 Some people positively blink when they ask us this question. “You get paid to write emails?”
We sure as heck do. And our clients love us for it. They keep coming back for more. Which begs the question: “Why?” We’ll answer that one, and the other, in this article. But more importantly, we’ll share some good business-building email tips that you can put to use. No it’s not dead We can’t count the number of articles and stories and pundits who all predicted the utter downfall of email, for years now. But it never went away. Kinda like the telephone. So love it or hate it, email is here to stay. Your job (and ours): make it pay. Fact is, for B2B marketing, email is still really strong. Businesspeople read, write, and send emails. Sure, there’s a lot of spam out there, but if you have a message that promises the exact kind of value your recipient is seeking, then there are benefits to be realized for both parties. And that, in case you haven’t figured it out already, is the crux of it: The value that your email offers. Different situations, different iterations We’ve ghost-written tons of emails on behalf of business owners and consultancies and other professional-services firms, addressing specific executives. It might be an informal proposal. Or a more formal one. Or the cover-note to a report. Something that needs to set the tone, to lubricate the gears. In that case, it’s a balancing act of polite finesse with some subtle storytelling, all with an eye toward the closing. Yep. Even an email to a CEO should end with a CTA, or call-to-action. Otherwise it’s just a postcard. The other types of emails we get tasked with—more times than we can count—are direct-response campaigns. This is when our client will have a big list of possible prospects, and something to offer them. Our job: Get those prospects interested enough to take action. (As in, “call-to-action.” See a theme here?) Done right, these things work. We’re seeing open-rates of 30 percent. We’re seeing responses and, more importantly, sales meetings coming from these emails. So you’re darn tootin’ that clients pay us to write these. It’s some of the biggest ROI we offer here at Copel Communications. Direct. And responsive. Those direct-response emails typically employ a three-email campaign: Original emailing, plus two follow-ups. “Original” and “follow-up” are terms only used by the knob-turners running the actual email programs for us. In other words, there’s no way that you, nor the recipient, would ever know that any of the three emails was the “original” or one of the “two follow-ups.” In other words, each one is, and should be, a standalone statement. In other-other words, never flatter yourself into thinking that your recipient remembered the first email when they read the second one. There’s a good chance that that first one was never read. Harsh dose of cold water: When you send these, they’re “direct response” or “outreach.” When the recipient gets them, they’re “junk mail” or “spam.” It’s not until you can get them to actually open the thing and hook them on your valuable offer, that they become “not spam.” And that’s a big ask. The three-legged stool Any direct marketer will tell you that there are three components to any email campaign:
None of these stand alone. We’ll have to assume, for the purposes of this article, that you’ve nailed 1) and 2). Which is far easier said than done. (By the way, “quality of the list” is right up there with “quantity of the list.” Face it: If you only have ten people to email, you won’t get many responses. If you have ten-thousand, that’s another story.) So. You’ve got a great list, and a great offer. Then you’re into the basics, the weeds, of email-writing. Here are a few pointers: Work, and rework, the subject line. This is an exercise in brevity. You can, and should, sacrifice grammar, even spelling, to make your point quickly. Don’t worry: Everyone expects this. That subject line is automatically truncated by your email app. So a long one simply won’t go through. Example: [Subject:] Exciting must-watch video about a new way to slash logistics costs Ouch. Too long. Try this instead: [Subject:] VIDEO: Logistics cost-cutter Leverage the preheader. Some mail-sending apps, such as Constant Contact and MailChimp, allow you to include this. The preheader is the little bit of text you’ll see in your “in-box” list before you actually click on the email itself. Without a preheader, it’s simply the first few words of the body of the email itself. But the preheader lets you quickly tease what’s inside, such as “Breakthrough app that’s saving millions.” Tell a story. As the adage goes, “No one wants to be sold to. But everyone wants to hear a story.” So you can grab with a story intro, and use it to frame your offer. There’s always a story to be told, because in a direct-response email like this, there’s always 1) the initial problem, and 2) the exciting solution. There’s your two-act structure, right there. Be conversational. Sure, it’s fine to open with a jarring statistic such as (and we’re making this up): “Did you know that 84 percent of recently-surveyed logistics execs cite ‘increasing automation’ as their biggest challenge for the year ahead?” But then you can shift to the more-familiar: “We understand what you’re going through.” So there’s that assumption of familiarity. Sure, the email is introducing a company, and an offer, but it’s being written—and sent—by a person. Another adage: “People don’t buy from companies. They buy from people.” That applies here. Wrap with the CTA. Whatever you want the recipient to do—whether it’s downloading a case study, watching a video, booking a demo, or writing back to learn more—that should be the last thing they read. If you say anything after it, you’re muddying your message—and diminishing your response. This isn’t easy Getting back to our original question: “You get paid to write emails?” Yes we do. And it’s not just because there’s a lot of money at stake, in terms of sales-to-be-made. It’s because not only is the writing of these things time-consuming (time which our clients don’t have), but it’s also challenging. When we were brought in to do these for one of our clients who had previously been attempting it in-house, the response rates shot up. The “two other legs of the three-legged stool” had never changed. So it was obvious to everyone what had improved. Need help with business-building emails? Contact us. We’d be happy to lend a hand.
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