The Amazing Secrets to Getting People Excited about Opening & Reading Your Emails
You've worked for days to create the perfect email message to send to your opt-in email list. You've even paid for an expert copywriter to spruce it up for maximum response.
Your finger hovers over the "send" key...You're ready to go. You double think your options and the letter. Then you click send and wait for responses to your offer to come flooding in.
If you've done everything correctly, then you should see results in minutes...and a large percentage of your results in the next 24 hours (I often get around 50% of my orders within 24 to 48 hours).
What happens if people don't respond? What if they don't like the offer?
Even worse...what if they never even read your message!
Internet users receive thousands of emails weekly. For a popular marketer such as myself, 500 incoming emails a day isn't uncommon. The average Internet user is getting less than this, but it is still way more than they ever have time to read.
More and more messages coming in...and people seem to be getting busier and busier in their daily lives. This is not a good mix at all.
So the average person now reviews all of their email with their finger poised over the Delete key. So you have only a second...maximum...to convince a person they need to drop everything they're doing and read your message.
If they don't read your message, then it's impossible for them to respond to your message.
There are several factors involved in whether they read your message or not...and they include:
- rom section
- Subject section
- The first few lines of the message
- Whether You Provide Value or Not
- Whether Your message gets thrown out before they get it or not.
Mess up on ANY of these elements, and you're screwed. Prepare a perfect marketing offer and get 4 of the elements in place...make a mistake on ONE of the elements...and the offer is over. If your message gets deleted before it is read, you instantly lose!
The key to all of the elements relies on this...You want your message to look like a personal message instead of Spam. Everything you do in the message should be done to make your message more personal and less like the hundreds of spams they're receiving every week.
Personal messages are read. Spam is deleted.
Who is it From?
The from section of your email shows up right alongside the subject line in most email software. In Eudora, which I use, it shows up as the "Who" section.
You don't want a company name to appear here...and definitely not just an email address. You want a person's name to appear in the From section because you want your email to look like a "personal" email.
Too many online entrepreneurs are trying to make their company appear to be a large corporation...and they're forgetting a very noticeable truth. Large corporations, on average, aren't doing very well online. With the rise of technology, consumers are looking for a personal touch. They are looking for real honest people to purchase from.
Always follow a business approach to become more real and more intimate with your customers instead of trying to appear like a bigger company than you are. So use your name in the from section instead of your company name.
Besides, a company name in the from section is a dead giveaway of what? I bet you guessed it. It is a dead giveaway this isn't personal email. It is an ad.
All email software gives you the ability to put your name into your emails. For example, in Eudora, you just choose "Options" and then input your "Real Name." That's what will appear in the from section of outgoing emails.
For mass communications, you'll find that almost all listservers and autoresponders now give you the ability to put your "Name" in...so that every message going out has your name on it. Even an autoresponder message should look like it was a personal message written by you for that one individual receiving it.
Customers Look at Subject Lines With their Finger on the Delete Key
Just like in copywriting headlines...cute doesn't work. Doing a subject line is actually a little more difficult though. You have to make sure that you don't use any of the "banned" words listed at the bottom of this article...and you need to use curiosity to get them to open the email.
Would you like to know what the most powerful subject line of all is...if you want me to read your message?
I'll bet you will never guess. I'll bet you'll try coming up with some unusual outlandish idea of how to instantly grab my attention. You might even come up with something cute to use. I'll bet you'll be wrong.
It's simple really. The messages that are sure to get my attention first include my favorite word in them, "Terry."
Complicated. Wasn't it?
Why do these messages get my attention first? They are obviously written to me.
Any message to me requires that I actually read it. Well, I have to at least start reading it. The first few lines will tell me if I want to read the whole thing or not...but my name in the subject means I do have to open it.
If you've ever wondered why I focus on making sure you can personalize your letters so much, this is it.
You may have noticed I don't JUST use personal names in subject lines. I will often include some other identifier. For example, my newsletter comes out with this subject, "Terry, Web Gold is here..."
