Do businesses email their customers too often? According to a recent article on Business Insider, the answer is yes. But not for the reason you may think.

It’s not because customers loathe getting emails from companies. Or because frequent emails are considered spam. It’s actually because most brands nowadays email like this:

They use discounts as their main strategy to persuade customers to buy. But what happens when your customer’s whole inbox looks like the picture above? The inevitable: they stop paying attention to your emails.

Because here’s the thing.

Why would they open your emails if they can already predict the content inside? Why would they buy now when they can clearly see you’ve got discounts all the time? And, most importantly, why would they pick your brand over your competitors?

If you want to stand out in someone’s crowded inbox, you need to do the one thing that everybody else avoids doing: building strong relationships with your email subscribers. Here’s how:

How Storytelling Helps Your Brand Shine Bright in a Crowded Inbox

Storytelling is the most effective way to communicate. That’s not me saying it. It’s the countless studies (such as this one, this one, and this one) that prove it, time and time again. Why?

Because storytelling helps you form positive emotional associations with you and your brand. The emotions you evoke with your stories go a long way in defining how people perceive you, creating a stronger connection in your audience’s mind between you and the problem you solve for them. But that’s only the tip of the iceberg. 

The truth is, writing story-based emails makes you more than just a brand that sells a solution to their pain: it makes you an entertainer, too. And as a marketer, being able to entertain while selling is like having a superpower. People hate being sold to. But they love being entertained (ever binge-watched a Netflix show? I know I have). 

Plus, with story-based emails, you can easily add more variability to your email calendar. As a result, customers will no longer be able to predict what your next email will be about: a fun story? A new product? Maybe even a discount? Curiosity translates to increased engagement. And increased engagement translates to stronger relationships with your customers. 

So by choosing the right stories to tell in your emails (which we’ll discuss in a bit) and by writing them in an engaging way, you’re guaranteed to keep your audience hooked and excited to read your next email. As opposed to adding yet another sales email to their already crowded inbox.

Here’s How to Supercharge Your Email Strategy with Stories That Sell:

1. Pick the Right Story 

The storytelling approach will give you little to no results if the stories you’re telling are flat to begin with. No matter how engaging your writing is. 

So the first thing you need to do is to make sure you select story ideas with potential. Okay, but where do you find these ideas? And what does a good story idea look like?

If you’re anything like me, your life isn’t that exciting or eventful. And yet, you may still have a funny conversation with your next-door neighbor. Or your team may geek out about wild adaptogen mushrooms at a team-building event. Or your spouse may accidentally spill coffee on your laptop (true story!). 

Any of these can be turned into fun story-based emails that tell your audience a little bit more about who you (or your team) are as a person. Most business owners assume their customers don’t want to know what goes on in their personal and business life. But that couldn’t be farther from the truth. 

In fact, customers want to know there are real people behind brand names. According to this report from Sprout Social, 70% of consumers report feeling more connected to a brand when its CEO is active on social media. 

And depending on how much you’re willing to share about your life, you can then select the types of personal stories to write about. When in doubt, think about what you’d want to tell your friends/family at the dinner table. More often than not, that’d make a great story for your email list too.

Related Articles

• How Standardizing Your Sales Process Boosts Overall Conversion

• 2 Ways to Take Back the Power in Your Business: Part 2

• 2 Ways to Take Back the Power in Your Business: Part 1

2. Write a Strong Hook

Let’s face it. 

Nowadays, attention spans are short. And no matter how good your story is, if how you write it isn’t engaging enough, your email subscribers aren’t going to read it. 

So the very first thing you want to do is to make sure the first three sentences of your story hook the reader into the action. Once someone reads that much into a story, it’s incredibly difficult for them to stop. 

So how do you do it? Any of these hooks have proven to work again and again whenever I write stories for myself or my clients:

• Start in the middle of the action (and explain the context later). For example:

“RUN!”, the police officer yelled at me.

“Okay, thank you!”, I yelled back, running out of Paddington Station and trying to find a cab.

Except, it was 4 in the morning. And I had no idea where to look for one.”

• Start with ‘x time ago’. Recalling a past event hooks people instantly into your story. For example:

“A few months ago, Joanna Wiebe (the original conversion copywriter) slid into my DMs on Slack completely out of nowhere…”

3. Segue to Your Sales Pitch Seamlessly

By the time you get to this part, your readers are entertained and primed to purchase your solution to their problems. Your brand is no longer just another brand in their busy inbox. It’s someone they now know, trust, and like. And so, buying from you feels just right.

But you can’t just end your story abruptly so you can sell your products/services. That’d feel intrusive. In the same way that, when you’re engaged in a YouTube video, an annoying ad interrupts your stream.

So you must find a way to tie your story to your product or service so seamlessly that your readers won’t even notice they’re now reading a sales pitch. Sounds difficult. But you’ll see how easy it actually is. In fact, what most people get wrong about this part is that they try to find the moral of the story and tie that to their sales pitch. 

