I awoke this morning to find this question in my inbox – my response will follow:
Q.I only email my list when I have something important to say – which is usually once a month. But I see my competitors emailing more often, like weekly or a couple times a week. Won’t people unsubscribe if I send an email every week?
A. Do you drop your Netflix subscription because your favourite show is on every week (or every night)? Do you stop turning the radio on in your car because the same station – with the same announces – are on every day?
Remember this: The more you contact your list the more you sell.
I hear people say, “My customers know where to find me” and “They know what I sell, I don’t need to remind them all the time”.
WRONG! You need to remind them.
People are busy.
You may think they’ll remember you.
They won’t.
Your customers have got too much going on in their lives to remember you and what you sell. The only people they remember are those who contact them on a regular basis – and this includes family and their closest friends.
Even worse …
Waiting for people to come to you is like expecting veggies to grow in your garden without planting seeds.
Or like hoping to get fit without exercise.
Or like fishing without a net or line or bucket to catch the fish.
But if you’re like most people … you’re so busy doing everything else in your business that you don’t have time to write good sales-generating emails to your subscribers.
Or you have time but don’t know what to write.
If that’s the case, reply to this email and let’s talk about how I can help you.
I can either write a series of emails for you every month … or coach you on writing your own emails.
Either way, if you’re ready to talk, hit ‘reply’ to this email.
If you’re reading this on the web, and you’re not a subscriber to my twice-weekly email newsletter, subscribe below – I only work with subscribers.
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Hi Michael, I read most of your emails. You seem to have a knack for getting my attention each time your emails land in my inbox. Here’s my question: How do I get more subscribers reading MY emails?
– Jeremy
ME: Hi Jeremy, that’s a great question, one I hear a lot.
To answer your question, you don’t need to look far —
The magazine industry spends millions of dollars producing, publishing, and distributing every single issue they release to the market. Do you think a company spending that kind of money knows a thing or two about getting people to open and read their magazines?
They might be dumb, but they’re not stupid.
The truth is, they spend millions each year on headline writers who write those irresistible headlines on the cover of each issue. The headlines on the cover of a magazine – like the subject line on the top of your emails – are the key to getting your emails read.
So go learn from the magazine industry. I can give you a few (actually three) clues to get you started in an article I wrote recently titled 3 ways to get your subscribers to open and read your emails. But for the full scoop, you should hire me to work with you on your emails. I can’t promise your subscribers will read EVERY email you send after you hire me. But your strike rate of emails sent to emails read WILL increase.
And sales will follow.
Reply to this email if you want to chat about getting me to write YOUR emails.
If you’re reading this message on my website, or if a friend sent this message to you, get your own subscription to my twice-weekly email newsletter here:
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You spend hours thinking about and writing a brilliant email newsletter to your subscribers and only 10% open your emails. Even less read them. And only a small handful buy the products or services you’re promoting.
What gives?
And how can you get more people reading on a regular basis?
These are the questions Donna asked me recently. She said:
“My list is growing but I feel like I’m writing to myself. I don’t think people are reading what I write. How can I get more people to read my emails?”
Here’s what I told her:
Take a leaf out of the magazine industries book.
You’ll find a lot of similarities to email newsletters.
For example, magazines are fighting for attention on a crowded news stand or magazine rack at the shopping centre. So too are your emails fighting for attention in a crowded inbox. As a result, the magazine editors spend a lot of time planning the cover. The cover’s job is to get people’s attention and get them to open the magazine. Your email subject line has the same job: get attention and get opened. So that’s the first thing:
Write intriguing subject lines that pull readers in.
Listen: Nobody will read your email unless it stands out like a zebra on the subway. So your subject line better pull readers in and practically force them to open your email.
I’m sure you’ve had the experience many times standing at the store checkout or passing a newsstand and a headline on the cover of a magazine grabbed your attention. News websites are good at this too. They give you a picture, a headline and a few lines of teaser copy – all designed to arrest your attention for a few seconds like lights on a police car in your rear-view mirror. The goal is to get you to click and read what’s inside.
Your subject lines need to do the same thing (only without the benefit of using an image).
Or at least that’s your goal.
This means your subject lines can’t be an afterthought. Can’t be something you do at the last minute.
Writing subject lines is a project on your to-do list and needs as much time as writing the actual content.
If you spend an hour writing the newsletter, spend at least half an hour writing the subject line, it’s THAT important.
Next …
Create memorable content that’s worth reading and sharing.
Don’t know about you but when I read a magazine or a news website I usually find one or two articles that really hit me in the feelers and stand out in my mind. I then find myself quoting those articles in conversations with family or friends.
This is called social currency.
Ideas worth spreading.
Ideas that make you feel intelligent, better informed, more knowledgeable, more up to date with the latest whatever.
When you find a source of information like this you continue returning to read what they have to say.
