Email Marketing Q & A (Part 1 )

Q: With most inboxes exploding everyday with one communication or another, how can a business stand out from the masses and get their email communications firstly, to stand out amongst the dozens of others that are fighting for attention. And secondly, how can one get their emails opened?

RH: You know, some really truly believe that there’s this special trick or a stealth ninja back door strategy that has their email always in the front of the email opening queue and so has it standing out from all other emails like Rudolph the Reindeer’s red nose. 

There’s no such strategy. 

And frankly, if you try to ‘trick’ the reader into opening an email and there’s no payoff for them in terms of a benefit or a value that the subject line seemed to have implied or promised, then you’ll be thought of as a slick trickster, a con artist trying desperately to win attention and you may have lost that customer or potential customer, along with all their referral and residual value for years to come. 

The authentic way to get your emails to stand out and to get them opened and to get them read and acted on, is to be someone that your customers and prospects like hearing from. 

To be someone they trust and revere, someone they have some kind of emotional affinity with. Someone who is liked, and look, that doesn’t come by accident. That doesn't happen by chance. It’s not something that happens like an instantaneous lottery jackpot win or something that you attract to you and have manifested just because of thinking about it but doing nothing to make it all happen. 

On the other hand, it’s something that does happen when there’s a definite desire and a want from the business owner or entrepreneur to connect, to really and truly deliver important, valuable and interesting communications and conversations to customers and subscribers alike. 

That’s the way to be looked on as a welcomed guest and not someone who is simply classed as an annoying pest because of showing none of the qualities in being a person of value and of being of an interest that people want to hear from and in fact, can’t wait to hear from because of the fresh, inviting and compellingly interesting communications sent on a timely and regular basis. 

And that actually is the way to build up a true personality driven business. And it’s something most businesses should opt doing because there’s a powerful and distinctive market place advantage in being that person or that business a person looks to amongst all others in the same business category or the same industry.

And that's because all other businesses will be looked upon as nothing but commodity based businesses, giving nothing more than an exchange of goods or services for money, and nothing much more. 

There’s much to be said about creating a personality based driven business because that’s where the true value is and believe it or not, people will pay more and stay longer with those kinds of businesses and organisations, than they will a nameless and faceless corporation that has no soul or no spirit or personality about them. 

NOTE: Are you keen to ramp up your  email marketing game? Want more from the written transcript of where the above interview came from? Email me and I'll give it to you. PLUS... I'll give you access to a powerful yet simple report on how to create personality in your  emails.

raja . hireker @ gmail . com  

Email Asset makeover - (because they sincerely DON'T really care about you, they only care about filling their pockets)

Cancelled a product, membership or service recently? 

So what did you get back from the company by way of a follow up communication?

Well, depending on the company or business, you've probably not received anything at all as most are firstly unware about the lifetime value of a customer. 

And secondly, most are unaware of the various impact points throughout their customer communications funnels and sequences and so can't actually do anything to fix them. 

You can't fix what you can't measure, see or know about.  

Or, you'll have gotten something that sounds like they want to bribe you back into their arms, without really ever sincerely digging in and finding out why it is you cancelled.

Of course, many people don't want to give any reason at all why they've cancelled and simply ignore any communication they receive that's designed to enquire - and that's whether or not the follow up communication is sincere or not. 

They, we, just want to be left alone and carry on with our day.   

And in case you're thinking that it's the smart, switched on and customer centric, marketing savvy companies who've got all this sorted by way of their customer communications and follow ups, then think again. Because they're not immune to creating communications that smell of desperation.

Let's get into a follow up communication email I received from a big company in the motivation and productivity space.

To give you some context, the following email was generated because I cancelled a trial membership to one of their service based products.      

--------------------------------------------------------

Why Raja? Why?

Raja...

Maybe you can help me out with this?

Here's the deal ...  Two things:

1.  You cancelled your membership a few days ago.

2.  I think you're crazy :p

See, I'm pretty sure xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx is amazing.  But you seem to disagree.
Or maybe there's some other issue?

See, I don't know.  But I want to  ...

So, if you take a second to tell me what's up, I'll give you a course
of your choice on the house (up to a $97 value).

Just click here:

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Then I'll immediately send you a coupon code for the course.  Easy :-)

----------------------------------------------------------

So let's see where things could be improved. 

Subject line is good. It got me to open the email, especially because I was unaware who it was from. It's curiosity based. 

Next...

Maybe you can help me out with this?