For example, let’s say your story is about how your team went to a team-building event and someone accidentally broke a bunch of glasses. And if you’re selling a service, you might be able to spin that incident into saying something like: when you hire our software developers, your app stops breaking.

But that’s a predictable way to transition from your story to your sales pitch. Plus, not all stories will end with a moral. Most stories will be fragments of conversations you have with someone or something ridiculous that happened throughout the day (like forgetting your keys at the office). There’s no moral in that and there’s no need for one.

What you can do instead is to look back at your entire story and find one or a few phrases/words that could help you build that segway. Here’s an example of a full story-based email. Pay special attention to the part where the story ends and the sale begins.

Example of a Full Story-Based Email

“SUBJ: Hacker threatens to destroy my reputation in 72 hours straight

This morning, I was at my laptop reading my emails when suddenly, I came across an unread email from… 

Me.

What in the world…?

Out of confusion, I open it without reading the subject line. 

And once I go past the first sentence, it becomes pretty clear:

I’m being hacked.

“You may have noticed we are using your company’s servers to send you this email: we have hacked into your website, kaleidocopy[dot]com.”

Oh.

Okay… They did send this email from my email address. 

Still, I can’t help but wonder… could this be a hoax?

“This is not a hoax.”

Ah! Well, that settles it then.

“We are willing to forget about destroying the reputation of your site and company for a small fee. The current fee is at $2500 in bitcoin.”

I mean… at least they are nice about it, you know? Their willingness to forgive and forget says a lot about a person’s character.

In the following lines, they take me through exactly what they’re going to do to ruin my company and reputation, step by step.

Then they teach me how to buy Bitcoin (I already know how, but I appreciate their thoughtfulness!).

And finally, they assure me that my Bitcoin payment will be anonymous and that no one will know that I complied with their master plan.

Mmmmkay. 

GET CERTIFIED. Discover the proven plan for effortless, automated email marketing. Click Here

Now that is a bit suspicious, Mr. Hackerman (or Ms. Hackerwoman — it’s 2022, what the heck.)

I’m willing to bet the $2500 on the fact that I’m not the only person they sent this to.

So if the payment is anonymous, how will they know it was ME who sent it? It just doesn’t make sense, y’know? 

Jokes aside, I’ve got to admit: seeing that the email came from my address made me panic a bit. 

But then I checked my Sent folder and the email wasn’t there.

I also checked to see if there were any alerts or logins from different devices on my Google account. There were none.

I also checked with my hosting provider, who reassured me no one has broken into anything. 

Soooo… hoax? Hopefully, lol. 

But if it isn’t, it means you’ve got 72 hours left to get Email Story Alchemy, my mini-course on turning boring day-to-day events from your life into story-based emails that build your fandom and help you stand out. 

After that, my business will supposedly disappear from the face of the Earth. And you’ll no longer be able to buy it. Everrr.”

Conclusion

Story is a structure, not a tale. Which means that you can apply it to anything, including email. And when you do it right, amazing things happen. 

Like building strong relationships with your customers. And turning a casual customer into a die-hard fan who wants to buy from you because they just can’t get enough of your brand.

Sure, discounts work too. But they work when used strategically and in moderation. So if you’re ever unsure about what to email your customers next, consider story-based emails. They’ll make your brand shine bright in anyone’s crowded inbox.

The post Storytelling: The Secret Sauce to Making More Sales With Email Marketing appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

“Email marketing is DEAD!”
“AI is taking over the inbox!”
“Why hire a copywriter when I can just use email templates?!”
“Who needs an email list when I have a large social following?”

Um….. stop right there and listen up, because I’m going to let you in on a little secret…

THREE little secrets to be exact. 

Lately, I’ve been hearing a lot of misconceptions floating around the cyberspace when it comes to email marketing. So in this blog, we’re going to talk about the three biggest Email Marketing Myths & Misconceptions… 

AND I’m going to fill you in on the SECRET WEAPON that’ll give you a massive advantage and leg-up over any competition. 

Alright, now let’s get started with myth-busting. 

Myth #1 – Email Marketing Is DEAD

This is a myth that I’ve been hearing ever since I got my start in the online marketing industry… over a decade ago! And guess what?

The rumours were wrong back then and they’re STILL wrong today. 

No matter what you heard at the latest online summit you attended… Email Marketing is STILL alive and well—and it’s not going anywhere anytime soon!

In fact, Email Marketing is the single best way to market your brand or business, increase your revenue, and cash in on more conversions.

That’s right. It’s better than ads, better than social media, and better than organic traffic…

I said it.

In fact, I did my FIRST launch back in 2020 and made almost 6-figures by sending just 8 emails to my list of 2300 subscribers. Yup.

But don’t just take my word for it, here are some stats to prove it. It is estimated that there are 4 BILLION active email users right now (and that number is projected to go up, btw).

Email marketing consistently delivers the highest ROI of all marketing channels – earning on average $42 for every dollar spent… and in case you don’t want to do the math on that…

That’s an ROI of 4200%!! I don’t know of a single brand or business that wouldn’t love to see numbers like that. 

