want to hear from you. if you buy in  a list you are ‘cold emailing’ and they’ll probably end up being deleted.

5. Ask

Sending out emails willy-nilly is fine if you just want to fill them with stuff you want to say. But what about what your reader what’s to hear?

Every so often its good practice to ask them what they want to see so you can be sure the information you are passing to them is what they want to read.

Email marketing is great if you get it right but it takes time to perfect.

Sally Ormond – freelance copywriter

What do I mean by calm copywriting?

Well let me first tell you about what prompted me to write this post.

I took my eldest son to the Orthodontist this morning. The Orthodontist is a lovely chap and comes from Eastern Europe…somewhere. Anyway, after making my son’s next appointment we got in my car to head back to school when I mentioned that I might get his father to take him in for the next appointment as I might not have my car that day.

My son looked at me in horror and said “no, you can’t do that. You know what dad’s like, he’ll try and talk in his European English so the Orthodontist understands. It will be soooo embarrassing!”

The ‘European English’ my son is referring to is the good old fashioned British way of communicating abroad – s-p-e-a-k-i-n-g   v-e-r-y   s-l-o-w-l-y  a-n-d   l-o-u-d-l-y to make sure our European cousins can understand us perfectly.

Admittedly it usually ends up either offending or reducing people to hysterical laughter.

So how is all this related to copywriting?

Well there’s a lot of ‘European’ copywriting about too.

We’ve all seen the landing pages which comprise of different sized fonts, bold colourful words and truly awful graphics. And this isn’t just confined to landing pages you can also come across it in emails, sales letters and websites.

Does it give the reader confidence?

No.

Does it engage, enthral and sell?

No.

Instead it annoys, switches the reader off and encourages them not to buy.

Rather than relying in brash sales techniques like these, use your words carefully and let them do the selling.

Keep your text uniform (other than your sub headings), calm and persuasive. It will have a great effect; make you appear more professional and approachable.

Remember your reader isn’t an idiot. They will see through all the frills, fonts and colours. If you want to be taken seriously, write seriously.

A new year is a time for resolutions, a lot of which probably only last a few days at most before they are broken.

But just because 2010 is over you shouldn’t just forget about it.  Now is a great time to reflect on what happened last year, discover what worked for you and what didn’t.  Once you have the answer to those questions you can begin to plan your email marketing strategy for 2011.

Email marketing for 2011

To help you make sure you enjoy successful email marketing campaigns this year I have listed below a few suggestions that might make all the difference.

Now’s the time to try something new to help you enhance your results from last year. So without further ado, here are my suggestions:

1. Remember mobile

One thing many companies forget is how their emails are being read.

More and more people will first become aware of your email on their mobile phone.

How do you decide whether to open and email or not? You probably look at who sent it to you first, followed by the subject line—if it looks interesting you’ll open it. If it doesn’t catch your attention it’ll probably remain unread.

Boost your email’s chances of being read by adding text above your header:

Therefore when the email appear on their phone they will see who it’s from, the subject line and the text ‘Email marketing secrets revealed’.

2. Hook line and sinker

The subject line of your email will ultimately determine whether it is opened or not.

It has to be intriguing, promise something new/important or offer them something that’s going to make their lives easier or help their business.

But once you have them hooked it is just as important to make sure the body of your email provides them with the answers.

Using a strong subject line but then talking about something different in the email will dissolve any confidence they had in you.

Make sure that what your subject line promises, your email delivers.

3. Drop off zone

How long should your email be before your reader dozes off?

An email that goes on and on and on will bore the pants of your recipients so if you have a lot of information you want to get across, add a teaser in the email and then link out to the full article so if they want to learn more, they can.

Everyone is busy and if you constantly send out mind-numbingly long emails you’re going to get a lot of unsubscribers.

4. Call to action

You call to action is vital because it asks your reader to take an action—call you, email you or buy now, book here…

Frequently they are seen as hyperlinked text inviting the reader to click it. But how about using a button instead? It stands out more and there’s something compelling about seeing a button – you just have to press it.

5. Proofread

A simple thing but something that’s not done often enough.

There’s nothing worse than sending out your email only to then discover a prominent typo.

Make sure you speak to your public and not the pubic, offer to nurture your clients but don’t neuter them.

An email full of typos will do untold damage to your reputation, so read it carefully before hitting send.

These 5 simple suggestions could help your 2011 email marketing campaign go with a bang. Try them out and see how you get on.

These tips are brought to you by Sally Ormond, freelance copywriter, blogger and social media fanatic.

Email marketing can be an incredibly effective way of communicating with your customers and prospective customers.

