7 WAYS TO MAKE ME READ YOUR E-MAIL

E-newsletter is a marketer’s best friend—easy to create, not very expensive and can reach out to hundreds of prospects. If used right, e-newsletter can be the most productive marketing tool, the keyword being ‘right’. As someone who spends over 12 hours a day on the web, I am well acquainted with the ‘junk’ that gets accumulated in my inbox every hour. I have devised a strategy to keep such e-mails at bay—creating a new e-mail ID solely for such advertisements. Supposing I have to register my e-mail ID at a site to download any information, I register using this ID. All future e-mails and advertisements are directed to this ID, which I happen to check about once a month. If I find any newsletter genuinely worth, then, I redirect it to my regular e-mail ID. So, how to make sure that your newsletter is one of those that are redirected? Here are a few things that I look for when trying to determine what is really useful:

1. What’s this all about? When I get an e-mail, the most prominent thing is the subject line. If it says something like ‘1000 year old secret to wealth finally revealed!’ or ‘Become a millionaire overnight’, I don’t even bother to give it a second glance. On the other hand, an e-mail with a subject line like ‘7 Effective ways to boost your sales’ is opened and read. The subject line of your e-mail is the key to hooking your prospect. An exaggerated or vague subject line will only push them away.

2. It’s not You, it’s ME: Experts say one easy way to get someone to talk to you is to get them to talk about themselves. Let’s face it, as a prospect; I am least bothered about what breakthrough achievement your company made. All I want to really know is how it will benefit me? Good newsletters are those that get the message across without sounding as if the company is blowing its own trumpet. As an intelligent and busy reader, I give my time to only those e-mails that result in some value addition to me.

3. I’m not faceless! We all know how irritating it is to find a post card addressed to ‘The Current Resident’. E-mail is no different. ‘Dear Reader’ e-mails are not as welcome as those which address me by my name. If you want your clients to feel that you care about them, help them realize that they are not just another faceless e-mail ID for you. Take some effort, dig into that database and get their names. Good marketing automation software can do this for you. In fact, using the right tool you personalize your e-mails to the extent that they seem almost tailor-made for the prospect.

4. I don’t read…I scan: Time is one of the scarcest resources in my life. So, when trying to sort through the chunk of e-mails I receive, I merely skim through the body text. If I find something interesting, I give it a closer look. E-mails that look like they have been written to give me a crash course in vocabulary are a no-no. When you send e-mails or newsletters out, make sure they don’t contain flowery language. Just keep it short and simple. Break long sentences to smaller ones, have short paragraphs. The aim is not to show off your language skills, but to provide information that your prospect finds easy to read and absorb.

5. Out of sight…out of mind: I once subscribed to a website that e-mailed me free weekly horoscopes. But a couple of weeks later, I heard from them only when they wanted me to ‘Unlock the tremendous power that unique silver pendant’ held. Needless to say, they made it to my ‘Spam’ list soon. The idea is to be consistent, whether you send a fortnightly newsletter or quarterly, make sure you do it in a consistent manner. A friend of mine who owns a small real estate service firm was always big on this consistency theory. Even as the giants were being wiped out during the recent recession, his firm would send out e-newsletters to prospects and existing clients alike. “I just want them to know we’re still here”, he said. The result—with the industry beginning to look up, he’s now flooded with work.

6. Be easy to reach: Sometimes, I end up spending more time trying to find out how to contact the sender than what I spend on actually reading the e-mail. There have been times when I’ve given up too! Since e-newsletters are generally auto generated, it makes sense to provide the reader with clear contact information. It can be very frustrating for your reader to search for the contact information and this can sometimes cause a doubtful prospect to even change their mind.

7. Unsubscribe: As a reader who has subscribed for a newsletter, I’d like to think I’m in charge. I feel companies that provide an easy way for me to unsubscribe give me that control and respect my privacy. Always help the user with the option to unsubscribe to your e-newsletter. This way you also convey that you don’t want to bombard their inbox with information that they find irrelevant.

Want to create personalized marketing materials such as database-driven flyers, postcards, newsletters, proposals, and other print-quality documents? Try MindMatrix’s inVision—a leading marketing automation software that can bridge the gap between marketing and sales. Whether it is through e-mails, print, HTML templates, flash or PowerPoint presentations, MindMatrix offers solutions to suit all your marketing needs.

For more information visit www.mindmatrix.net or contact us at:

MindMatrix Inc.,

2403 Sidney Street, Suite 150, Pittsburgh, PA 15203

Ph: 412.381.0230|Fax: 412.774.1992|E-mail: Khera@mindmatrix.net