And just in case gaining a massive ROI isn’t enough to convince you… this probably will:

According to MarketingSherpa, email is STILL the most preferred marketing channel that most consumers want businesses to communicate with them through. YES, even Millennials and gen-Z-ers prefer email to social media.

And not only is email your consumer’s favorite way of communicating… it should be your favourite too! And that’s because your list is YOURS. It belongs to YOU. Not Facebook, not Instagram. YOU. 

And when you use Email as your preferred method of communication, ALL you have to do to get your message heard is make sure your emails aren’t landing in the spam folder. You’re not held captive by the algorithm Gods, “platform rules,” or having to keep up with the latest trends to get your content seen.  

When you take just a moment to step back and look at the facts, it’s crystal clear.

While I still love and use other marketing channels…

My girl Email Marketing reigns supreme.

Myth #2 – Templates Work Better

This is another myth I’ve been hearing over and over again lately.

Why hire a copywriter when I can just use email templates?! 

Now for the sake of clarity, in this context, I’m referring to fancy and impersonal emails that are all show and no substance. You know those fancy-looking HTML emails you commonly see from e-commerce sites or big corporate businesses…

Listen – they work for brands like Sephora or Apple, well, because they are Seophora and Apple…

But as a personality-based brand (or as the real PERSON behind the brand), you don’t want to get too fancy in your emails. 

Why? Well, because facts: Extensive A/B testing has shown that the overwhelming majority of consumers prefer simple, text-based emails (you know, just like those emails you send to your friends and family).

Not only do consumers prefer plain jane text-only emails, but templates come with a whole list of other cons to consider.

Downsides of Email Templates

• They take a long time to load, depending on your consumer’s internet connection.
• Customization can be difficult and unreliable. You can spend hours finicking with a template, where your time would be better spent just writing and personal, empathetic email.
• HTML templates often get all funky on mobile if not coded correctly.
• They are WAY more likely to end up in the Spam or Promotions folder because of heavy images and design features
• These kinds of emails focus on imagery, not on brand voice or actually connecting with the audience.

On the other hand…. While copywriters might not be able to design a “pretty-looking email”…

They are specially trained to WRITE WORDS THAT WORK. They understand how to craft powerful subject lines that hook your reader and get them to open your email. They know how to open a loop with engaging content to get your consumers to keep reading…

And they know the psychological triggers that get people to CLICK and BUY your offer…

And when you’re a business that RELIES on having a strong, powerful, and intimate relationship with your consumers… 

These factors are absolutely essential to your Email Marketing success. 

Alright, now onto the last—and most controversial—myth on this list… 

Myth #3 – AI Is Taking Over

Look, we’ve all heard it… AI is replacing copywriters at the speed of light—and especially in the Email Marketing world. 

Because I mean, who needs to shell out a bunch of money for an experienced copywriter when they could just spend a quarter of the money on some fancy automation software that “does just as good”?

Right? NO!!! 

Listen, I know AI software and done-for-you templates are becoming more and more prevalent in the email marketing space – there’s no doubt about that. 

But with that said, there’s a whole lot more to the story than what the internet would have you believe…

I’ve said it before, and I say it again and again until the day I die…

A.I. is a tool, not a takeover. 

And as a TOOL—there are certain things A.I. CAN help us to optimize, streamline and improve…

Things like: research, ideation, email automation, personalization, and segmentation. You know, the left-brain, back-end, logistical stuff. The truth is that A.I. can actually make an Email Marketers job A LOT easier. 

But when it comes to replacing the CREATIVITY & EMPATHY that a human copywriter brings to the table…?

It’s just not going to happen anytime soon.

And while it’s true that there ARE going to be some brands and businesses that will choose to get by with A.I… Their emails will be mediocre, at best.

I mean it’s just like anything else that’s being “replaced” by technology…

If you want mediocre results, then sure – go with a plug-and-play tool. If you want exceptional results, hire an expert. 

Mediocre accountants are being replaced by do-it-yourself software like Freshbooks, Honeybook & Quickbooks… but that doesn’t mean we don’t pay a LEGIT PROFESSIONAL when it comes time to file taxes. 

Mediocre graphic designers are being replaced by tools like Canva… but that doesn’t mean we don’t pay a GREAT DESIGNER to design our websites.

And if you want to optimize your email list, increase your revenue, and cash in on more conversions… then you HIRE A COPYWRITER. 

It’s as simple as that. And it’s never going to change. 

So here’s my advice to the copywriters who are worried about A.I. takeover and the other Myths on this list… 

Don’t be mediocre. Position yourself as an expert. 

Do that, and you’ll be INVALUABLE to any brand or business that wants to optimize their Email Marketing strategies. 

THAT’S your secret weapon. 

THAT’S how you make yourself A.I. proof. 

THAT’S how you position yourself as an expert in the industry and get clients banging down the door for your talents and services. 

