Your customers' first view of your email marketing is critical. You have to grab their attention at once. The delete key is only too easy to click. But the difficult thing is to know precisely what to say.
Much as tabloid journalism is treated with understandable distain, the editors' ability to generate interest and excitement in few words is impressive and well worth copying.
Compare these two headlines:
Dispute between neighbours in Bosnia-Herzegovina leaves two dead.
And:
Gunman slays two in deadly rampage
The tabloid type of headline might have ignored one or two important facts, such as the domestic nature of the killings – sorry slayings – and certainly no mention of the country that few would be able to locate or spell, but if it grabbed the attention and made the reader want more information, then it has done its job.
An email marketing headline or subject line need not be a sentence. Indeed, the omission of a full stop at the end was not in error. Think 'grammar is dead' and pick each word for its contribution rather than function.
Imagine you have a number of barbeque ranges left over from the previous season. You could, of course, email your database that:
Last year's stock for sale at 40% off.
Or you could confront them with:
Prices Slashed
Last Few Remaining
Unrepeatable Bargains
You might consider yourself too sophisticated to be excited by such devices but the advertising agencies tell a different story.
The headline is a device, a tempter, something to make the reader carry on reading. So what do you follow it with?
To an extent, the same constraints apply. Don’t waffle and be concise. Or rather, be concise. You probably have two sentences with which to hook them.
Consider our slayer:
A gun-crazed maniac shot dead a husband and wife after a fight between neighbours in the Balkans spiralled out of control. The man returned to his neighbour's house armed with a shotgun following an argument. When confronted there was a tussle and the shotgun went off, killing the husband. The wife then grabbed her own shotgun and rushed out of the house to avenge his death. But she too was gunned down in the double tragedy.
There are a number of keywords in the text: gun-crazed, fight, spiralled, shotgun, tussle, shot dead, grabbed, gunned-down and double tragedy. All very exciting. The use of Balkans rather than the much longer Bosnia-Herzegovina or the thoughts of holiday inducing Yugoslavia is a good tactic.
Tragedy aside, imagine you think there's a market for last year's since replaced software. You feel that the cash flow will help at a slow time of the year, it will give you email addresses of those willing to buy, you have a tempting upgrade offer and, with a bit of creative selling, you might get them to buy the new programme.
So before starting to write consider your keywords. Of course there is the reinforcement of: reduction, bargain, savings and affordable. However do not forget to emphasise: standard setting, professional, fully featured and best selling. And to encourage them to buy: limited stock. So we get:
Huge savings on Rocket Z2 web designer
We have a limited stock of our best selling Rocket Z2 software, the programme which set the standard for affordable, professional-quality web design. We are offering this fully-featured software at a bargain price while stocks last. The interface is famous for its ease of use, making it suitable for both the ambitious home user and professional just starting out.
Anyone who reads further or clicks on the link will be interested. They are probably not yet hooked but are leaning your way so you must ensure you do not lose them. And remember to tempt them with the additional features of the Rocket Z3 at a very tempting ‘upgrade’ price of course.
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