You want your email newsletter to have a similar effect.
Aim to become the voice of your audience.
Aim to be the voice people look forward to because they wonder what you’re going to say next.
And finally …
Tease about the future.
Magazines do this too.
Or at least the magazines I read as a kid did this.
You get to the end of the magazine and there’s a section tilted: NEXT ISSUE. Followed by a quick preview of the top stories or interviews coming up in the next issue. Cartoons and comics do this really well too. So do TV series. They leave you hanging, wondering where the story is going next.
You can do the same in your email newsletter, either in the PS or midway through a good story. Tell the reader you’ll talk more about this next time. For product announcements don’t just say “Here’s the product”. Say “Next Tuesday’s email will announce a brand-new product that will totally change the game.” And so on.
In summary:
– Give subject line creation the time it deserves. If your subject line doesn’t grab the reader’s attention they probably won’t read your email newsletter.
– Create content that gets people talking. The more readers love your content the more they’ll look forward to your next email and read it the second it arrives.
– Leave readers wanting more. More about this when you subscribe to my email newsletter.
Use these three ideas to get more subscribers opening and reading your email newsletters.
Want more ideas like these to help you build and profit from a successful email newsletter?
Subscribe to my email newsletter and I’ll send you short lessons and ideas (1 or 2 times a week)to help you succeed with email marketing:
And they found 72% (or 720 people of the 1,000 surveyed) subscribe to email lists for just two reasons:
1. To learn more about what you do and …
2. To stay up to date on the latest about a topic that interests them.
That’s it!
Shock Alert: They actually want to hear from you!
I could probably end the article right here and send you off to write emails based on those two discoveries.
But I won’t do that.
Instead, let me suggest three emails you can safely write that are perfectly instep with your subscribers’ reasons for being on your list. And then I’ll give you three email templates you can use immediately (and possibly make sales within the hour).
EMAIL ONE: Announce a sale (because a sale keeps subscribers updated on what you offer)
EMAIL TWO: Announce industry news (because industry news gives your subscribers information on a topic that interests them) and …
EMAIL THREE: Announce ‘insider or ‘behind-the-scenes’ stories about your business, products or services (because this type of information keeps subscribers updated on what you’re doing)
“But How do I Write the Actual Email?”
Okay, Okay. Hold your horses. I’m getting there.
The ‘HOW’ varies, depending on your market, positioning, products and services.
But …
For now …
Here are 3 simple email templates you can use to write your next broadcast email.
SIDE NOTE: If you don’t normally send emails with a direct pitch — or feel uncomfortable about sending a direct solicitation for business — write a content based email and use one of the templates below as an ‘insertion’ in your regular email. Use it to start your email, like writing a special letter from the editor then follow on with your usual content … or …. put one of the following email templates after your main message with its own headline. Or place it right in the middle of your message with a border or shaded background around it (like I’m doing here) to make it stand out from your other content.
You can send any (or all) of these emails to your list without offending anyone – just make sure you adapt them to your business before pressing send:
1. Announce a sale.
Like this:
“Hi, I’m running a sale on my ABC product this week until Friday.
Thought you might be interested because you bought (similar product) and a lot of my customers buy them together.
The reason they buy them together is, the X in product A matches perfectly with the Y in product B.
It’s normally $127.
But because you’re a subscriber to my email list you get 40% off – so it’s only 76 bucks when you grab yours before the deadline.
More information here:
[Link to website]”
2. Announce industry news.
Like this:
“Hi, have you seen the news reports about XYZ?
Seems there’s a nationwide crackdown on (some topic or other).
Not sure how this is going to affect our business yet. We may have to stop producing our ABC widget. But I’ll keep you posted.
In the meantime, you can still order a month supply at the following link:
[Link to product page on website]”
3. Announce insider or behind the scenes news about your business.
Like this:
“Hi, last week my partner and I attended an industry awards nights for (awards category).
Frankly, we only went because a good friend invited us, and we thought it’d be a fun night out with free champagne and hors d’oeuvres.
We had no idea WE were going to win a prestigious industry award.
But we did.
It was totally unexpected.
And we’re overwhelmed with gratitude.
The award has thrown a spotlight on our business. And we’re already seeing opportunities for grants and access to people who can open new doors for us.
Anyway, to celebrate (and because you’re a valuable supporter of our business and we wouldn’t be here without you) we’re offering store wide discounts on everything in stock from today until the end of the week.
Check the details and grab a bargain here:
[Link to website with bargains]”
Pretty simple, right?
And non-offensive.
You can adapt these email templates to any type of business or profession.
You can send them without fear or risk of upsetting anyone on your email list.
And, they follow our two new email rules of sending emails that 1) keep people up to date on what you do and 2) help them learn more about a topic (your industry or product or service category) that interests them.
Want Me to Customise One of These Emails For Your Business?
