After working with hundreds of accounts in 104 different industries designing, writing, and sending emails there seems to be 5 marketing emails that I see again and again. It makes sense to me that you should know how to write THESE 5 emails because some day you’re going to need one or all of them!
1. The reconnect email. Here’s why you need this one. Over time you’ve built up a list of names. Could be in your accounting system. Or maybe in your CRM. Or maybe they’re just in your MS Outlook contacts or Gmail contacts because you’ve emailed to your prospects and customers over the years.
This group of emails can be tricky to reach because you don’t know if they are expecting to hear from you. In fact, most of them haven’t given you explicit permission to opt in to a list because they didn’t fill in a form or click on a confirmation link.
Yet, you are able to email them because you have a prior business relationship. The challenge is, if you do this incorrectly you’ll get too many spam complaints and put your ESP account at risk.
What you need to do is send a ‘reconnect’ email to tell people exactly why you’re mailing them and where you collected their email address from, and that you have their best interests at heart. Yes, you’ll still get spam complaints, but not as many.
Just by being up-front and honest with people you’ll find they will give you the benefit of the doubt. It’s the tone of this message that makes it work. Be humble. Don’t hard sell or pitch. Be truthful. And you’ll have a new group of fans to communicate with.
2. The newsletter email. Newsletters is one of the most common types of messages to send via email and one that is probably misunderstood more than most!
To make these work follow these three simple guidelines. Keep them short. Use a simple, single column design. Write an intro paragraph to tell people why they should read this newsletter. That’s it.
Don’t add in a bunch of advertising, use a fancy template, or try to sell. Your newsletters will work great if they provide real value and information and are easy to read and file.
3. The survey email. Surveys are one of the single most useful tools you can use via email. The open rates are usually the highest… same with click through rates. There are only two secrets to getting this email right. One. Ask for help. Use the word ‘please’ in your copy. Two. Tell people why you are doing a survey. Use the word ‘because.’ This combination of please and because is very hard for people to resist.
Of course I’d suggest keeping this one short too. Same with the survey. You’re better off to run surveys every quarter and ask different questions, then run one big survey and risk turning off your audience. Try: “Please take our 3 minute survey” as the subject line. It’s been our winning subject line for years.
4. The Oops email. You make a mistake in your email. For instance, your links are broken or go to the wrong destination page. It happens. Even to the top online marketers. Before you rush out to fire the offending staff think about this.
A followup message with the subject line “Oops!” or “Our Mistake!” will actually get you a much higher open rate than your original message did. One word of caution. Don’t do this intentionally because you can’t go to the well too often with this or you look just plain incompetent.
5. The promotional email. Seems like a natural, but this style of message is tricky to write.
Here’s a few pointers. Make sure the formatting is simple. If you can make this message look like you just sat down and hammered it out on your screen moments ago, it will feel more natural and less like a sales pitch. At the same time, use proper selling technique. Use a strong subject line. Make sure your first sentence ties into the subject line and hints at why the should read this message.
Keep it short and use benefits throughout. (Most people, even the pros, skip this one) Finally, have a clear, simple, compelling call-to-action. You’d be surprised that even using these simple guidelines your promotional emails will perform better. And that means more clicks, sales, or signups for you.
Naturally there are a ton of other messages and campaigns you can write but if you know how to do these 5 key emails you’ll be better off.