The key for creating an email advertising marketing initiative that actually gets you more new clients is to focus on three items. Pay attention to these and your next campaign will result in a lot more new business.
Obviously in order to get your email read it first has to be opened, which is why the subject line is so crucial. Since we are assuming that your email address won’t mean a great deal to the intended reader, it’s up to the subject line to create enough curiosity so that the reader will overcome their skepticism and say to themselves “OK I’ll take the next step and see what this is all about.”
So what type of subject lines works the best? The more it is tailored to the specific needs of a particular group the greater the likelihood that it will get opened. Thus a subject line of “What Clothing Retailers Need To Know To Reduce Their Inventory Costs” will draw a greater level of curiosity that one that says, “How to lower inventory expense.” This is what is often referred to as the “message to market” match. The more your prospects sees a reflection of him or herself in your subject line, the more effective it will be at getting your message read.
Interestingly, the best opening sentence is one that reiterates the subject line. Repeating what drew the reader into the email in the first place is a highly effective method for getting your entire email read. Remember the maxim, “The goal of the first sentence is to simply get the reader to read the second sentence.” If we can get them to read the second sentence then we have them going down the slippery slope and the likelihood of them reading the entire email becomes much greater.
Which brings us to the third issue. What do you want the reader to do once they have completed reading your message? There are any of a number of things the reader can do, however only one or two of them benefit us.
The traditional “call to action” was to ask the reader to call a number for a free consultation. Unfortunately that rarely works since it is a classic example of “asking for too much, too soon in the relationship”. At this stage the reader is still highly skeptical, and their reaction to your request for a phone consultation is likely to be that it’s little more than a disguised sales pitch.
A far better approach is to offer either a free report or a 5-part mini-class on the topic of your email. Naturally in order to get either of those, the reader has to go to your website to register. By getting the reader to opt-in you are now able to send ongoing messages. These are crucial for building trust, credibility and eventually convincing your prospect to do business with you.