The first thing that comes to mind when you heard the words ‘Email Marketing’ is spam, spam…spam! There was a time when this marketing technique was considered a little dirty and heavily associated with spammers, but has that changed? Nothing, but I’m here to explain and show you why Email Marketing is not only very much alive but also extremely effective!
Let’s start by defining Email Marketing briefly and why people consider it spam:
Email marketing is directly marketing a commercial message to a group of people using email. In its broadest sense, every email sent to a potential or current customer could be considered email marketing. It usually involves using email to send ads, request business, or ask for sales or donations, and is meant to build loyalty, trust, or brand awareness. – source Wiki-Email Marketing
By that definition you all notice how that can be perceived as spam. Many consider Email Marketing to be a form of harassment, where their inbox gets filled up with offers and ads, which renders email marketing almost useless because few ever even get past the subject title before trashing the email. What is it good for though? well that’s the thing. It really depends on your understanding of Email Marketing and being able to differentiate between Spam and regular emails. While spam is unwanted email, you have to realize that everyone is still open to accepting emails in general.
So what’s the catch?
Creating Emails that are intelligent and targeted!
The best thing to do is to get creative and create intelligent email templates, to build such a template I’m going to help you by creating an example template from scratch right now, so pay attention!
You need 3 things to create the perfect template:
- The perfect Subject title!
- The perfect Body content!
- The perfect hook, which includes your site url or contact details at the end!
Example:
(I’m emailing you, a webmaster/blogger, and all I want in return is for you to end up clicking on my website link via my email to come visit my site! That’s the mission of this email, which I can send to millions of people in hopes of getting the same response leading to a ton of new happy visitors, watch and learn!)
Subject: Your Blog + Coffee = how I start every morning!
Body: I don’t want to waste your time.To summarize this email:
THANK YOU!The full email:
I hope you are not TOTALLY creeped out by my email which could be considered border line stalking. You are sharing some really interesting/funny/helpful stuff on your blog these days so…well…a comment on one of your posts just would not do the trick of thanking you. Please don’t ever stop blogging, you inspire me!So, if you are still reading this, that all was a long way of saying this.
THANK YOU! My own blog is practically derived from inspiration I get through yours!
P.S. I bolded that ‘thank you’ in case it’s all you read.
Have a kick ass day!
The Irish
from http://newbizshop.com
It’s simple, generic so it can work with mass emails, it shows that you respect the person’s time by humorously summarizing your already short email, and instead of being about your site or your product or emailing them a gimmick, it’s all about them! Even when you mention your own site, you do so in a way that makes the email receiver think that your blog wouldn’t exist without their inspiration!
Granted, this won’t work on everyone, but the results will amaze you. I used to have a 4%-5% conversion rate of clicks from the email campaigns I would launch until I started sending emails written in a similar style and with different concepts as shown above and the results speak for themselves. Almost a 65%-70% conversion rate now! So if I send out an email blast to a 100 bloggers, more times than not I get at least 60 clicks, of happy bloggers coming to read my blog and at times, comment positively on an article they can relate to.
That’s just one example of how to write an effective email for your next Email Marketing campaign. Be creative and remember that people are willing to read your emails as long as you respect their time and give them a single reason to do so. I like to use the subject title to break the ice, usually with mild humor and a generic compliment that doesn’t seem spammy!
Good luck with your next Email Marketing campaign guys!
From me, Nick ‘The Irish’ Whelan, I’ll see you in a couple of days for another helpful Marketing related article!
TheIrish
Latest posts by TheIrish (see all)
- Email Marketing – The Irish Way - 03/11/2013
Comment Policy: Your words are your own, so be nice and helpful if you can. Please, only use your real name and limit the amount of links submitted in your comment. Clearly self promotional comments will be removed. This is not a place to self promote. We accept clean XHTML in comments, but don't overdo it please.