Is email marketing for your business a waste of your time? Most marketing emails don’t get opened, don’t get read and don’t result in sales.
Savvy small business owners and online marketers know that following up with prospects is critical to their success, but when the response to marketing emails is so poor, there are hardly enough leads to make it worthwhile.
Understand that email marketing is completely different than marketing through a sales letter, postcard, over the phone or in person. Don’t expect the strategies and the copy that work in traditional media to get results in email marketing. They won’t, whether you send ten or ten thousand email messages a week.
Think about what you do when you open your email box each day. There are dozens or hundreds of email messages in it. Many have titles that don’t even make sense, others promise untold wealth, superhuman capabilities in the bedroom or outrageous deals on electronics. Even the number of legitimate emails you receive from suppliers or employees can be overwhelming.
Given the demands on our time, most of us quickly delete the dubious emails, file the less urgent ones and only read a handful. How can you make sure that your emails are among that handful?
Email can help you establish your credibility, create a perception of need and the motivation to buy. Imagine where your business could be if your email marketing worked.
1. Motivate Prospects to Open Your Email
No email can persuade, convince, or sell if it doesn’t get opened and read. Grab your prospects’ attention with the title or subject of your message before they delete it.
Subject lines that work the best describe an item or subject that your prospects are interested in. Target their problems or concerns. Remind them of the reason they gave you their email address. For example, “How to Download the Free ——- Guide You Requested”. If the email is your newsletter, include your company name and the name of the newsletter.
2. Motivate Prospects to Read The First Sentence
Once your readers open your email, you’ve got 3 seconds or less to prompt them to read it. Don’t lose them; give them a reason to keep reading.
Ask a question or make a challenging statement relevant to the subject. If you can get them to read the first sentence or two, there is a very good chance they’ll keep reading and get to the links to your product or service pages.
3. Motivate Them to Visit Your Product and Service Pages
The ultimate goal of your marketing emails is to get your prospects to buy. Map out a problem or concern of theirs in such a way that your product or service is the logical solution and they’ll want to learn more.
The first step is to pick one issue or concern of your prospects. Then help them understand why it’s a problem. Then let them know you can help them and how.
4. Engage Your Readers by Keeping Your Emails Personal
After signing up online or contacting your firm once by phone, your prospects are still strangers. You want them to get to know and trust you and your firm. Keep you’re the tone of your emails friendly and conversational. Tell ‘stories’ about the successes clients have had with your products and services to demonstrate their effectiveness.
Why Email Marketing Works
Thanks to this weekly ezine when I get a call from a prospect they’re typically already qualified. They know me, trust me and are ready to do business.
Cindy from San Francisco is a good example. The first thing she said when I took her scheduled call was, “I’ve been getting your emails and I really like them. I’ve learned more in the last ten months from your newsletter than in the previous 20 years of working in sales and marketing and I’m getting better results.”
To make your email marketing works, change the focus and content of your emails. Instead of just providing news or trying to sell to your prospects immediately, use your emails to help them. Help them solve a problem; demonstrate your credibility and build a relationship; and provide them with solutions.
When your prospects see how helpful your emails are, like Cindy, they’ll want to take the next step and buy your products and services.
| Tweet |
