I know there are loads of naysayers out there when it comes to email marketing, and I’d agree that open rates for many marketer’s are becoming a huge problem. But having said that, I have no doubt 
email marketing is still a huge part of Internet marketing today, offering probably the very best return on your time when it’s used effectively.
I have to be honest though, I’m not the world’s best when it comes to email marketing, I don’t email my list nearly as often as I should do, (or told I should do), but I’ve always been conscious of the fact that folks hate getting a ton of mail from marketer’s trying to sell them the latest shiny new toy (whatever it is), so I do try to keep them to a reasonable level throughout the week. To be honest I don’t really have the time or the inclination to send several out every day.
So how can your emails have an even greater impact with your readers and how can you persuade them to open up and read what you have to say and furthermore be tempted to buy what you’re either selling or recommending.
I’ve put together a few tips for strengthening your newsletter content I hope will help you get a better open and response rate..
Read down and please feel free to comment if you agree or disagree with me.
Get your readers excited about opening your emails, make them interesting and fun. I can count on one hand the amount of marketer’s whose emails I open without fail and which I definitely look forward to. One in particular literally makes me laugh out loud because he has a naughty sense of humor (like me), and I have to say, I’ve bought a number of products through his link and if I have, then I’m sure many others have also done the same.
Build a relationship with your list. I know this maybe sounds trite, but it’s true. Get to know folks you’re emailing to, make sure your’e accessible and prove you’re trustworthy and not just after their cash!!!
Shorter is better, but not too short, (If that makes sense). Shorter sentences are more likely to be read than longer ones and shorter emails are more likely to be read all the way through than huge missives. However I must admit, there are certain exceptions to that rule. I know of several marketer’s who send out quite lengthy emails. They are so good, I always make it my excuse to make a cup of tea and sit and have a read when I get them.
There’s also the danger of making your emails TOO short. You’ve received those emails that have one sentence designed to make you curious enough to click the link? Don’t be clever and copy them as a template because not only do a lot of scammers wanting you to download viruses use that trick, research done by much better marketer’s than me have shown they don’t convert very well at all.
Prepping your readers for what they are about to see is a much better way of gaining interest and curiosity from your readers. They may well click the link in your email, but if they don’t have a clue what it is they are going to be looking at then they probably won’t stay on the site you sent them to.
The trick is to tell them just enough inside your email to make them curious or even desperate to go to the page you’re sending them to. This way they’re probably much more eager to learn more about wherever you’ve sent them and quite possibly make the purchase. Think of it as warming up your prospect before sending them off to the sales page 🙂
Being timely is really important. Open your email with the latest news in your niche, then tie it into your offer and you’ve got a winner. Can’t find a way to tie the two together? Then don’t. There’s no reason why you can’t update them on both your news and your latest offer. Just make sure you lead with the news first because keeping them informed is more important than making a sale, or at least that’s they way you should come across if you want your readers to continue opening your newsletters.
You don’t want them to think you just look at them as a cash cow because that’s the best way to get them pressing that unsubscribe button.
Be a problem solver. Regardless of whether or not you’re making an offer in your email, if you can show them how to solve a problem then your readers will think you’re wonderful. Tell them about the solution you found and how they can use the same idea to fix their own problem. If you are promoting a product, begin with the problem it solves, then explain why this particular solution holds an edge over the others.
Get them hooked, then link them over. The best newsletter writers get their readers hooked onto a story, then at a key moment continue the story on their blog. It’s not something I’ve personally tried as yet, but I do plan on testing it at some point. This should hopefully get a vast majority of your readers clicking that link to find out what happens next in the story. (Make sure you put the entire story on your blog for those that land there without reading your newsletter, otherwise it’s going to look a tad odd).
Be funny/humorous, or at the very least have fun. I try to make my newsletters as light and amusing as I can, but I don’t go overboard. Striking a happy medium between being amusing and serious is key.
Show you enjoy writing your newsletters and interacting with your subscribers. They will feel they get to know you then and will come to trust what you have to say and recommend. On another note, don’t abuse that trust because once lost its very difficult if not impossible to regain.
Don’t pimp, I hate it when I get emails from other marketer’s pimping stuff they are affiliating for and if I hate it, then so do my readers. Obviously there is nothing wrong with sending out recommendations etc for products, (after all we are marketers), but at least make an effort to make your email just a tad interesting when doing so.
Ok I bet there are lots of other ideas out there on how to