But now the question is… HOW?! HOW do you become a damned good copywriter and email marketer? One who understands the audience, knows the power of connection, and has mastered the art of conversion?

Well… you develop the skills, techniques, practical EXPERIENCE, and knowledge needed to make yourself an expert! 

And after months and months of listening to this community ask me question after question about email marketing… I decided it was time to do something about it. 

Now up until recently, I never really thought this was needed. Mostly because I already teach an entire module all about Email Marketing inside my 8-week Copywriting Coaching Program.

But the truth is, not everyone has the time, money, energy, or desire to invest in a two-month coaching course…

And that’s why I created a FREE email guide—to help you cut through the B.S. 

My Ultimate Email Marketing Cheatsheet will help you future-proof your biz from the throes of unpredictable algorithms and the never-ending threat of A.I. takeover by teaching how to master the art of impactful inbox messaging. 

• You’ll discover the 7 must-have emails to build and monetize your list (with real-life examples straight from the Posse’s private vault)…
• Discover the right way to build and monetize your email list, without relying on templates or standardized messaging. 
• Get the secret to sending engaging emails that won’t drive away subscribers or lose you any brand loyalty.

Until next time, I’m Alex. Ciao for now!

The post Is Email Marketing Dead? appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

Here are five examples of graphics that you SHOULD NOT include in any of your email marketing campaigns. Trust us, we’ve made plenty of email marketing mistakes. We found this out the hard way so that you don’t have to.

Avoid Using Graphics That Don’t Fit Your Brand Colors

It may sometimes be a little tempting to use just any eye-catching image. While it may catch an eye (or two), it won’t keep the subscriber engaged long-term. It won’t catch an eye for your brand. Graphics are a GREAT way to portray your brand and message. This is definitely something you don’t want to miss out on when sending emails!

Using your brand’s color scheme within a graphic is a great way to spark brand recognition, which is very important in this day and age. Doing this (in every campaign) keeps an ongoing connection between your emails and the minds of your viewers. Using any old run of the mill stock image/graphic may catch an eye for a second. But if you don’t jazz up your email template with branded, professionally executed images, viewers may lose interest and you may lose that ongoing connection with them.

Customers Can Spot Boring Stock Photos a Mile Away

In the world of digital marketing, you need to avoid being or becoming boring. And that means that using boring stock photos is a no-no. Using low quality images is not the best look either. There are two main ways to avoid this.

1. Take your own original images.
2. Invest in purchasing higher quality images.

At the end of the day, both of these options will end up being an investment in the overall quality of your email newsletter. And like most investments, this one will definitely pay off. Whatever you may choose, just remember that high quality images are crucial to email marketing graphics.

If you don’t have the capacity to take your own images quite yet, here’s a short list of high quality image sites we recommend checking out.

• Unsplash
• Deposit Photos
• Pixabay

Graphics That Never Feature Animations Don’t Stop the Scroll

While there’s not much wrong with standard email graphics (besides these five points to avoid), there can be faults in lack of variety. One way to add variety to your email content is to add animation every once in a while. Animation can be used to catch the viewer’s attention. And on top of that, they can be used to direct viewers to email elements such as a CTA button.

Graphics That Never Feature a CTA Don’t Earn Clicks

As your overall/main goal should always be at the forefront of your mind, it should also be at the forefront of your email design. If you want to include a call to action in your email, don’t just add it in the footer. Create a CTA button (whether that be a link to your shop or course, etc.), and add it into the graphic in some shape or form.

If you don’t have a call to action, how will your subscriber know what action to take? By not using a CTA, you are missing out on the chance to direct your viewers to viewing more of your content as a brand.

Graphics That Don’t Convert to Mobile Platforms Well Make Your Newsletter Look Amateur

Creating marketing email graphics that convert to mobile platforms well is important. Avoid sending emails with graphics that don’t convert. Half of all email opens come from mobile devices. Make sure your graphics convert well. Otherwise, half of your viewers could potentially lose interest or be unable to view your graphic at all.

It is essential to always preview your email marketing campaign on a mobile device before clicking that send button. Your subscribers will view your email newsletters from a variety of devices. Make sure your graphics are adaptable to all devices equally.

Avoiding these five email design mistakes will ensure that your road to success in email marketing is a smoother one. It will save you a heck of a lot of time and money down the road.

The post The Worst Types of Graphics to Use in Email Campaigns appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

Broadcast emails are a key part of every marketing strategy.

They’re the emails that are most often sent to your main list and are either promoting something or keeping your relationship with a subscriber.

For example, a broadcast email is an email that a flight company sends to its subscribers talking about flight deals they’re running right now (a promotional email). Or, it’s a weekly email newsletter that a business sends to its subscribers, like we do with DM Insider (a relational email).

If your email can check off one of the below, then it’s a broadcast email:

• It was manually sent
• It was sent to your “Main List” of email subscribers
• It was sent to subscribers NOT in an automated follow-up campaign
• It’s time sensitive

And, businesses send a lot of them. These emails are incredibly important to our marketing strategies because they keep our subscribers up-to-date on what’s going on with our business and most importantly, our products.

