Email Campaigns for Days
Your email campaign should be a major deal to you, and here’s why.
There are a few things here at Yinc that we deem pretty darn important. And one of them is your email campaign. Oh, you don’t have an email campaign? Then what are you doing with yourself?! Haven’t you ever heard the saying, “The money is in the list?” Because it is.
Your site should have a few forms on it. Something like a general form for visitors to get into contact with someone at your company (probably located on your “contact” page). And you probably should have one somewhere else that allows people to subscribe to your newsletter, or give their email address for some awesome offer. You always want to offer something to your customers in return for their information. This is how you will capture emails for your email campaign.
If you’re a health or fitness company, allow site visitors to download some recipes and boom! You’ve got an email. Maybe you have totally awesome guides that help people accomplish something. Allow them to download these completely free as long as they give their email. Or just give them an option to subscribe to your monthly/weekly/daily newsletters. But let them know you are going to give some good information in these emails, something of value. Make sure they are excited to sign up for what you can offer.
And then make it worth it!
How?
By creating an awesome email campaign. I know, I know, you probably delete the majority of emails you sign up for without ever opening them. You’re probably thinking, I never open emails so why should I waste time creating emails that people aren’t going to read?
That’s when your subject line comes in! If you create an amazing subject line, people are going to want to open them up and read them. It’s the same with writing headlines. If you create a gripping ad headline, people are going to want to click on it…so create a gripping subject line and get those people clicking!
You can read our post about headlines to learn how to write some awesome ones.
Here’s a little bit of information that we’ve learned about subject lines and what gets opened and what gets tossed.
Bad words to not use in your subject line:
- Discount -38.8%
- Trial -45.6%
- Learn -35.5%
- Report -23.7%
- News -34.8%
- Even the word “free” gets a -3%
Some good words to use in your subject line:
- Weirdly enough “free delivery” gets a 50.5% opening rating
- Alerts 38.1%
- Sales 23.2%
- Breaking 35.4%
- Review 37.1%
- Limited 28.7%
If someone is signing up for you list, it’s usually because they want information that you can provide or are hoping for deals or exclusive information. So start with great content right out of the gate, and they will want to open every email from you that comes into their inbox.
So what should your email campaign contain?
It really depends upon your demographic, but you’ve probably heard our rant about the 4 happy chemicals and the one sad one inside your brain. If not, go read it, it’s fantastic and a real insight into how we make decisions as people. Basically you’ve got to get these people craving something right off the bat. Right in that subject line. Make it something they can’t pass up. Think about what gets you reading articles that pop up on your social media? What entices you? Then replicate it. Get your readers dopamine going.
Now for the good stuff, the meat and potatoes of the email.
We like to write our email campaigns like you would a movie. The introduction (headline) the pain, peril, and problem, then the solution, and then a call to action at the end.
So, what need are you going to fill for your clients? What can you offer them that helps their lives? What are they stressed about right now? Get their cortisol flowing so they feel a little tense.
Then hit them with the solution. How you can relieve that stress from their lives. Make them feel okay again, that you have a solution for them. And then end your email with a strong call to action.
But be careful, you want to sell your audience without them realizing you are selling them. Because no one wants to be sold to.
Make your emails fun and funny for your reader, but make sure they have a point and your reader knows what that is.
We really enjoy throwing in what we call a “Seinfeld Story.” Seinfeld is a whole show based around nothing. So throw in an email that’s about nothing. Write about what you did today, or some other mundane story. Make sure it’s still fun and entertaining, but make sure it’s also not a sales pitch. We like to add this one in around email 4 or 5. Which brings me to my next point…
How often should you send out emails?
We go off the Fibonacci sequence. 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, and then we like them to go out once a week. If you can’t do once a week, link your service (Infusionsoft, MailChimp, Aweber, etc) to your blog, so that your blogs will be sent out. Either way let your clients know that you’re still around.
And then when you have a new product or service, or maybe it’s sale season, send out a separate email giving discount codes or exclusive offers.
Just remember, the money is in the list, so work it baby, work it!
