Posts Tagged ‘List marketing’
Do you lie in your marketing materials?
Have you ever thought about that?
How many times have you seen a sales letter that made a big promise but the product didn’t deliver? Or how about a blog post whose title said one thing but the post itself said another?
How did you feel when you were done reading? Like you just wasted 5 minutes you’ll never get back.
Make sure you don’t do that. If necessary, have someone else read your marketing materials.
Always test your emails. Send them to yourself and click on the links, reread for clarity, and check the formatting. If your emails look sloppy, you’re going to lose subscribers.
And above all – if you say you’re going to tell your readers how to do something, follow through! And don’t take 50 paragraphs to do it.
Nope, that’s not a typo.
Try looking, hearing, feeling, smelling and tasting your company (brand) and your product. More precisely, you need to experience what your customer sees, hears, feels, smells and tastes . . . and how he or she reacts. Your brand perception is the end result of literally everything your customers’ and prospects’ senses pick up.
From your logo to product packaging to the paint job on your building to how your employees dress, think about what design and color say about you and your company. Are they broadcasting the right message?
What do your prospects hear from and about you in the media? Voice inflection, tone, and pitch tell your customers more than you might think. You truly can hear a smile or a frown over the phone. How does your customer service team handle incoming complaints? Are former and current customers likely to recommend you? Are your employees pleasant, and how do you answer your own phone?
In just a few seconds, prospects and customers get a sense of who you and your company are, sometimes as a “gut” feeling or a first impression that can be positive or negative. They don’t forget it, and if it’s negative it may never change no matter what you do. Do customers and prospects feel they can trust you? Do they feel your honesty and desire to help?
The sense of smell is one of the strongest memory triggers we have. Does your office smell clean or maybe not-so-fresh? Does your receptionist wear a lot of perfume?
Taste is often overlooked. Make sure your product tastes great (if it’s meant to be tasted) and that you don’t skimp on the quality of water or coffee you serve. If you have a vending machine, check to see that it is serviced regularly.
Take the time to look at yourself with all your senses. Once you see the message you are sending your customers, you can understand their perception of you on a deeper level. Most companies don’t do this, so you will be one step ahead.
Writing a good email is art mixed with science, with a smidgen of common sense thrown in. Your emails should be conversational, but not salesy. People are tired of being “sold to”.
They want information and help with their problems. If they get that from you, they’ll buy your products. If they get one whiff that you’re only there to sell them, they’ll unsubscribe.
The way you craft your email is crucial. Doing the following three things can cut down on your unsubscribes and help you stay in your readers’ inboxes.
1. Make the subject line as attention-grabbing as you can–but it better relate to the product. This is not to say you can’t connect flying green monkeys to computer software. However, if you put it in your subject line, you better be able to link the two and make the reader laugh, think, or buy…otherwise they are going to be annoyed.
2. Don’t use the reader’s name more than twice. When you talk to someone, you don’t say, “Mark, you know how it is, Mark, when you turn on your computer, Mark, and see the blue screen of death, Mark…”.
That might be a tad exaggerated, but you’ve seen emails that overuse the name. I suggest once in the salutation and once in the body or closing, at the most.
Some email experts suggest using the name in the subject line, some do not. When reading emails, I delete those with my name in the subject if I don’t know the sender well…I assume it’s a sales pitch. If it’s an email from a list I’ve been on for a while, it doesn’t bother me…because we have a relationship.
If your subject line is crafted well, you may not need to use names. Try split-testing and see what happens!
3. You are cultivating trust. Make sure you know it and show it. You are positioning yourself as an expert in the eyes of the reader. Sound professional, but let your personality shine through. People want to get to know you and they want to trust you.
Don’t lie to your readers–it will trip you up every time, and then the trust is gone. Yes, you can be informal, but keep in mind your relationship with the readers.
Your list is the goose that will lay your golden eggs. Don’t jeopardize what it can do in the long run for some short-term success.
Happy Marketing!
Your email list is one of the most lucrative resources your business has.
Yet so many businesses don’t do anything with theirs — and I would guess many of them have no idea what to do with those email addresses they collect at the point of sale, other than hold on to them (if they even do that).
Every time I see a site that has good products but no opt-in box, I see dollar signs flying away from the screen. And I’m going to start approaching those business owners and offering my services. Why not?
If a business has just a couple hundred names, they can start pulling gold from that list by sending a "How did you like our product?" email. Or perhaps a "How are you, sorry we haven’t written lately" email. Anything to rekindle the relationship.
But many business owners don’t have time, especially if they’ve had to let employees go. They are likely wearing more hats than they used to, and they need help.
If this is you, please leave a comment or send an email to melody@grabmorecustomers.com and let’s see what we can do to help you grab more sales.
After all, it’s a lot easier to sell to someone who already knows you than it is to sell someone who doesn’t.
Melody