If you’re having trouble putting together broadcast emails or need more clarification on what they are, here are 9 examples to show you what broadcast emails are all about.

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• 2 Ways to Take Back the Power in Your Business: Part 1

Example #1: Canva

Canva sent this broadcast email to its main list to tell them that they just put 60 million photos into their Canva Pro subscription.

Example #2: Fossil

Fossil sent this email to their subscribers to let them know about their 60% off sale.

Example #3: Turo

Turo sent this broadcast email to tell their subscribers that they created Zoom backgrounds for them.

Example #4: DigitalMarketer sent this email to our main list to talk about a promotion we ran that discounted all of our Courses, Workshops, and Playbooks by eighty percent.

Example #5: The city of Glendale, California sent a broadcast email to their subscribers to give them links to necessary resources for small businesses in the area.

Example #6: Gap has a campaign for “Mystery Deals” that they’re letting their list know about in this broadcast email.

Example #7: The LA Public Library sent this email to their subscribers to highlight the reading activities they’ve launched this spring, including virtual librarian storytimes.

Example #8: Shutterstock curated a list of the best design tools for businesses and sent an email to their list to promote it.

Example #9: After holding an online event, Medium used Eventbrite to send a broadcast email to all of the attendees with a recording of the event.

In marketing, broadcast emails play an important part in reaching your goals. Use broadcast emails to promote new offers and to keep a relationship with your subscribers by giving them valuable information they’re interested in.

The post 9 Examples of Broadcast Emails appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

I’ve overseen the delivery of 153.6 million emails over the last 12 months…
… and that’s just from the Digital Marketer brand.  In total, I’ve managed over a billion email sends in multiple markets over the last year.
I don’t say any of that to brag…
I just want you to know that I actually do this stuff for a living.  This IS NOT another article about writing better email from a guy posing to be an email marketer.
We’ve sent some winning emails over the last year — but we’ve had our fair share of losers too. (Our 5 worst emails are listed at the end of this article)

In this article, you’ll get…

… the subject line, body copy (word for word) and my analysis of the strengths of Digital Marketer’s top 22 emails over the last 12 months.
We’ve broken these emails into two categories…

• Promotional emails – Emails that generate leads or sell products and services
• Content emails – Emails that sell content (blog posts in this case)

Before we show you our best email body copy, you need to know that…

Sometimes we ask an email to do too much

A lot of emails fail because the email marketer doesn’t understand the role of each part of an email.
Here’s what I mean by roles…

• the job of the subject line is to sell the open
• the job of the email body is to sell the click
• the job of the landing page to make the sale (whether that sale is an opt-in or a purchase)

Sometimes we make the mistake of asking the subject line to sell the click.  Or, we make the mistake of trying to sell a product in the email body.
Our Top 22 emails don’t ask the subject line or email body to do more than their job.
But that’s not all our top emails did right.
Let’s dive in and look at Digital Marketer’s best emails by click-through rate and see why these emails got it right.
We’ll start with out 11th best promotional email…

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Best Promotional Email Body Copy

11. My new book! (and a big mistake) [16.14% CTR]

This email undoubtedly got a great open rate because it’s an admission of guilt or fault. When you’re an authority and you admit fault, you show a human side, people tend to relate to that and want to know what you have to say.
But what about the clicks?
First, it’s about Ryan’s first book. It’s something new, it’s an event.
The admission of failure is the second reason it got clicks. It’s not only an admission of failure, it’s a scratch-and-dent offer… a reason to have a sale.
The admission of guilt and the fact that it is an event really drove clicks.
Notice that the benefit was breezed over — there was almost detail on the content of the book or why you should read it.

10. Do NOT sell on Amazon without this $10 tool… [16.56% CTR]

We did a lot of qualifying in this subject line but there’s a TON of curiosity in this email.
‘The Ultimate Amazon Spy Tool” — Just the spy tool or buyer intelligence software is enough to draw them in. Also, it’s a $10 tool. People love anything that’s going to automate their business.
Anything that creates speed & automation, or tools, in Digital Marketer’s vertical are great sellers. We’ve qualified a very low price point, and then went in and played up the voyeuristic aspect of spying on customers.
It also talks about a 2 minute demo in this last link. That’s a very passive link. It’s a demo video, not a sales presentation, so they already know the price and they’re just clicking over to see the demo.
This is a very passive email that worked really well.

9. Steal these email templates… [16.78% CTR]

#9 is about templates. (You’ll be seeing A LOT of templates winning the click in these emails!)
Going back to what was successful in the last email: it’s all about speed & automation. People love it.
Templates, software, tools.
This comes out of the gate with a benefit — “Want a way to double your sales?”
Then it’s just copy and paste these three emails.
So this email is gunning for the benefit: the template.
The screenshot also helped. It’s in Word; it’s recognizable. People aren’t going to be afraid of the software in this instance.
Easy to use, highly desirable.