If you want help customising one of these emails for your business, I offer a one-time service where you get your next marketing email written by me, at no cost to you. (It’s a great time-saving service if you’re trying to write an email right now but don’t know what to write.)
I picked up her book because it’s highly regarded within book author circles. Many credit this book (and the workshop Tammi teaches on the same topic) as the key to their book publishing success and the launch pad that rocketed their self-publishing career to new heights.
I can see why.
Newsletter Ninja is easy to read and walks the reader through a clear process Authors can follow to build and profit from an email newsletter. And although the book is written specifically for authors, 90% of the content is applicable to businesses of every stripe. If you want to improve your email newsletter, get more readers, and turn readers into engaged fans who talk about you and buy your stuff then you can do a lot worse than reading this book.
For more …
Subscribe to my email newsletter and I’ll send you short lessons and ideas (1 or 2 times a week)to help you succeed with email marketing:
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Sending an email newsletter is the most efficient way to stay in touch with the people who buy from you or want to know more about what you do.
An email newsletter is also a great way to sell more of your products or services to prospects, past customers or the people they know. (People share good emails with colleagues, friends and family.)
Your customers are the most important people in your business.
So communicating with them on the regular should be your highest priority.
But not everyone is natural at keeping in touch.
If it feels forced to write a regular email to your list you’ll quickly lose interest and enthusiasm.
And if you don’t know what to send to your list it’s even harder. Often frustrating. And a time-consuming brain drain.
When NOT to send emails
Some think no communication is better than bad communication. And I guess that’s true. But then again, who decides what bad communication is?
I know some companies that send the same email every month. It works. It reminds their customers to buy their stuff. When I first heard this I thought “really! The same email every month?” But isn’t that better than sending no email? It is, because he who communicates the most has the most influence.
That’s why I advocate emailing at least monthly, preferably weekly and for some people multiple times a week, depending on what you do and who’s on your email list.
If you’re a hobby type business for example then more emails are best. I’m on a couple of hobby lists right now and I almost never hear from them. And when I do they don’t really say anything.
What if people don’t want to hear from you very often?
If your subscribers don’t want to hear from you they can always unsubscribe. After all, there’s an unsubscribe link in every marketing email you send, right?
And if you’re afraid of upsetting subscribers because you send email too often, you can always give your subscribers the option to join a sub list that you mail less frequently. Just put a section at the bottom of each email that says: Don’t want to hear from me so often? Click the link below and I’ll only email you once a month (or quarter or whatever).
Using tags in your email sending software will cause this link to automatically flag the subscribers who click it as people who only want your monthly or quarterly emails.
Of course, you’ll then have to create a monthly or quarterly email to send to these people.
But that’s easy.
Once a month or quarter do a “round up” type email that summarises what’s been happening with links to relevant pages and products on your website. (More on this some other time.)
Then continue to mail everyone else weekly or at whatever interval makes the most sense.
Deciding email newsletter frequency
Oh, and when you’re deciding the frequency to send emails to your list, always err on the side of more emails not less.
Most people underestimate how often people on their list want to hear from them.
And most people on your list will only open 20-30% of your emails anyway, which means they’ll only read 1 in 4 emails you send.
So if you send monthly, they’ll receive 12 emails a year and only read 3.
Hardly a relationship building exercise.
Listen: If you email monthly, the first thing you should do after reading this is switch to twice monthly, then work toward once a week. Then look at your sales stats and decide which is better, once a month or once a week.
I know of some companies that mail twice a day! And up to 5 times a day when running a special promotion or limited time sale.
Based on the results I see my clients getting, your sales will increase when you increase email frequency.
And that’s without applying any of the suggestions I make about how to write emails that convert readers into buyers.
Make sense?
Good.
For even better ideas to help you build a successful email newsletter subscribe below:
Then go write an email.
Subscribe to my email newsletter and I’ll send you short lessons and ideas (1 or 2 times a week)to help you succeed with email marketing:
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Do you have a fear of writing? Or a sense of self-consciousness about what you write?
Do you write like a person with a stutter, constantly worried about how your message sounds?
Are you feeling self-conscious about what you’re writing because you don’t have a lot of writing experience?
Do you feel like a fraud sitting behind a computer pretending to be a writer, secretly hoping no one will notice that you don’t know what you’re doing?
One way to overcome these feelings when you write is to forget about yourself and write fearlessly.
Write like you’re being chased by the cops and need to get your words down fast.
Or like you’re running into a tsunami with a surfboard.
Write with reckless abandon. You can always edit later.
Write what’s on your mind, no matter what people may think.
And write to someone.
Don’t write to yourself and send it to subscribers.
Write to a person.
Write like they’re asleep in a burning building and it’s your job to wake them up. Shake them around a bit. Get them moving.
Write like their life depends on it, not yours.
Think only of them.
It’s not about you.