When someone initially opts-in to your marketing list they wait in eager anticipation for your first email to land in their inbox. They continue to welcome your communications with open arms until, one day, the honeymoon period is over.

As time progresses you realise that your emails aren’t being opened as often (or at all); your messages are now unloved, unopened and unwanted.

What do you do?

Panic?

Send flowers?

Nope. When this happens it’s time to take action.

What to do when you get email marketing list fatigue

1. Look at your frequency

When they originally opted-in, you would have made it clear how often they would hear from you.  Are you now sending emails more frequently?

If so, begin to scale back. There are only so many times people will want to see you in their inbox. Don’t be that nosy neighbour who’s always popping in – you know, the one you hide from under the kitchen table so they think you’re out.

2. Gone stale

Take a look at your past few emails. Are you covering the same type of information? Is their layout and content becoming too predictable? If so you may find that the perceived value of your emails has dwindled so it could be time to rethink your strategy.

3. Incoming!

Don’t bombard your readers. If you are launching new products or offers, stagger them. It’s never a good idea to announce 4 or 5 within the same month. Firstly people won’t want that number of emails from you and secondly, they’ll get confused.

4. What’s your subject line?

Have you gotten sloppy with your subject lines?

These hold the key to people opening your emails so if they are no longer appealing, your emails won’t get opened. Perhaps it’s time to have a rethink about your subject line approach (or call in a copywriter to help you generate fresh and appealing content).

5. No one’s home

We all, from time to time, change our email addresses.

If one of your recipients hasn’t engaged with your mailings (i.e. they haven’t opened it) for 6 months or more, send out a ‘reengagement’ email – something that forces an action if they want to remain on your list.

If you don’t hear anything it’s safe to say that either:

• The email address is no longer active, or
• They no longer want to receive your emails

So it may be time to remove them from your list.

6. Spam

When was the last time you checked your emails against spam filters?

It could well be that something is triggering your recipients spam filters so your emails aren’t even reaching their in box.

If you want your email marketing to continue to be successful, regular list maintenance is essential to ensure that:

• Your readers are happy with their content
• All email addresses are active
• You are avoiding spam triggers
• Your subject lines are being effective

Congratulations! You’ve made the decision to run an email marketing strategy. Every customer you have will become part of your campaign (or at least those that opt in) so you can always keep in touch with them to maximise your sales opportunities.

Great—but have you worked out how your strategy is going to work, what you’ll offer them and how you’ll present your information?

If your strategy is to work you can’t just sent out emails willy nilly without any thought. Equally, sending one out initially and then nothing for months also won’t work.

The idea behind email marketing isn’t just to sell things, it’s also there to help you build and enhance your customer relationships.

Sending emails at regular intervals will certainly help keep your clients interested in your services. Great information interspersed with offers will give a bit of variety. If your emails are constantly trying to sell your customers are likely to get a bit fed up so make sure you alternate them.

But other than that there are a few other things you can do with your email strategy to help build your relationships. Below are five suggestions that will add value and boost the effectiveness of your email campaigns.

1. Welcome, welcome

When someone first signs up for your emails make sure you send out a welcome email. Thank them for subscribing and give them some free and valuable information. This email is also a good opportunity to give them an outline of what they can expect to receive from you—email frequency, offers, information, competitions etc.

It’s also a great opportunity to start selling—incorporate a promotional offer as a thank you for signing up.

2. High days and holidays

There are no end of holidays throughout the year—Christmas, Easter, Mothers’ Day, Fathers’ Day etc. All present an ideal sales opportunity so make sure you have your offers ready and email in plenty of time.

3. Customer birthdays

Assuming you have a note of each customer’s birthday, you have yet another opportunity to add value to your relationship by offering them a special offer on their special day. Use subject lines such as Happy Birthday from Briar Copywriting, Your special birthday bonus etc.

4. Is everything OK?

Every once in a while it’s a good idea to send out a ‘maintenance’ email. You can ask for feedback about your service, whether they still want your emails etc. This will help you weed out ‘dead’ emails to ensure you are mailing to an active database and therefore maximising your ROI.

5. Sorry

Although this is last on the list it is possibly one of the most important emails you can send. No matter how careful you are something at sometime is likely to go wrong. But if dealt with quickly and efficiently, you could turn a negative experience into a positive one.

Make sure you send out an apology email. Explain what went wrong, if you can (depending on its seriousness) make it a bit light hearted and give an offer to say sorry.

Handled well, your email marketing strategy will boost your sales. Whether you write them in-house or utilise the services of a professional copywriter, the words within those emails will cement and enhance relationships and encourage your customers to open their wallets.