8. Check out new “man cave” [PICS] [18.09% CTR]

This subject line piques curiosity — the word “PICS” draws the reader in right away.
It’s also a story. A look into the personal life of the head of a company. It’s humanizing a big company.
Going into this it shows a very personal picture, ties it back into a story, and then talks about a lesson learned.

7. THIS is the hottest trend in digital marketing… [18.21% CTR]

This is a straight up curiosity based email subject line and body copy.
There is no mention of WHAT the trend is.
The curiosity based subject line will get a ton of opens.  And, in this case, we continue the curiosity or “blind” nature of the email in the body.
The formula here is a quick sentence and then a link. Then you qualify a little more, and give another link.
The clicks come because the reader wants to know more about the “hot trend.”

6. The Facebook Slap is coming… (swipe this) [18.25% CTR]

This email uses a lot of scarcity.
Not scarcity from a closing or traditional marketing-based scarcity… but a third party regulatory scarcity.
Here you have “The Facebook Slap Is Coming”… A slap is a well known term in this vertical. The “Google Slap” decimated marketers in every industry — and everyone was afraid of the imminent “Facebook Slap.”
This email played on those fears.
Anytime you can show proof elements visually in your emails, you’re going to explode your clickthrough rates.
That proof element right at the top of this email (the image) probably had a ton of clicks, and then the subtle scarcity of the impending slap drove people to click for more information.
This is pure scarcity based with a splash of fear mongering… but it does promise some critical information and it delivers once you’ve clicked through.

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• 2 Ways to Take Back the Power in Your Business: Part 1

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5. The 8-figure template… (swipe this) [18.91% CTR]

We’re back to templates.
If you’re paying attention to the trend, you’ll notice that speed & automation, and templates tend to get a ton of response.
This email is also fairly “blind” and curiosity based. It doesn’t say what kind of template it is exactly.
It’s a sales template but doesnt give much indication after that. There’s proof, the template factor, and the gift aspect.
The free gift almost always increases response.
It ends with a proof based P.S.
We do a great job of establishing the value of these templates with this body copy.

4. “Borrow” all my checklists… [20.33% CTR]

Exact same scenario — templates, checklists, tools.
These are things that we have of value that we’re giving away or selling.
So the beginning of this email follows the theme of curiosity based content.
We open with a quick statement — and then drop a link to grab everyone that knew from the subject line that they were interested.
People knew before they opened that email that they were going to click the link. You don’t want to talk too much — get your statement out and then a quick link. That’s a typical curiosity-based email.
Then, we give them another reason to click by giving them a benefit…
“… easy to follow step-by-step checklists.”
You either go proof or curiosity first, followed by proof or benefit second, followed by scarcity or proof third.
If you follow that linking structure, you’ll start to see really high click-through rates in your emails.

3. [SWIPE] My Facebook “templates” (13 of them) [21.02% CTR]

What a surprise… templates! (Are you on our list? You’re missing lots of free stuff if not!)
This is the theme of our best emails — people want the templates we use because they want the results that we get.
It follows the exact same format we’ve been referring to. In this case, it’s the proof. We have undeniable proof of Facebook as the hottest trend, we tested these templates.

2. Copy and paste these 72 headlines [Last Chance] [24.99% CTR]

Another day, another free template giveaway.
These are headline templates. Are you seeing the pattern? So far we’ve had sales templates, headline templates, email templates, and there’s a reason we keep doing them — they work.
In this email the download button really boosted the click-through rate. It’s a button in an email — you should be 100% utilizing CSS buttons within your own emails.
This particular button had ‘Download’ on it and it had an amazing CTR.

1. [DOWNLOAD] Ultimate Facebook Ad Template [25.01% CTR]

We’ve reach our #1… what do you know? It’s templates.
So out of our top 11, it’s safe to say 6 are template related and I could argue the efficacy of making the other emails swing back around to some sort of template.
What do you need to do? Figure out what the ‘templates’ are of your business. You need to figure out what people want so badly from your business that no matter how often you talk about them, they keep responding to your emails.
This email is a little curiosity-based, again talking about the entire library of ours — it’s free, it’s desirable.
It follows the 3-4 link format we use in most emails and it gives the market what they demand.
Now… let’s take a look at the content emails that got the most clicks.

Best Content Email Body Copy

Get the Digital Marketing Blueprint…

With a Customer Value Journey that strategically builds a relationship with new prospects and converts them into loyal, repeat customers. Click here

Before we analyze the copy of our top content emails you should know this…
No amount of persuasive copywriting will save a content email if the subject of the content being promoted is not interesting to the reader.
As with sending promotional email, it’s all about the offer.

11. Subject: How to get paid [Literally] [16.51% CTR]

The email uses FEAR to get clicks… as it should.
The content on the other side of this click is, indeed, about something that could be catastrophic for the reader’s business. It would be foolish not to point out the danger involved in ignoring this content.