That’s how you write fearlessly.
That’s how you write emails that compel people to act.
That’s how you write emails that get attention, that stick in people’s brains.
That’s how you stand out in a crowded inbox.
And it’s how you get subscribers to look for your email first when they open their inbox.
Write fearlessly.
Subscribe to my email newsletter and I’ll send you short lessons and ideas (1 or 2 times a week)to help you succeed with email marketing:
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“He who communicates the most has the most influence”.
I don’t know who to attribute that quote to. I first heard it in church of all places. And I know the speaker didn’t originate the quote because she said she was quoting someone else. But that was a long time ago – probably 5 years ago or more.
Besides, the “who” doesn’t matter.
The “what” is what matters.
And that is:
Sending an email newsletter to your list each week is a great way to stay in touch and deepen the relationship your subscribers have with you.
Need more convincing?
How about this:
If you run a business of any kind, then, other people are competing for your customers money. And, who do you think your customers are more likely to buy from? A stranger they know nothing about … or … you, who communicates with them weekly, fortnightly or monthly?
Assuming your product or service fulfills a need they want to fill or solves a problem they want to solve the answer is obvious.
You!
Even better:
When you send a frequent email newsletter people start buying things they didn’t know they needed. They buy because your email newsletter influences them to buy.
Still not convinced?
Maybe there’s no hope for you.
Or maybe you should subscribe to my email newsletter to learn how to create a flourishing (and profitable) email newsletter of your own …
Subscribe to my email newsletter and I’ll send you short lessons and ideas (1 or 2 times a week)to help you succeed with email marketing:
There are thousands of important words (or phrases) in marketing like list building, targeting, demographics, psycho-graphics, offers, PPC, content marketing, credibility, emotion, needs, wants, desires and so on.
The list is practically endless and could fill 100 books.
But there are two words that help you understand more about marketing (and how to do it) than any other words or phrases.
Why are these words important?
Because they describe the mechanics of marketing and put into fresh perspective what to do in any medium or media to get results.
In short, they simplify your job as a marketer and make your life easier.
The first word is … sequence.
The Greek mathematician, Archimedes is credited for saying “Give me a place to stand and with a lever long enough I will move the whole world”.
In marketing terms this can translate to, “give me the contact details of all the people with the types of problems I solve, and let me send them a sequence of messages and I’ll convert a high percentage into customers”.
There’s power in sequence.
For example, 12 emails, with a carefully planned message, sent over a 3-4 week period will have greater impact than a single email.
Think about your best relationships.
You may have hit it off the first time you met, but the relationship was built over time, in a sequence of events that built the relationship to what it is today.
And your relationship will be sustained by a future sequence of events, starting today.
It’s a sequence of events, not a single event, that shapes our view of the world and the people in it.
So when you think of marketing in terms of a sequence you have the power to shape people’s views of you, your company, and your products and services.
The second most important word in marketing is … integration.
Integration — in marketing terms — means using multiple mediums or channels in your message sequence simultaneously.
For example, if you discover your best prospects are Accountants, why limit yourself to just sending DMs to Accountants on LinkedIn? Why not create a list of Accountants and send messages on LinkedIn, email, direct mail, phone calls, and personal visits in a carefully planned, integrated sequence of communication?
I’m sure if you think about it you can come up with many more mediums to integrate into this approach.
For example, what about re-targeting ads on Facebook and Google?
What about an endorsed mailing from clients you’ve already worked with who may be in your prospect’s circle of influence?
Anyway, a sequentially integrated approach will have far greater impact (and results) than simply running an ad on Facebook or sending a single email.
How are you using sequence and integration in your marketing?
Want more useful marketing ideas to grow your business?
Subscribe to my email list and I’ll send you short lessons and ideas to help you succeed at marketing:
You’re not the first business owner to struggle with email marketing.
And your biggest sticking point — the thing that holds you back — is not your ability to write, but your over-eagerness to say the right thing.
In fact, the fear of saying the wrong thing creates a block in your creative thinking.
And this block, stops you sending enough emails, or the quality of emails that can bring you more sales and make your business as much at 6X more profitable.
I know a 6X improvement can seem unimaginable.
But think about it, whose more likely to buy from you? Someone whose never heard of you or someone on your email list, who knows you, likes you and perhaps has bought from you in the past.
Studies (confirmed over more than 3 decades) show that people who buy from you (your existing clients, patients or customers) are 6X more likely to buy again than a cold prospect whose never done business with you before.
And email is the fastest, most convenient, most cost effective way to reach these clients to induce them to buy again.
Need more proof that email is powerful?
Consider this: According to the researchers at the Direct Marketing Association, “segmented and targeted emails generate 58% of all online revenue.”
Is over half your online revenue coming from email?
If not, you’re sitting on a gold-mine opportunity. And all you have to do to cash-in is start using email marketing more effectively.