The reason I let them know it is "Web Gold" is because I want them to identify with the free newsletter they receive every month. My newsletter has a very high readership rate because of the content we provide. So I let them know what it is they're receiving because for many people it means it will be read before other personal email.
Other times, I may say, "Terry, you requested this" or some other identifier if they requested a free report. Although I used to say, "your free report is here...," I've quit that one. Read the subject line filtering section to find out why "free" doesn't work as good as it used to.
So, in many cases you may want to add a short identifier for the message, but keep it simple...and personal. Even simple messages such as, "Terry, jv offer" and "Terry, article you can use" get priority over other types of messages.
What if you can't personalize...for whatever reason?
You can still get your emails opened, but not as effectively. If it is an autoresponder message, you can use subject lines such as, "Info You Requested from us today" or you can specify what kind of info it is.
For Web Gold, I would simply have the headline be, "Web Gold is here..." to keep the identity on it. For an autoresponder series, I would use the title and the number like this: "115 Internet Marketing Tips, Part II." This would help them find the different pieces of the series when they want to put them together.
I would also use thank you messages such as, "Thank you for subscribing," or "Thank you for visiting." People are always curious about why you're thanking them.
You can also use simple messages like above without the names mail merged in, but they're not quite as effective this way. The key is to take the personal approach and avoid all possible appearance of spam. Cute, fancy, exclamation points, all capital letters, etc. are death blows to your message.
Keep it simple...and keep it personal. If your headline meets those two qualifications, then you're on the right track.
The First Sentence Has To Start With a BANG
You've crossed the first hurdle. They've opened your message. It looked like a personal message and something they were interested in reading.
Don't blow it here!
The absolute last thing you want to do is post a BIG headline right here. Your cover is blown. It's all over.
It's also a mistake to post your remove policy right here. That's what spammers often do. Remove information should be posted at the BOTTOM of every message you send out.
Your message should start with...
"Hello Name,"
Mail merge the name of your prospects or customers in here.
Then, skip a line and begin the message. Your first sentence needs to be personal, short, and active.
Even though you want the letter to be personal, don't beat around the bush and waste your prospect's time. Get to the point quickly.
If you asked one hundred copywriters exactly how to start this first sentence, you'll probably get 100 different answers.
Several intros I've used effectively or have worked with others on using effectively include:
1. The Ultimate Benefit Open
This one is very similar to a headline. You give the biggest benefit available in the letter right up front to grab your prospect's attention. It is written just like a headline. The major difference is it comes AFTER the "Hello Name," in the letter & you never capitalize all the words.
This kind of intro would look like this:
"Hello Name,
Yes. It's true. A New Jersey truck driver earned $130,267.33
last year online without any products to sell."
The example I gave above is giving a benefit and being very specific about it. Please note that if you are going to make a big promise up front, you had better be specific (general terms are going to kill your credibility instantly in email).
Most of the time I'll take my sales letter headlines...and do a slight modification to suit them for email.
2. The Question Open
Asking a question is a good way to get readers involved and determine who should really read the message. No matter what you're offering, there will be some readers who don't need it right now. Asking a question can save those people time and pull the "right" readers into the rest of the ad copy.
"Hello Name,
Would you like to increase your search engine
rankings in the next 24 hours?"
That's a simple message. It tells you exactly what's being offered in the rest of the email. The answer to the question determines who should read the message.
3. The Story Open
This one is actually my favorite. It helps me to add an even more personal feel to the letter while getting the point across quickly. One of the big powers of it is to start the story...and then interrupt the story before the interesting part with some of the other information. Then finish the story later.
Here's my X-Factor email...
"Hi Name,
There I was...standing in front of 72 people hanging
on my every word. They paid $997 each to be there.
I made a bold claim. I told multimillionaire Ron
Legrand I could generate $10,000 or more within 3
days...anytime I wanted. He told me to "Prove it."