10. A simple sales copy formula [16.85% CTR]

This content email piggybacks off of the authority of recognizable names like Bill Glazer, Dan Kennedy, John Carlton and Frank Kern.
Add the references to ease of use in the headline (A Simple Sales Copy Formula) and lines like “so simple a caveman can do it” and we have a winner.

9. It’s landing page magic… [17.04% CTR]

This email has a simple formula: Get [desired result] Without [undesired result]
Do you see it? Here it is in the opening…
“Do you want to increase response on your landing pages WITHOUT rewriting a single line of text?”

8. How to write a promotional email [17.46% CTR]

This piece of content was created by a professional copywriter and this email leverages that authority to get clicks.

7. The ideal length of everything online [17.84% CTR]

This email is all about the offer. It uses a very direct subject line and body copy to direct readers to an infographic (offer) that we already KNEW they would want to see.
How did we know they would want this information?
Simple… we used a tool called BuzzSumo to find the most socially shared infographic on the subject of content marketing. In other words, the piece of content we are promoting was a proven winner created by the folks at Buffer. We simply embedded the infographic on our blog and shared it with our audience.

6. 21 landing page mistakes [18.28% CTR]

This email uses this formula: Learn to Get [Desired Result] From [World Class Expert(s)]
Do you see it? Here it is…
“We asked four of the world’s top conversion rate optimization experts…”
The email copy then proceeds to list those experts and their credentials.

5. 2015 will be a land grab (Get Yours) [19.88% CTR]

This email opens with a curious headline… “The Great Pixel Land Rush”
The copy remains fairly “blind” and emphasizes the speed of consumption with phrases like…
“You’ll learn about it in less than a minute”
Those that just wanted to read Ryan’s prediction really quick clicked on one of the first two links in the email. For anyone else still reading the email there is a “stack” of additional benefits bulleted toward the close.
It worked.

4. [SWIPE] Our best email subject lines of 2014 [20.97% CTR]

This is another email that performed well in large part because of the strength of the content it is promoting — it’s templates, swipe files, tools, etc.
Who would have thunk it?  
The subject line and body copy are VERY direct.
The email opens with strong proof that we are an authority on email marketing. Then, the benefits are stacked on…

• Get our best 101 email subject lines
• Get our 10 worst email subject lines (Everyone loves a train wreck)
• Download our best subject lines as a PDF swipe file (<< this almost always gets more clicks)

Then, in the P.S. we use curiosity…
“I couldn’t believe the subject line that came in as our 3^rd best.”

3. [TEMPLATE] Cold email anyone and get a response [21.52% CTR]

There’s a lot going on in this email…
The headline draws the reader in with a direct statement of benefit.
Then, the opening quickly builds proof and authority for the authors of the content with the line…
“… both having built and sold businesses for 8 figures”
Followed by a statement of benefit that promises something that everyone wants… The Silver Bullet in the form of a template… (go figure)
“… you’ll learn the secret to sending cold emails … including two templates you can put to work right now.”
Then, more proof is layered on with the statement…
“This is the exact process used to get interviews with people like Jimmy Wales (founder of Wikipedia)…”

2. [TEMPLATE] Create engaging Facebook images [21.63% CTR]

Again… much of the success of this email is due to the offer.
The content (offer) is strong so the best route to take is to simply state the direct benefit of clicking.
This phrase…
“We’ve been testing a specific type of Facebook image post…”
… is important because it builds proof and gives the reader the sense that this something NEW.
And, notice that there is a promise of a useful resource to download and use. These downloadable resources are a recurring theme in many of our best content emails.

1. 212 blog post ideas [23.55% CTR]

Once again we have a downloadable resource available within this piece of content and the offer (content) is strong — in this case it is a mind map.
The offer is to get 212 blog post ideas and three of those blog post ideas are listed as bullets in the email copy.
Notice anything special about the three blog post ideas that are chosen?…

• The SAQ Post
• The Guard Down Post
• The Attack Post

Yep… they are all a bit curious and new.
We could have chosen to feature the blog post ideas you already know about like The List Post, The Link Round Up, etc. but that would have almost certainly decreased clicks.
…and now the moment you’ve all been waiting for…
Our 5 biggest fails… (Tell me in the comments section why you think these failed)

5. WARNING Only 178 T&C Tickets left… 2.34% CTR

4. Spooky discount 75% off Conversion conference 3.79% CTR

3. Survey Results (sort of…) 4.05% CTR

2. eCommerce Lessons from the Big Boys 4.91% CTR

1. Native Ad Hacks 6.17% CTR

And that’s it.  That’s our best email body copy over the last 12 months.

The post [Swipe] Digital Marketer’s Best Email Body Copy appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

If you’re marketing via email, you have two problems … and they’re serious.

