What’s the first thing you do when you pull a pile of mail out of your mailbox in the morning? Flip through it to see if there’s anything that warrants your attention, right? And when there’s nothing you want, you toss it straight in the trash. When you’re developing your direct mail marketing campaign you know you have less than a second to capture their interest, so you make your graphics eye catching and you make sure you write headlines that sell.
Why would you do anything different with your email marketing?
It’s amazing how many people create these amazing emails filled with scads of great features and tons of extra value, only to drop the ball when the time comes to write their subject lines. They write such inspiring statements as “Whole new great values for you!” (like you don’t get 100 of those in your inbox every day) and then wonder why their business is going nowhere fast. I can tell you exactly why. It’s because they didn’t take the time to write subject lines that sell, and their customers deleted their email long before they ever set eyes on it.
Your subject line should hit your customers’ hot spots. You know which ones I’m talking about. The ones that they use to justify why they’re spending money on your products and services. So if you were selling, say, nutritional supplements designed to help you lose weight faster, you might post a subject line that says “All Natural Supplements Speed Metabolism 300%”.
How's your hook?
Boom! It’s all natural, which appeals to the part of them that’s been listening to how bad chemical supplements are for you on the news. It speeds metabolism, so it immediately targets the part of them that’s insecure about how hard it is to lose weight. You’ve just told them what you’re selling and why they should buy it in less than 6 words, and when they see that email in their inbox they’re goin to take the time to at least give it a quick perusal.
Make the rest of your email as good as your hook and you’ll be good to go.
Graphic done by Jeff Bucchino, “The Wizard of Draws”, www.wizardofdraws.com