E-mail Campaigns
Checked your e-mail today? Chances are someone has sent you a promotion of some kind, especially if you're active on the Internet and subscribe to e-zines, alerts, and other forms of e-mail communications.
An e-mail campaign or promotion is like a direct-mail sales letter. It is an attempt to persuade you to click somewhere to get more information, take advantage of a special deal, download a free report, renew your subscription to a magazine, sign up for a Webinar, buy a product at a special price, or any number of other campaign objectives.
Structurally, an e-mail campaign is relatively simple. It is typically made up of a motivating subject line, compelling message, and a call to action of some kind. The campaign is often linked to a sell page, microsite, or Web site.
The Subject Line
Subject lines are extremely important. In just a few well-chosen words you have to convince the reader that your message is intended for them, is important, and is not spam. By some accounts, business people receive upward of fifty e-mails per day. The number one way they manage their inboxes — deciding which messages require attention now, which can wait until later, and which can just be deleted — is via the subject lines.
One of the challenges of writing a great subject line is that they're short. You only have about sixty characters at most, about five to ten words. That's not much considering what you have to accomplish. You don't have even a single word to waste.
What is an Autoresponder?
An autoresponder is an automated series of e-mails that is timed to be delivered at specific intervals. For example, if you download a thirty-day free trial of a new software product, you might receive an e-mail on day one, another on day fifteen, and then another on day thirty — that one probably containing a tempting discount if you decide to buy now.
Here are some examples of effective subject lines.
From: Trader's Library
Subject: 2 FREE books of your choice: This week only
From: The Hoover's Online Team
Subject: Your free pass to Hoover's. Today only.
From: Selling Magazine
Subject: Six ways to detect “buy” signals
From: IT Monthly
Subject: Your subscription has expired. But here's the good news…
A winning subject line has one or both of these characteristics:
It creates a sense of urgency, effectively saying to the prospect: “You need to read this now.”
It implies that there is an enticing benefit contained within the email message itself.
The Message
Once the prospect has clicked open the e-mail (due to your highly effective subject line, of course!), you then have to do in the e-mail what all sales copy must do — gain the reader's attention, hold it, and get him or her to respond to the offer.
E-mail promotions that are written like a good sales letter tend to do much better than those that are formatted like advertising. After all, e-mail is a personal communications channel. Relatives, friends, colleagues, vendors, and customers are writing each other — via e-mail — all the time. It makes sense to align your sales message with this format.
That's why the tips to writing an effective sales letter (see Chapter 10) are applicable to most e-mail campaigns as well. However, there are a few notable differences you need to be aware of.
In sales letters you can get away with stating your offer (or call to action) at the end. Not so with e-mail promotions. You must state the offer early, either in the headline or within the first two paragraphs. You don't want to force readers to scroll down to find out what your e-mail is all about. Most won't.
Spam is a huge issue these days. So the less your e-mail marketing piece looks like spam, the more successful it will tend to be. And never participate in a spam e-mail campaign. It's illegal in most jurisdictions and you'll get yourself into a lot of trouble. Besides, there are plenty of legitimate e-mail campaigns that need talented copywriters.
Be very clear within your e-mail how the reader should respond to the offer. Don't assume that just because a word or phrase is blue and under-lined — “Renew at 58% off the cover price” — that the reader will know he has to click on it to get to the renewal page. You must say something to the effect of, “Click here to renew at 58% off the cover price.”