So, I flew down to Dallas, Texas to do a "Live" on the
spot Internet promotion in front of these Bootcamp participants.
It was make it or break it time. They would soon find
out whether I was the real deal or not…
Opps...I guess I got ahead of myself. You probably
would like to know who I am and why you're receiving this email."
I started a story...made you interested...and then changed the subject before the story was over. You'll have to read more into the copy to find out what happened.
Always Tell Them Why
You need to tell them why you are emailing them. How did you get their email address? Who are you? Why is this offer for them? This should come right after the first paragraph.
Letting people know why they are on your list and who you are is vital to your message. In some cases, we even break the rules and put this section FIRST in our message and do the normal section above after this.
Anytime you send an email, everyone is immediately thinking, "Where did you get my email?" So, tell them they subscribed to your Web Gold list. Tell them they asked for information from your web site at http://www.bizpromo.com. Tell them they purchased ____ from you.
If you don't answer this question early on in your email, then they will delete you or report you for spam. You definitely don't want spam complaints. Don't assume that just because someone subscribed to your ezine means they remember subscribing. This is another reason my subject line for Web Gold is, "Name, Web Gold is here..." also to have a consistent basis of reminding them they are subscribed.
If you don't tell them why you're emailing them, then the best thing that could happen is they just be bugged by the question the whole time. So they don't buy. So there you have it. The best thing that could happen if you don't explain why is you don't get the order. The worst is you can be canceled for the Internet for false spam complaints. Not good options to choose from.
Tell them why & who you are. We could call this the credibility section of our ad. We're building in credibility to everything else we're going to say in the email at this point.
Giving Value
This is vital for your long term success.
Your customers will open your email and read it more often if you give them real value. If all you send out are ads, then people will begin to expect this. Even if you follow every other rule laid out above, they will still delete your messages or remove themselves from your list.
Give value. Send them free content. Send them excerpts from your ebook. Write them a special How-To article which can help them accomplish _____.
Be a giver instead of just a salesperson.
Give them a reason to read your emails. Then, when you send out a special offer for them to purchase something, they will already be accustomed to reading your messages. Some of my free Web Gold subscribers tell me they read my newsletter first and even print out the issues. This is PERFECT for when it's time to send them a special offer. They'll read it before everything else and even print it out to study it. Wouldn't you love for people to be studying your sales materials?
They will...if you continually give them a good reason to do so.
Robert Cialdini calls the rule of giving value before you ask for the sale the Law of Reciprocation. In his book, "Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion," he explains that people feel obligated to give something in return when they receive something of value with no strings attached.
For you, the businessperson, this means that many of the people receiving value from your informative email messages will feel in "debt" to you in someway...so they are much more open to giving you their money when you make an offer than can help them. All things being equal...they will definitely buy from you BEFORE your competitors on equal offers.
Give first and prove your worth to them.
Subject Line Filtering
Many ISPs now block incoming mail based on subject lines and the content of the message. Below are just a few of the words including in most blocking software and many blocking tools offered by ISPs.
These types of words mean your customer NEVER even receives your message. They don't even get a chance to decide if they want to open it or not! It is deleted automatically for them by some well meaning software program.
Look at a few of the words. "Free" is blocked and it is a primary tool of direct marketers such as us. So you shouldn't use "free" in any of your subject lines. You shouldn't use any of these words in your subject lines if you want your customers to actually receive your email messages.
Blank messages are often deleted along with messages with all upper case letters. Here are some of the other ones which are being used by "Spam" blockers:
free,
guarantee,
guaranteed,
money,
discount,
make,
great,
offer,
credit,
card,
sex,
kill,
adv:
toner supplies,
accept credit cards,
increase sales w/4 powerful words,
new,
hot,
loan,
latest,
xxx,
affordable,
advertise,
amazing,
announcing,
approved,
Bill Gates,
cheap,
checks,
discount,
home business,
invest,
lottery,
MLM,
million,
opportunity