Problem…
“Have you ever been pretty darn desperate to attract some cash? I know I have been! In fact, after making $ 0 dollars for almost a year after starting online, I would have given my right leg to attract some quick cash.”
“But what makes this really amazing is the fact that you don’ t have to go to Beverly Hills or have ANY kind of surgery in order to erase years off of your face.”
“Please give us a call today about your Federal Student Loan. We are pleased to tell you that you may qualify for any of the student loan forgiveness programs that are available to borrowers right now.”
“During your regulry scheduled accountmanintenance verification procedure, we have detected a slight error regarding your American Express account.” [sic]
“Consignment Box reg #: JG1N8875BS originally scheduled to be delivered to you by the agency foreign payment service New York. This Consignment box is a metal box valued 2,316,000USD (Two Million, Three Hundred and Sixteen thousand United States dollars) arrived at San Francisco International via United Airlines Flight UA 4130.”
Reality…
- I am not desperate to give you cash after making $ 0 last year.
- I don’t need to erase years (well maybe a couple), but not off my face!
- I don’t have any student loans.
- I don’t have an American Express (especially one that needs ‘regulry’ scheduled accounts ‘manintenance’)
- United Airlines Flight 4130 actually lands in Columbus (how did my $ 2,316,000USD end up in LA?)
How Is Your Inbox?
I have 182 messages in my trash since 12:00 am last night (and it’s only 7 pm here). If you are like me, it’s a time suck, a nuisance, and just plain annoying. When you unsubscribe, you are sometimes telling spammers that they have a legitimate email and share it to pass along more spam. As a matter of fact, according to the website spam-o-meter.com, almost 90% of all email traveling across the internet at any give time is just junk or spam!
Oh Poor Pitiful Me?
No, it’s actually more about the people that you are trying to email with email marketing. It’s not about me, it’s not about you, it’s about your audience or those people that you are trying to reach through email marketing. Many people think email marketing is dead since social media has many more users and people actively want to log in and engage.
Email is not dead and is very well alive for those who know some of the secrets (or basics) that still make it a very effective marketing tool.
The 5 Tips!
Here are a few of the things I have learned from some of the best email marketers in the business. Not everyone will agree, however here they are anyway:
- It’s All In The List – Some people in the internet marketing world will not talk to you unless you have a 3000 or 5000 person list. The reason for this is because only 1-2% of lists act and buy. In Connie Reagan Green’s book “Huge Profits, Tiny List”, she talks about how having the RIGHT people on your list can skew those numbers much higher in your favor. It’s not the size of the list, but the quality of the list that matters.
- Segment Lists And Separate Messages – If you receive a buy now email and you have already bought, you go “Huh”? Chances are you will leave that list. You have to tailor your messages to where people are. If they are past, current or potential customers, then they need different messages, and should be on different email lists.
- Make A Point and Keep It ‘Them’ Focused – Based on the segmented lists point above, you may have to create multiple emails per week. We tend to want to fit the square peg into the round hole. Having multiple lists means having to create multiple messages that are focused on the needs and want of each of your lists. It could be the same basic message, with a slant towards the past, current and potential customers, but it may take just a few changes to the tense of the verbs, past, present and future to say the right things to the right audiences!
- One Email and One Action – Give people one thing to do and tell them to do it and you will get some action. Give people 10 things to do and don’t tell them what to do and you will get confusion and inaction. You are always best served by having an email with one purpose and one action! This works best with frequent emails. In my digest email, I have multiple things (podcasts, blogs and presentations), but there is one thing that makes it work and that is consistency.
- Be Consistent – Random emails get random reactions. I send out a digest email every Thursday morning at about the same time. That consistency keeps people on the list and keeps them engaged, because they know what to expect. Whether you mail every day or once a week, be consistent and be diligent. Don’t worry when people unsubscribe, they are not in a place to buy from you right now and may come back later! You want a captive and active audience who open, click and act on your emails, not just people who sit on your list!
Final Thoughts
The bottom line is it’s about your audience and the messages they are interested in. If all you are doing is constantly selling, then you will fall on deaf ears and get more unsubscribes. If you are providing GREAT and pertinent content most of the time (sprinkled with an occasional sales message), then you will see much better engagement, and people will remain on your list.
Remember, you are competing for attention and space in the email box. The more you look like an Ethiopian Prince, and less like a Seth Godin or Steve Jobs, then you will have a harder time keeping people interested in opening and clicking on your emails!
I would love to hear your thoughts and comments.
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