I, like everyone else I know, am on about fifty million mailing lists. I, like everyone else I know, delete many of them without even clicking on them. In the cases where I do open them (and we’re going to talk about how to create that reaction later on in the post), I then usually delete them after skimming them.
So why am I writing about this? Well, because last week I got two mailings that stood out and made me read the whole thing. One because of how awful it was, and one because of how great it was. Today we’re going to talk about some easy copy writing tips to use so you can be the second one.
Opportunity #1: The Title
So let’s look at our two cases in detail, shall we? First we’ll look at the big picture, the first thing you’ll see: the title. The first email said something along the lines of “FINAL NOTICE”. The second one (and I’ll give away the source cause he’s totally cool) is from Johnny B. Truant’s new mailing list, and was “You’re signed up to get discounts, swag, and updates.”
This is a great microscopic version of an issue that copy writers deal with whenever we write anything down, and it’s a complex one. When you’re doing marketing writing, you’re writing for the person who is actually going to be shelling out money for it, right? It’s really easy to think, “Oh well, my client is paying for this, I’ll write for them.”, but it’s pretty rare that your client is actually the target audience. Words are incredibly powerful, and may mean very different things to different people. When you think about words, think about what your audience will associate with them.
And here’s the real problem with the first title. When you read it, what does final notice mean to you? Well, for lots of people in this recession, it means bills, and stress, and failing mortgages, and all kinds of things. Even if the person does click through, you’ve already got them on edge, stressed out, and thinking that they really should be checking their savings account instead of reading this email.
The second title does exactly what the first one misses. Just by reading the title, you’ve learned that you’ll get awesome stuff cheaper and faster than other people. There’s no downside to this, and it makes you feel good going in. Responsible, even, which is a big selling point in this economy.
Opportunity #2: The Introductory Paragraph
I’ll be honest and admit that here is where I still struggle the most with mailing lists. It’s really tempting to be cheerful and chatty to put your audience at ease here. We want to be friendly and make a good impression, but it’s more than that. For many people, selling really just makes them feel icky. And it shows in their mailing lists. People spend paragraphs chattering on and on about various friendly topics because they hate getting down to the business of actually selling a product.
People skim those paragraphs, and then stop reading.
If you’re sending an email about a sale or a new product, people want to hear about the sale or the new product. Remember, your mailing list is an opt-in audience, and they’ve already asked you to sell to them. You’ve taken the ick factor out, so you can now get down to actually selling your product.
Now, this doesn’t mean that you can’t write out some introductory material, but it should be material that furthers the sale. Again, this is where an opt-in audience is important. You don’t have to hard sell, because you already know they are interested. What you do need to convince them of is that this product is worth the money. People want products that will are a good investment and that will provide long term value, and this is where you can convince them of that. It can be done as creatively as you want: you can mention how crazy a sale it is, the value it will provide long term, or just that they’re ahead of the curve and business savvy by reading about it. Again, think not about what would appeal to you, but to your mailing list audience!
Opportunity #3: The Offer
Here’s the meat of your email to your list, and where you do your actual selling. Today we’re going to talk about a tactic to generate more sales that is surprisingly effective. Even though it involves giving away things for free. Yep, you heard me.
The technique is pretty simple: give away something free that functions as a preview of your product or service, and you’ll sell more of the actual product or service. However, there’s one tricky thing that you need to make this strategy work: actual, valuable, quality content.
Recently people have started doing this with free teleclasses or interviews, and that’s a great way to go. After all, what better way to tell if something is an investment than to actually experience it for yourself? It’s all about producing products and content that people can frame as an investment in their head, rather than just more stuff. What’s especially cool about this marketing method is that you don’t have to create the next big product that is going to change the world, you just have to create a product that is valuable to your lovely wonderful opt-in audience. Takes a lot of the pressure off, huh?
If you’d like to have a fabulous and effective mailing list written for you, drop Holly a line about long term projects and work!
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