• SPAM Overload
• Sheer Volume

Smart marketers use the same direct response copywriting skills used to write sales pages to write promotional emails.
Why?
Because direct response copy works in promotional email.  Apply the key principles and you can solve your email problems.
Today… you’ll get access to my 13-step system for writing promotional emails that…

• Get opened
• Engage the reader
• Drive conversion

Here are the 13 steps…

Step 1 – Choose a format

My first advice is to experiment and try different types of email. The sheer variety of email formats strikes me as remarkable.
Notice the vast differences between each of the examples below.
Here’s one from US Airways…

For the record, I clicked through and it was a great offer.
Here’s an email from copywriter Bob Bly. No images. All copy.

And here’s one from Revolution Golf.

So … you’re seeing three very different formats:

• Big image with a few bullets
• Copy only
• Copy plus video

Choose a primary format but don’t be afraid to test new formats.

Step 2 – Choose a length

Digital Marketer emails vary from the short but copy heavy …

… to emails with more moving parts …

On occasion, I see emails with upwards of 2,000 words of copy in the format and style of a long-form sales letter.
There’s no one length that’s right or wrong. Through testing, you’ll discover the type of email that resonates with your clients and potential customers.

Step 3 – Get Prepared

There’s no need to spend hours on research but be sure to answer the following questions …

• What is the goal of the email?
• Who is on the list?
• What is the offer?
• What has worked before?

Step 4 – Write the subject line

Take your subject line seriously … this is a vital step.
For subject lines, I use classic direct response headlines, starting with the “How to …” headline. News-y headlines can also work.
You can get access to Digital Marketer’s best 101 email subject lines here.

Step 5 – Choose the Image

Choose an arresting image.
Some emails rely solely on copy, which is fine if that works. But the right image can improve response.
Notice how the images used in this email from Survival Life stop you dead in your tracks…

Try using an image of a video with the “Play” button clearly visible if you have a video on the landing page… this just flat out works.
The video player in this example from Revolution Golf is just an image of the video player…

 When the “Play” button is clicked it sends the reader to the landing page containing the video.

Step 6 – Write the Headline

Headline or no headline? Personally, I like to use a proper headline … just like I would on a full-bore sales page. You could likely increase your response by using a headline. Try it.
Here’s a Motley Fool email … with a headline.

And here’s a new email format (with a headline) that Digital Marketer is testing with their content emails…

Step 7 – Create an arresting introduction

The introduction must appeal directly to the people I want to reach … and only them.
Notice how Ryan Deiss appeals to the self-interest and curiosity of the target market in the opening of this email…

Step 8 – Appeal to the core desire

Follow the fundamentals. Yes … an email may be short but it must appeal to the reader’s core desires:

• Greed
• Beauty
• Sex
• Eternal youth
• Eternal health
• Work less

When I write golf copy, the core desire is usually: SMASH THE BALL!
Or I must solve a problem… or hint at solving one. PLUS the email must present an irresistible offer … or tell the reader they’re going to get a huge offer … when they “click here now.”
Notice how Joe Polish’s team at Pirahna Marketing repeatedly bring this email back to the core desire…

Step 9 – Write the Call-To-Action

Make the call to action crystal clear. I regularly get emails – even from serious marketers – without clear direction. TELL the reader what to do!
Notice how the folks over at Lead Pages don’t leave it up to your imagination to decide what to do next…

Step 10 – Provide proof

I always like to provide proof in the copy, buttressed with specific numbers.
Notice how specific the numbers are in the P.S. in this email from Ryan Deiss…

Step 11 – Write the P.S.

Include a clear P.S. in the email … this should restate the offer and may also be used to communicate any reason the reader should act now.
See how this email from Survival Life restates the offer and communicates scarcity…

Step 12 – Insert links

Mandatory … you must have a link to the next step above the fold. Then plenty of links in the body of the email. Plus one or two near the P.S.
In this email from Ryan Deiss there are 279 words and 6 links — all to the same landing page…

Step 13 – Align the message

The subject line must remain congruent with the body of the email and the body of the email must align with the landing page. It drives me crazy when email content differs dramatically from the subject line and the offer.
For more information about this, check out this article about maintaining marketing “scent.”

Last… but not least

Finally, make sure your email answers the ultimate question the reader is asking, “what’s in it for me?”
Email is a powerful weapon now and, despite competition from social media, it’s going to remain powerful … but ONLY if you apply the classic principles of direct response copywriting.
In direct marketing, we’re fortunate to have so many outstanding email platforms. I’m sure you have your favorite. Most of these platforms give you the ability to test.

Test these email elements like crazy…

• Subject lines …
• Placement of links
• Images
• Length of copy
• Headlines

Study the emails you receive and you will quickly get hundreds of ideas to test.
Here’s the final and perhaps most important step when it comes to promotional email: embrace failure.
I sometimes write email copy that fails to create a solid response… it happens. I learn from what happened and never make the same mistake.
Yes – we’re all getting bombarding with email clutter and spam … but you can break through… and increase conversion, revenue, and profit.
And, if you want to download this checklist in Excel Format — click here.

The post 13 Steps to Writing High-Converting Promotional Emails appeared first on DigitalMarketer.