subject: A Senior Copywriter's Hot Tips For Marketing To Your List [print this page] A Senior Copywriter's Hot Tips For Marketing To Your List
Get people to open you emails
Do whatever it takes to get your subs to open those emails. So make those subject lines count by creating:
- Curiosity
- Controversy
- Shock value
- Humor
- A sense you care
The trick with subject lines is to interpolate a person's day with something that is actually generic but feels specific to your subscriber. Your line should strike the reader as though you are resuming a dialogue he or she had recently. And there are two ways of doing this:
Identify with the positive, expectant outlook of your reader, or
Identify with your reader's anxieties
With both approaches you are tapping into something that is going on in your reader's life, which to him or her feels unique, but which is actually common to nearly all of us most days of the week.
We are nearly all waiting for a parcel or email Hey, Nic, did you get that? or some token of appreciation for something we just did Hey, Nic, thanks for that, I appreciate it. Do you get the idea?
Just as effective is to hint at something they are about to miss out on in the event they fail to take action. For instance, Where are you, did you forget? We all forget stuff, don't we. So maybe this is one thing we absolutely shouldn't have forgotten; here's our second chance perhaps, so we open the email.
Whichever method you choose, be relevant and ethical to your content. If you don't, your subscriber will feel cheated and your cleverness will backfire Next time I am NOT falling for that one.
If you struggle to write well, look at the subject lines you've found compelling and make a swipe list. Then do a test on them and check to see which ones your subscribers are opening. Vary accordingly.
By writing subject lines that relate to the most common situations in a person's social, personal and work life, you will double or even treble your open rate.
Get your readers to take action
And once they're in, tell them specifically what you want to do:
- Read this report
- Check this video, watch it today
- Please fill out my survey
Let them know you've checked out the content, but don't tell them what it is, keep the intrigue going.
Truth is, many of your subscribers will not only ignore your sales pitches, some of them will unsubscribe even before buying a $7 product. And funnily enough they will leave your list even quicker if you mail the same kind of thing over and over. The whole point of building a list is not simply to get round accusations of being a spammer, you've got to start to treat your list like these people are your friends, your team even if they aren't and never will be.
You have to undo all that you've been taught about selling and pitching and think, in a rewrite of Kennedy's famous words... 'Ask not, what can your subscribers do for you ask, what can you do for them?'
Every single email you write should have a solid, powerful call to action. That doesn't mean a hard sell directing your reader to a product. But you are doing a hard sell regards the action you want them to take, whether that be grabbing a free gift, reading your post or checking out a mate's squeeze page. If people on your list start to believe you are passionate about what you have to say and passionate about what they should do to help themselves, they will start to think of buying your recommendations.
But remember, your readers are short on time and only willing to do so much at your command. So, be brief, make your email quick to grasp, provide value, and always give them a tangible action to complete.
Think of your list as an investment. People investment. And that takes time. And at first you'll wonder what the hell, my list never buys, never talks to me, never leaves a comment on my blog hell to them all!
