Expand Your Business with Email
Email is Not Like Content
Email gives your business the ability to connect directly with customers and potential customers. Email serves as a direct, personal conversation with the recipient. Email messages work because they are personal.
Unlike ads or a page on your website, email is a direct communication from you (your business) to your customer.
Subject Line
The subject line, also called a header, is your first connection with a customer. The subject line has two goals:
Grab attention away from all the other email messages
Get the recipient to open the email
First, your subject line needs to stand out from all the other messages in your customer’s inbox. You may think of your message as going out now, but your reader doesn’t necessarily see it now. It may be hours, or even days, before they look at their inbox. And—this is the attention-getting part—your subject line must stand out enough to get their attention.
By the time your customer opens their email inbox, your message may be down the page in the queue. Your subject line needs to grab attention away from all the other messages.
You don’t know what is happening in that reader’s life when they see your header. Life happens, and it keeps readers from opening an email. A roommate accuses her of stealing a lunch, the puppy pees on the new carpet, a best buddy shows up for a heart-to-heart, the toilet overflows.
Attention-Getting Tips
So, how do you write a subject line that grabs attention to get your customer to open your message? Create intrigue. Call out what’s inside.
The days of clickbait are over. Your customer doesn’t want to “crush it.” They don’t care if they “missed this.” They want a solution to a problem or to fill a need. That’s how you got them to your list.
The First Sentence
Once your reader opens the email it’s not time for an information dump. You want to spark a desire to know what’s in the rest of your message. The first sentence opens a loop by teasing curiosity.
Avoid introducing your business. Don’t give them what I call the “back of the menu.” I started ABC Company with my wife back in 1999. We’ve grown with happy customers…
Let your reader know right away your business is about solving their problem or fulfilling a need. Hit them with the pain point your business solves. Ask a question about their pain point. Make it come alive.
If you have a bookkeeping service or app, grab their attention. Wish you could stop pulling your hair out every Friday night when you’re doing the books?
Create a story in your reader’s mind that they want to finish. You open a loop and your reader wants it closed. It’s the surest way to get them to keep reading.
The Body of the Email
This is where you make your offer. If you promised your reader a gift for signing up to your email list, this is where you deliver it. A download, a video, a free sample - whatever you promised deliver it now.
Now tell the story of how your business will solve the pain point you mentioned in the first sentence. Explain how your business will meet their need. Show how your business product or service solves the problem.
Be specific. Rather than telling about all the wonderful features of your product or service, explain how it meets the need your brought up in the first sentence.
Stress how your business stands out from competitors. If they have a need, they’re looking at a variety of solutions. Tell them what is original or unique about your product or service. You want them to think of your business as the solution.
Keep it short. People are unlikely to read long messages from a new business connection.
The Call to Action
In the final part of your email message ask your reader to take action. Send them to a link about your product. Ask them to ask a question by replying to your email.
Limit your call to one action. No choices here. Just one action. The more specific with what you want, the more you appear to know what is right for your reader.
Make your call to action, clear, believable, and exciting.
You’re asking them to get rid of the pain.
Email in Your Tool Box
Website content helps bring customers to your website through organic reach.
Email is the best way to connect with those site visitors who are curious about your business. Email messages are personal. Follow the tactics to get the response you want.
Strong headline that peaks curiosity
First sentence that pictures the pain point
Body text that offers the solution to the pain
Call to Action that gets the reader to the solution
Even though email recipients know they aren’t the only one receiving your message, if you keep to the pain-solution formula, they’ll feel like the email is just for them.
Photo by chuttersnap on Unsplash