The can you help me out with this rings as if they're coming to you for advice, yet it's really all THEM centered and focussed, and not customer focussed. 

How could that opening line be improved?    

Something like...

I'm troubled that we've let you down in some way yet I know it seems silly but we don't quite know what we've done to mess things up. 

The next line of their message -- 

Here's the deal ...  Two things:

What deal? Where's the negotiation? Why that language? And why the quick, curt, Two things line? 

Not sure who their writers are but they're not really thinking in alignment with normal human conversation. It's as if there's an urgent on their part for a response, along with a  demonstration of how cool and smart the writer is..., rather than giving full attention to the reader/recipient and focussing on their wants and needs.

So how could that all be improved? 

I've noticed you've cancelled your trial membership and that's really okay. I wanted to get in touch with you to understand what I can do to help you, to figure out how we can make the product work for you so you can benefit from it in the way we'd promised it would.

Moving on to the next piece of copy in their email...

1.  You cancelled your membership a few days ago.

2.  I think you're crazy :p  

I've touched on the first part in my version of things above, as well as the second part in a way, but the second bit of the second part is quite interesting. I think you're crazy, along with a colon and the alphabet p. I'd no idea what that was so googled it. Turns out it's the equivalent of sticking your tongue out in a playful way in real life.   

I don't know the person in the email so would I be speaking and doing that in real life to someone I don't know. No. Not really. Yet in email and with online communications, it seems nearly everyone has given themselves the freedom and license to replicate real life scenarios and conversations online, buck them, and not think anything about it. 

Big error in thinking.

The next part -- 

See, I'm pretty sure xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx is amazing.  But you seem to disagree.
Or maybe there's some other issue?

What's wrong here?

The person doesn't even know if the product is amazing. They're 'pretty sure'? They're not certain. They're hedging. They're riding on a possibility. There's no evidence that says they've used it at all and can speak with any kind of credibility. So why use that line at all? 

Next piece in the same sentence assumes I disagree that the product is not amazing. Where did they get that factual info from? From nowhere except out of thin air because of their sheer laziness and guesswork.   

How to improve their line of thinking?

By replacing it with the following:

We've 3,459 (or whatever their real customer number is) people who are thrilled customers who swear by the product and think it's amazing. And of course, we'd love for you to be number 3460 but we know that that can't happen at all, until and unless we know how to help you solve whatever problems you might be having.   

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Now in that email there's a link to a questionnaire where the language and thrust is all about "what can we do to win you back?" It's as if bribing osmosis is being dealt, ethical or not, and yet all of that won't do a jot of good if there's no clear understanding and connection regarding why the cancellation. 

I can tell you one thing, no matter how good the product or service, trying to plead and get people to buy and invest by offering a price cut, will get you a specific type of customer with a specific type of mind. And you can be sure there'll be a mad high percentage who won't use the product or service. In some cases it works, but price lowering is never a good idea if you want quality customers who invest and consume. 

Right now I could go on and complete the email and have a completely refreshed and revamped version. Which in turn would bring a number of cancelled subscribers back as full paying customers.    

Now let's step back a little and think about the numbers here.

The monthly membership is $47. 

Compound that out over the year and it's over $500. 

Multiply that by 5 years (and that's being conservative because just like electricity or gas, you're going to keep on paying for it if it brings you ongoing constant service, usage and value. You're not going to disconnect)...

So that's a $2500 amount. 

Factor in the suite of products and services they'll ascend people up to, you can see there's a huge amount of value stored inside one customer who buys and invests in a front end product. 

And by fixing one email in the cancellation sequence, you'll find that each month there'll be a number of $2500+ customers coming in who wouldn't previously, excusing themselves and never to be seen again. 

Tot that up over the year and you're looking at an email asset that'll continue to pay you... over and over again.  

Lesson?

Three of them.

1. Don't be casual in your communications.

2. Emails, copy, sales messages, they ARE the money bringers. Value them above anything else in your business. Because without them being the best they can be, you ARE losing a stream of income. Continually.  

3. And so now look through your entire suite of marketing and sales communications and ask this simple question -- "how can we improve this?" 

 Do the above and you'll find you'll add plenty to your bottom line. Plenty.

 

Creating value based follow-up emails are worth an ongoing mint. If you want to know about 20 other WAYS you can retain your customers and clients, pick up this handy one page guide here that'll help you do exactly that.    

    

 raja . hireker @ gmail . com 
07903 905 802